Monday
I enjoy Monday’s the most out of any day of the week. I enjoy the fresh week, the clean slate, the unknown. I also enjoy being able to get back into work. I’ve been doing pretty well lately with not working on the weekends, and so by the time Monday rolls around I feel semi-refreshed and ready to get back into things.
Monday also tends to be a day of reflection for me when I sit down in the morning to write. Maybe introspection is more accurate. I find myself staring outside, lost in thought, lost in some period of time in the past or maybe imagining the future (a worthwhile exercise, I think). Daydreaming. I think this is something I have always done. My introspection lately has led me back, back to a time when I felt a bit more like myself, felt a bit more aligned with who I am, what I am capable of, and what my gifts and skills were and are.
I’ve been on a journey since that time. Discovering likes and dislikes. Learning about myself and others. Starting new relationships, ending them. Becoming a dad. Life stuff. Through all of that entering into a mode of survival and forgetting who I am. I became someone who is not me. I think I mentioned this recently. Introverted. Preferring to be alone instead of with others. Not sharing as much for fear of rejection. I was never like this until I was.
Something clicked in the past few weeks with my writing. I use writing to untangle the webs created in my mind. A way to clear the cobwebs. I remembered back to a time when I was more extroverted, when I found value in being around and with others. When I understood that both worlds had their unique values (online and “IRL”). I believed then that relationships are what mattered most, are what made the world go ‘round, are how business was conducted. I was a firm believer that it didn’t matter what you knew. It was more important who you knew, that is what would propel something forward.
I lost all of this over the course of the past 15 or so years. I became a turtle, not that there is anything wrong with turtles, but I never actually envisioned living my life in a shell. I’ve always viewed myself as a lion (not sure where the animal analogies are coming from but let’s just roll with it for now), comfortable out in the open, hunting to provide, seeking opportunities.
Part of this remembering has been led on by my desire lately to dress nicer than I have been the past few years. Covid, the lockdowns, remote work, all of that contributed to this. I got rid of most of my dress clothes, only keeping what I would need for the occasional wedding or more formal event.
I used to always be the best dressed in any situation. I felt that dressing to impress was part of the way things were conducted, and I lived that out and benefited from it. I enjoyed the process of looking a certain way, understanding that “nice” is subjective and can be interpreted and understood in many different ways...but I’ve always enjoyed wearing suit coats, ties optional, nice pants, dress shoes...looking the part, as it were.
I work in handcrafts so this posed an issue for a minute, but then
remembered I have a shop apron and put that on over my dress clothes
(sans suit coat). A nice classy look, I think, harkening back to a time
when certain shop owners (depending on one’s industry) would wear dress
clothes under their leather shop apron, putting on the suit coat when
leaving or heading to meet an associate.
I digress.
Dressing nicer has had an impact on my mental state of mind and also the
type of thinking my mind enters into. Dressing nicer puts me into a
people mode of thinking, a mode where I see connections between people
and see how business can be done to the advantage of all parties
involved. Connections I used to make every day in a previous life and
did so fairly successfully. It makes me think bigger. It opens my mind
to new and different ways of doing things.
It all reminds me of a very key component of who I am but have
forgotten: I am a creator. I make things, I refine things, I perfect
things. And then I am able to teach what I know, develop a process for
doing a task or series of tasks and then teach that process to someone
else.
And once I get to this point I need to either grow whatever it is I am working on or shift to what is next. I am not a farmer, as much as I would like to be. I would like to be able to sit with something for years, doing the same thing over and over and over again, but I don’t have that in me. That is not who I am. I create, I perfect, I hand off.
I have done the first two things in my current business, which is maturing in what it is (becoming bigger, at least in my mind, than “just” handcrafted leather goods but more of a company that makes wonderful things to provide something of value to our customers (sounds so corporate but I hope you are picking up what I’m putting down)), now I feel the need to enter into the third.
I need to hand off so that I can do what I am best at, what is the best use of my time and skills: meeting with people, developing relationships, creating new products. I need to do this while others are able to make and fulfill what I sell. That’s the point I’ve reached in my mind.
And that’s as far as I have gotten so far...more to write about later, more to untangle with time and words. But for now, I need to rest.
Hope you had a great day!
~ Aaron
Grateful log for Mon, 18 Mar 2024
- A good weekend with Mozzie
- Outdoor activities being a bit more enjoyable with the warming temperatures (except today, today was back to being cold 😂)
- Monday. Start to a fresh week. New Opportunities and challenges await!