Tonight’s the night when many people think of, and maybe even make, resolutions.
About what they will do in the year ahead. Or maybe stop doing.
And there are plenty of people giving advice to follow. Things to do that will make your business stronger, better, fitter. And you a richer, better, wiser person.
But I want to make it clear that, for me, conscious business is not about doing anything. Or giving anything up. (Except maybe doing stuff).
The best known form of the Serenity Prayer is probably:
God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things that I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.
I read this to mean that, rather than doing stuff, we can simply accept what is.
And, the joke is, we can even accept that, as humans, in a living world, we and everything around us changes all the time. Anyway. Without our puny efforts.
So why stress ourselves doing stuff? Why strive to change and improve things?
So (and here comes the advice) don’t fix or change your business. Simply accept it. Let it change and grow.
Simply become conscious of what it is. Reflect on it. Let it be.
Happy New Year.
Pete Burden
Rockjimford
lasylawless
rayrich
Professor Karen Pine
emilymunford
jamiepyper
stevehearsum
daiches
Kerry Wilson
jthove
richardbdavies2
carbonzero2
learningconsultancypartnership
simonhester98
phhc
Crikey! Have you been visiting a lamasery?
What you say makes perfect sense. The problem is that most of the people who run businesses (and governments) do so precisely because they’re restless, questing types who can’t sit quietly in a room on their own for fifteen minutes just being. They must be doing: they’re called “movers and shakers” because moving and shaking – no matter how pointless – is what gives their lives meaning.
I’m pretty sure that all but a tiny handful of business and political decisions have no outcome whatsoever, but for the people who make and implement them it’s the activity that counts, not the results. They really don’t want to hear that things would be pretty much as they were whether they got out of bed or not.
Mind you, I have a slight quibble is with your assumption that a business will automatically grow if you sit and stare at it long enough. I don’t think you have to be a stress-bunny to question that one!
When the poet Arthur O’Shaughnessy first used the phrase “movers and shakers” on 1874, he applied it to poets and musicians, but it got hijacked in the 20th Century to describe businessmen and politicians. I’m not sure that’s particularly significant – but it’s intriguing.
Now, get the joss-sticks on, and repeat after me, “Om!”
Thanks for the thought provoking post Pete. I like what Ram Dass says on this:
“The World is perfect as it is, including my desire to change it.”
[...] written before about what a Conscious Business is. And what it is not But no man, and no business, is an island. Businesses live and operate in a [...]
[...] I have answered this in terms of strategy before; and also in terms of what CB is not. [...]