photo

Are You Pushing the Pomegranate in Your Business?



Extraordinary Woman Dilemma: 

You're frustrated because you've got a project on the front-burner that is just not happening in the time-line you thought it would.

What There Is For You To Know: 

No matter what service or product you provide, your business is part of the natural world.  As humans, our work has evolved away from physical labor and into offices and onto computers.  Yet, being living creatures on this earth, our projects and creations are still subject to natural laws and rhythms.  And in the natural world, there is a time and an unfolding process that can't really be changed by human hands.

Your "Slow" Project Is Like A Pomegranate: 

Think of a seed, a fruit-bearing tree or even a gestating unborn child.  Each has an unfolding growth process that we don't question.  The seed grows into the full-grown plant and it takes the time it takes.  Same thing for the fruit-bearing tree...the pomegranates are ready when they're ready.  And a gestating baby, well, we wait the nine months and we don't think about trying to make it grow faster.

It's the same for the projects in your business.  Each has an inherent gestation period.  Disconnected from the natural world, though, it's easy for us to not see this.  We take a project, look at what date we'd like it to happen by, and then get mad at ourselves or think we need to push even harder when it doesn't unfold by then.  Setting a goal date is a great tool for tangibility, motivation and forward movement, so by all means, keep those goal dates.  AND simultaneously cultivate the skill of being able to refrain from "Pushing The Pomegranate"...

Try It On The Fly:

  This week, if you find yourself frustrated with any projects that are not moving as quickly as you'd hoped, take a moment to check to see if you're trying to "Push The Pomegranate" to make that project gestate faster than it naturally can.  Picture your project in the natural world as a developing pomegranate hanging from a tree- or if there's an image you like better, like a pepper plant in a garden, use that instead.  Check in with the pomegranate (or pepper, etc.) to recognize where it is in its gestation cycle and, regardless of how "on" or "off" it is from being finished when you wanted it to be finished, check in to see what its true time-line is turning out to be.  You can also check in to notice what it is needing right now in order to keep growing in its natural rhythm.

Tips For Troubleshooting:

  There are some deadlines, that once set, you can't really change.  So if you're up against one of those, I'm not asking you to "oh, just abandon your deadline and go with the flow".  That would be annoying.   The real juice here is in noticing whether or not you're Pushing the Pomegranate.  The more you practice noticing the natural gestation of different projects, the more you'll be able to set satisfying deadlines for future projects.  And the more you'll be able to let yourself off the hook for not having succeeded in meeting a deadline that was inherently doomed to begin with!