The Vitality of Planning

I'm not sure about you, but as a business owner, I long for some time to think and plan. But sometimes when I get short spurts of time crammed in the middle of the day here or there I tend to look at the paper and just stare. Does this happen to you? Or, even better my mind wanders in so many directions that it is impossible to keep up.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we had to close most of the businesses that were considered Nonessential or could not maintain a safe 6ft social distancing. In the Netflix documentary ‘Inside Bill’s Brain’, I remember watching him take several weeks off every year to go to a small remote cabin and think. He took a bag full of books to research, read, and plan. I would love to see what a planning session would look like with that brain! He devours the books and then sketches out what his next year will look like in detail.

It has been roughly a month since the last day of being in my business. It took me about three weeks before my brain would stop being overloaded and calm down. From the 4th week, I was able to really start thinking into deep questions…

• Who am I?
• What do I want? 
• Am I happy with the direction of my life? 
• Am I happy with where I am? 
• Am I happy with what I stand for?
  

And the answer is Yes. I am happy and filled with joy! I am happy for what I stand for. But what I stand for, became lost in the way with too much confusion and not enough focus on Who I am and Why I started my business. I have been asking myself some reflective questions.

• What did I stand for when I first opened my doors? 
• Why did I name the company Concrete? 
• What did that stand for? 
• What changed? 
• How did I change? 
• What did I learn? 
• If I was to start over again what would I want that company to be like? 
• What differences would it have from when I opened the doors in 2000 until 2020?
  

What I discovered was that I had grown a great deal. I no longer think like the person I was 20 years ago! It is time to recreate my business from the perspective of this growth.

At the time of reflection, how will you be recreating your business and life? What questions will you be asking yourself to restart?