On Being Remotely Human #2: Online Business Breakfasts? Bring Your Own Bacon

Text by Werner Schmidt | Photos by Nathan Nichols (nature), Jenny Hill (runner), Avery Evans (The Thinker) on Unsplash, and WFM

Video

Podcast

Part 2 of the #123CYLockDownSeries [thanks to Johnny for the series’ sub-title]

On the first day of #LockDownSouthAfrica, we experienced another first …

It’s day 1 of our lock-down, and we received news of the first two South African deaths, attributed to COVID-19 – a woman aged 28 and a woman, Madeleine Van Wyk, aged 48. Madeleine apparently had a pre-existing medical condition before COVID-19. My heart goes out to every person who loves these two women.
If someone had painted a scenario, just a few months ago, in which all South African citizens were to be in lock-down for 21 days, I would’ve laughed it off and said ‘what could possibly happen to bring about such drastic measures?’ Well, here we are.

Accepting today

This silence(!), a silence somewhere between home-alone Christmas lull and World War 3 against an invisible enemy.
Four people and two dogs in our lock-down territory, (relatively kind) chaos as everyone lived their day to the max.
My to-do list for the day: Stuff I want to do. Stuff I have to do. New stuff entering through mail, WhatsApp, social media. Trying to squeeze three days’ work into one, as usual.
Let me accept that this is me, this is how I roll, and this is my Friday …

Online business breakfast?

Had my first two online business breakfasts via Zoom (Note 1), this morning. Efficient, effective, business as usual except for fellow business owners unable to transition to remote and to cloud. They are working on cash flow plans, rescue plans etcetera. These businesses may need our support, emotionally, creatively, financially. Attended a team meeting via Zoom earlier in the week (Note 2) – production cycle prolonged significantly. Onward we go.
During the moments when I rendered my elevator speeches and other inputs into the three online gatherings above, I noticed, as I often do, how …

… I am most in flow when I perform creatively

Here follows one of the most important first questions I ask of business owners, executives, students and learners:

How do you find flow?

During lock-down, it may be a worthwhile exercise to contemplate your own way of finding flow, that state where we experience meaningful being and doing, in fact, time’s psychological hold disappears completely. Bliss … Experiencing flow is one of the keys for getting into a state where you feel prepared to take on any challenge. Everyone has a different way of accessing flow. I value people who make more and more good decisions in life, with increasing independence. Otherwise, my coaching workload becomes unsustainably high, if I become responsible for my clients’ decisions! Flow is essential in bringing about this trajectory in decision-making.

Who are you, in the image above?

Study the featured image above. Which of the four pictures represents your favourite way into flow? What self-activity brings you into flow, where you feel you can take on the world? Making plans? Running? Making calculations? Cycling? Journaling? Reading? Singing? Attending a concert? Pilates? Preparing to teach? Dancing? The humans at the Flow Genome Project (Note 3) are contemporary students furthering the work of Abraham Maslow on the Hierarchy of Human Needs, culminating in Self-Actualisation. Flow is a golden thread connecting us to self-actualisation. They’ve even created a powerful, free, flow profile questionnaire. Enjoy completing it, to see whether it describes your way into flow, accurately. One of their books, which I recommend for lock-down reading, is The Rise Of Superman.

I now know my flow-zone a little better, now what?

During lock-down, how about you look into your own flow-mirror, and start activating your flow state before breakfast, in creative ways within the confines of your lock-down territory? Then, notice what happens. See, +/- 21 repeats of getting into flow before breakfast might just be the way you increase your value as decision-maker, in life, relationships, in business, at work and in learning environments.

So, my sister, my brother: How Flow Can You Go?

Notes
1 BNI.com | https://www.bni.com/
2 Momentum Financial Wellness Practice Bloemfontein | https://www.momentum.co.za/planner/practise/momentum-financial-wellness-practice-bloemfontein
3 Flow Genome Project | https://www.flowgenomeproject.com/