Slow Down
Conversations–
Nat Woods
@nat.woods_
Muse–
Pru Chapman
@ownerscollective
@pruchapman
The seasons change. Nature flows with this transition and changes to suit. Our energy is different in summer than it is in winter. So why do we stay so rigid to a repeating work/life schedule for 365 days a year? We ask Pru Chapman, Founder and Head Hustler at Owners Collective, in the land of ‘Busy’, how do we let go and slow down …
Maybe it’s just the ‘Byron bubble’, but it feels like #startuplife is a bit less hustle and bustle, and a little more flow these days—have you noticed this transition?
Globally right now we’re seeing a shift away from the masculine, patriarchal, top-down style of business, and into a more feminine style of working. Within this transition we’re becoming increasingly aware of the natural cycles at play, being the seasons, the moon, and a connection with this land’s traditional custodians. Through this awareness comes knowledge and a greater sense of our own intuition, and as we increasingly trust our intuition, we’re able to work in flow.
Environment plays a huge part in facilitating and supporting this shift, and of the many things I love about our community here in Byron is we work to live, not the other way around. I believe as an engaged and aware community we’re committed to living balanced lives, which is further supported by the traditional heritage of the Byron shire, as well as our breathtaking natural environment.
As a community of business owners I see us all keeping each other accountable to this balance, supporting one another where we can, and ensuring that the lines between work and life are blurred – in the best possible way. After all, it’s all life!
That said, I mentor 30 to 40 business owners each week across Australia and NZ, and I can assure you that the hustle is still real. I just think that we’re ‘doing’ with more awareness, and that it’s for a period of time, rather than a permanent way of being.
Our ancestors lived their lives by the seasons, taking their cues from nature – is it possible to bring a seasonal flow into our modern working lives?
I firmly believe that we’re much less in control than we think we are. There are a huge number of influences much larger than us at play in every given moment, in both business and in life. Looking at seasons and their influence on business in autumn, it’s time to figuratively (and literally) ‘cool down’. This is the season that we reflect on all that outward pouring of energy we did in summer, and assess what worked for us, and what didn’t. It’s also the season where we begin to transition inwards to focus on both the physical and spiritual work – guided by the cooler winds we receive through the autumn currents.
From here we’ll move into winter, which is very much a season influenced by inward energy. The time we go deep within and start asking ourselves the bigger questions in business and life, about how closely aligned we are with our truth and purpose. When shifts need to happen we see the beginnings of them in winter, it’s where the seeds of change are mediated upon and planted. Spring will bring new life, new beginnings, new products, services and offerings. If we’ve allowed ourselves to be guided by this seasonal change we’ll see this new alignment revealed in the springtime. With our energy reserves all topped up we’ll be ready to re-enter the world, with fresh energy and perspective. Finally comes summer, typically associated with high energy, big output, and social times. It’s here that our energy is at its highest as we celebrate bringing our new offerings into the world, and the impact they create.
In January you posted on Instagram about working half time, which I loved—do you think we fixate too much on sticking to the modern calendar and work week?
I think it’s so easy to get caught up in collective energy and momentum that sometimes we forget that we make our own rules. Many of us run to age old paradigms with the first being around ‘must work 9am-5pm’, and the other being ‘the more successful I want to be, the harder I have to work’. Put simply, both of these are very outdated. It’s so important, particularly for those of us who have chosen to launch our own gig, to bring awareness to our patterns, and whether we created or inherited them.
For me personally at the time, I was reflecting on the yearly cycle that I’ve known growing up in Australia, in that even from school days, we worked all year and then took a solid six weeks off to spend time with family and friends, connect with nature, and have fun! This cycle was repeated for the best part of my first 23 years on this planet, and significantly thereafter in my working life too, so it’s almost as if my body was rejecting anything that looked remotely like a full time working week. Indeed, there were things to be done, so I found the commitment to half-time work played out beautifully. It ensured that all my responsibilities and ’have to’s’ were met, and then allowed plenty of guilt-free time to play.
Any tips for starting the day with less rush and more ease?
I’m naturally an early riser, Type A personality, and action taker, so flow and ease have to be a very conscious choice for me – so that’s where I begin my day, with choice. In the moment between when I wake up and before I open my eyes each day, I ask myself, “How do you want to feel today?” This simple question immediately brings awareness and presence into my day.
I then get up and begin my day with a mindful cup of tea looking over the incredible view from my balcony. Before I returned to Byron a few years ago and was living in the city grind, I used to dream about having a view, so I’m sure that I take a few moments of gratitude for that each morning. From there, I’m a big fan of getting into nature to feel in flow, so it’s a lighthouse or Lennox point walk to start the day.
To really protect this time I never schedule meetings before 10am, and I also steer clear of email until then. While I’m present and in flow first thing in the morning, I work on creating things—which is always the best way to start the day.
We’ve become so disconnected from the natural world that we forget that our planet can only supply so much—yet the entrepreneur world is obsessed with bigger and better. How do we set a limit on how much is enough?
I think this comes down to making mindful decisions about what we want, and why we want it. Bigger is not always better, and I’ve seen this time and time again having literally worked with thousands of business owners.
The advice I’d give here is to encourage people to get clear on the lifestyle they want to be living in five year’s time. To really consider where they want to live, how often they want to work, and most importantly how they want to spend their days. A bigger business most often also brings bigger overheads, bigger responsibility, bigger team and bigger risk. For some people the pay off of bigger impact and bigger dollars is worth it, but for many the ‘bigger is better’ paradigm never served us in the first place.
I’m much more interested in the impact people create. Big or small. The positive impact both individuals and business can create through our local and global communities, is much more impressive than a bunch of dollars in the bank. Serendipitously I’m just about to launch a project talking about just this! One Wild Ride is an exploration of living more meaningful and connected lives. Check it out at onewildride.co
Originally published in Paradiso Issue 9