Everyone needs structure in their business. But we each have our own unique rhythm. Karen and Michelle talk about how to find the way of staying organized that works for YOU so that you can create the success you really want.
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Full Transcript
Intro
Welcome to The Matrix World, your go to resource for applicable real world tips and insights to help you create a successful sustainable, mission based business. Hosted by Karen Curry Parker and Michelle Vandepas, you can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, YouTube, or any other podcast platform and learn more about our virtual co working community at thematrix.world.
Karen
Hi, everyone, and welcome to the matrix. I’m Karen Curry Parker. And I’m here talking to my partner and one of our our head coaches in the matrix and founder of The Matrix, Michel Vandepas. And we are exploring the concept of getting organized and set up for success, particularly in the context of 2019. It’s the new year, and we have traditions that we start in the new year for creating our new business year. And Michelle has been saying to me recently that she doesn’t want to be organized. And I’m, of course, completely freaked out as somebody who is hyper organized, trying to figure out how do you create a business when you are not organized? So talk to me for just a minute, Michelle, when you say I don’t want to be organized, what do you mean?
Michelle
Well, I don’t know, this is so interesting, right? Because we just started talking about it. And I hadn’t really explored in my head, but I had this initial reaction to organize like, ooh, who wants to be organized? I think as we start talking it through, I am actually very organized because I have a pretty busy schedule. But there’s something about that word that made me want to push back. So I think it’s something about someone else’s structure being imposed on me, I think it’s something that I’m supposed to do it some other person’s way. And I’d love to talk about that a little bit. Because I think you’re very organized. I’m very organized. But we have totally different ways of doing that. And so for everybody in the matrix, or for anyone who is running a business or a project, you have to find your own flow, right. You talked about having the gait 15, which is part of the human design system when we were offline a minute ago, and how that makes me have a different structure than you have. Can you talk about that for a minute, because I think when we can heal into, into how we are wired differently, that helps us give us permission to be different.
Karen
Totally, totally. And I just wanted to throw in a quick reminder, I was just thinking as you were talking, you also did a TED talk on the importance of procrastination. Which, you know, my family knows that again, just looking at how people are hardwired definitely my family knows that my Uber mantra is, Do not procrastinate. Get it done. Now procrastination is like sin.
Michelle
Have a go with it. You gotta go with what is right.
Karen
Right. So when we look at the Human Design System, which is really a cross cultural archetype based personality assessment tool, what we see is that there are people who are very rhythmic by nature, these are people like me, who, you know, I have a routine I get up at the same time, every day, I go do my same schedule. It’s like I get up, I get my coffee, I come downstairs, I do my morning pages, I meditate then I work on my book. And if my routine gets in any way disrupted, my whole day is sort of ungrounded and loosey goosey from that point on and I don’t feel good about my life. There are other people, people who have the gate 15 As you have I have the gate five, you have the gate 15 These are two energies actually match up quite nicely in the real world, because we need both. In your case, you’re somebody who is here to wait until the flow hits and then as you said, get into that flow. And that might mean that that’s an extreme creative flow, meaning you might dive in wholeheartedly for days and days and days, which I’ve seen you do until you you knock out the ballpark some massive project, you know, in its complete form, you know, just by virtue of you surrendering to when the energy feels aligned for you, or you might sit waiting in what you like to call it the void. You sit in the void until that click hits that, that flow find you. Which, you know, neither one of those ways is right or wrong. And I think when we’re exploring, especially the beginning of the year when we’re setting intentions for the year and we’re looking at what do we need to do to make sure that we are on target for our intentions, you know, we have to also really explore the right way for us to do it. because what I see a lot in our, in our clients when we’re coaching our clients, especially, is those of you who are designed to wait for that flow. If you’re trying to jam yourself into a schedule, you’re gonna do like, Michelle, it’s like you hear the word organization and you’re backpedaling, like, it’s a big giants fighter coming at you, right? And, and for me, it’s like, flow is awesome. I love it when it hits. But I can engineer my own flow by being consistent and practiced and rhythmic on a daily basis.
Michelle
So I want to talk, I want to talk about something here, because I think it’s the word organization and structure that we need to explore a little bit right, especially as we’re talking about going into 2019. And making sure that our businesses are set up for success in this new year. Right. So you’ve got structure to your day, I have structure to my day, we’re both organized in totally different ways. And I actually really like structure, but every day in my life is totally different. Wood. So let’s talk about that for a minute. The difference between being organized in a day when it’s totally different. I have no cards. I do I do to do lists of note cards like crazy. And reminders, I have constant reminders on my phone helps me stay on track. So what is your organization look like?
