Author: admin

WhatsApp. Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. All full of words and pictures and constant contact with the wider world. Sometimes this is a force for good, as it prevents people from feeling isolated.

Other times it’s a barrage of noise, pushing at us and causing stress.

FOMO. Fear of missing out. A new-ish phenomen, driven by people sharing their wonderful lives and projecting constant happiness and cute pictures of their successful projects, children and pets.

FOMO can add to the distraction of social media and cause ordinary mortals to wonder what they’ve done wrong. How come they’ve not baked an amazing cake, taken idyllic pictures of smiling well behaved children, or been happily married to Mr DIY for a million years?

Clearly they must be under-performing at this thing called life. Letting the side down, by not eating chia seeds and drinking the latest green health juice.

There’s nothing wrong in celebrating success and I’m all for that, providing it’s genuine and well-earned.

What can be tiring is the incessant noise that is generated by apps and their pinging notifications, urging us to check out the latest post by Mrs Amazing and her 12 tap dancing children.

Social media is useful and promotes contact with people and I like that. People who over-share can be a nuisance and I wonder what their lives are really like?

This is a business blog, so what’s my point?

Well, to be successful in business we need to think clearly and we can’t do that if we are burning up our energy wondering how we can get our dog to do backflips, so that we can post the little rascal looking athletic. The world really doesn’t need to see that.

We need to find space and time to be quiet, so that we can process information and allow new thoughts and ideas to percolate.

FOMO can invade our business planning too. Oh no! We don’t own the newest, smartest car, so we must be a failure! No, we are not a failure and we don’t need to drive our business planning to achieve meaningless goals, based on a sense of deflated ego.

We can stick to first principles:

1. Are we generating enough cash to run our business?

2. What are the trends with our sales?

3. What do we need to change to keep on being successful?

4. Where is our ego getting in the way?

To answer these questions we can switch off the noise and retire to a shady spot to think about where our business is and where it needs to be.

We can be quiet and bring calm into our lives as a useful tool to increase our success in business.

If we judge ourselves against our perceptions of others we could fail to recognise that their car is rented, their kids resentful of pushy parents and those pictures of a cosy home life are wall papering over deeper cracks.

We can be quiet. We can be true to ourselves and we can can ignore the chattering masses and quietly get on with being successful …and happy!

Be quiet this week and see where it takes you. Switch off the piano playing cats and focus on what you want to achieve in business.

And of course, keep well.

Next week: The Bank Holiday Mistake

It turns out, to nobody’s surprise, that if you leave a boat bobbing about for a few months it goes a bit green.

This is not an attractive look.

Boats are rarely green, in the way cars are rarely pink. It just doesn’t suit them, in my opinion.

Cleaning a boat is harder than cleaning a car though. Cars are designed with smooth surfaces, whereas boats are designed with endless little nooks and features, all there to trap as much dirt as possible.

To clean a boat thoroughly you need a mop, some water and a friend. If you were really organised you’d have two friends, so that way could promote yourself to supervisor and supervise their scrubbing.

Sadly, lacking a friend to the tune of one, I pitched in and mopped away.

My boat, the boat in question, is now clean and although not totally sparkly, does look and feel much happier. As does her owner.

Doing something that changes or enhances something else can improve our sense of well-being.

We can take pride in our work and enjoy the happy transformation from green back to white. (Most boats are white where mine is moored).

Even giving our desk a little tidy up is a good thing.

It helps to restore a sense of calm and makes us feel more in control. It counters some of the stress of being buffeted by external forces, and time taken to dust and polish things is time well spent.

So, one route to happiness is through cleanliness. And I am even happier now, having treated the car to a car wash as well.

I wonder what needs a clean up next?

If you’re feeling a bit down, or lost, then maybe take time to organise your world, throw out the rubbish you really don’t need and go mad with a duster.

A clean space tends to be a happy space and the person in it a happier soul.

What could you tidy up this week?

Keep well and happy cleaning!

Next week: It’s Okay To Be Quiet