Karen
It’s a schedule. Yeah. And it’s, it’s an honestly, I mean, I look at your backdrop, we have a joke going one of our one of our assistants jokes about our backdrops. You know, when we do when do you have all this, like, decorative fancy schmancy stuff, and I tried, I tried and I just moved my office to put some plants back there and some color. But I, I that anything that is not just, here’s what you have to do gets confusing to me. And so, like my desk has one project on it. And that’s it. No, no stacks of things. No, no, anything. I mean, it’s like for me, it’s just one thing at a time get going do it get completed, finish it move in next and one thing at a time, do it complete it, move it next. And any you know that there’s a just a very disciplined consistency to it. And that discipline consistency, as I said, for me has to start with the morning schedule. And it cannot vary or waver and and I would say built into it is just making sure that my entire physical environment has nothing cluttered in it. Like I can’t. I love the way your backdrop looks. When I did a video in your office the other day was like, Man, this is so gorgeous. And yet my mind if that was my office, I would get literally I would get confused by it. I joke. Yeah, my husband has severe ADHD. I mean, he’s a brilliant, brilliant man and is constantly running like 35 thoughts simultaneously. And I am too but I’m not as smart as he is. So I have to really just go okay, one thing, finish it. Next thing, finish it. Next thing finish it, even if the flow is not there.
Michelle
Isn’t this interesting? If I don’t have 10 different projects going at once? I don’t know what to do. It’s like I need to be able to wake up in the morning and kind of choose. Okay, I know that I have a book I’m working on. I know that I’ve got things in the matrix to respond to that client projects. I have personal projects. I need to, you know, it’s this thing about manifesting generators, we both need to respond, but in a different way. It’s like, I’ve got to have lots of things going on. So I can pick and choose where where my energy is today. Where do I want to focus today? And so my desk is organized, but it’s got stacks, that definitely a stags. It looks like my backdrop. And isn’t this interesting? Because both ways work.
Karen
Right? And that’s the piece that, you know, I just really think we have to stop beating ourselves up. And I think honestly, it’s not so much people who follow a flow. I mean, people who are more rhythmic by nature, I think don’t do as much self flagellation as people who follow flow, because I think this cultural story is that, you know, early to bed early to rise, you know, you gotta have morning habits and you gotta you know, there’s this whole narrative around success equals habits and daily habits and practices. And, yes, that’s true for someone like me, but it’s not necessarily true for someone like you. And when you are structuring the way in which you approach your work, you have to do it in a way that’s right for you, because if you don’t, as you talked about in your TED Talk, you’re gonna Don’t procrastinate. If you’re not doing it in the way that started for you, you’re gonna avoid it. Because if you’re a flowy person, then when the energy is not there, there’s no amount of Will you can exert to make the flow happen. And when you are a rhythmic person, there’s no amount of waiting for the flow that you can do, you have to be in the consistency of it. Otherwise, you feel confused.
Michelle
And I think there’s also real different levels to flow. Be because I feel like I have a pretty structured life. And I don’t go with the flow. If it’s on my calendar, I do it and I don’t really change it. And once it’s in my calendar, it’s set. So if I’m having lunch with someone and meeting with someone, I don’t change it. And I have clients and I have people. And I wonder if this is an age thing, too, because I see it a lot with younger moms, who just like cancel all the time, or they say, Oh, it doesn’t fit in my day anymore. And I’m like, What the heck it was in your calendar. So I think there’s different levels of flow and structure to that you have to find your own rhythm for
Karen
totally. And I think that’s that’s the part that I see, again, people wrestle with particularly flowy people. You know, what do you do when you have the kind of business where, for example, you have to be at a client meeting at a specific time, and you can’t wake up and go, I don’t know, I just don’t feel at all. So there there is, to a certain degree, I think sometimes if you’re more about catching a wave of energy, sometimes you do have to kind of push your way through it when the energy is not there, because as you said, it’s on the books, you’re getting paid for it, it’s your client time slots, and you have to follow through. And, and so again, I think to a certain degree, it is a little bit easier for the rhythmic people because you know, you’re already on the calendar to begin with, and you know, you’re not, you’re not having to either push against the flow or do something you don’t want to do when your flow is over here where you know it is so.
Michelle
So I think what we want to leave people with, that’s the important piece is that everyone needs structure. Everyone needs some sort of rhythm. Everyone needs some sort of organization, but you have to find the way that works for you. And then don’t apologize for it. Totally
Karen
and and embrace the way that you operate. Stop thinking there’s a formula for this is how successful people create their day. You’re all successful everyone is Petite has the potential for successful and the way in which you create success, including the way in which you organize your life and your time is going to be the way that works for you.
Michelle
Nice, I love that conversation. Thanks, Karen.
Karen
Thank you.
Intro
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