My son sat down at my computer to help me with something. He snorted at the bevy of open tabs, then clicked on the next window (sporting just as many tabs) and the next. His sister, over his shoulder, doubled over.
Mess.
That’s how they viewed my “everything at my fingertips” approach to business.
To me, a window void of tabs is chaos. Everything is a possibility, where do I begin?
To them, a clean slate is the only beginning point.
My creative process takes that shape everywhere.
In the kitchen, its get out everything I need and set it on the counter, then begin….one by one, putting things away as they are used.
In the sewing room, it’s every pattern, tool, fabric I might want set out in a decorative array of supplies before anything gets cut, pinned or stitched.
My organization looks like chaos. Unless you are me.
When you embark on your entrepreneurial journey, you have a choice of 1,000 different ways to organize yourself, your days, your tasks.
But you already know the one way that works for you.
It’s alive in everything you do.
When you stop listening to “experts” and face the only expert that matters (the one in the mirror), business gets simple.
Your business, your way.
That’s the only thing you need to know about business.
There are two key points here that I think are important.
One is the permission to do things our way even when someone “successful” is doing it another way.
Two is sifting and sorting through the learned behaviors, the forced way of doing things, and the coping mechanisms in order to find our true rhythm.
So one at a time.
Permission to do your business your way
You watch the video, catch the reel, scroll past the 30 second segment of flashing words and chaotic music and get one thing.
I am doing it wrong.
There are as many people out there telling us to do it “their” way as there are people. Gurus, industry leaders, experts in every field are selling us a story.
“You can’t possibly figure this out on your own…here is the answer.”
That’s it.
They are selling doubt, side-by-side with their flavor of cure.
Most of it is very well-meaning.
Most of it is from people who have worked very hard to get to the top of their game and stay there.
For many of us starting out in business…it’s the business bit that’s new. We know the healing arts inside and out, wield tarot cards in our sleep, whatever the tools of our trade…we are well equipped and very adept.
Enter business and money and marketing and the hundreds of terms that go with it all.
That’s where it gets tempting to binge-watch the pros, grab their tips and tricks and put them all into practice at once.
Here’s the thing to remember.
You’re not an expert in business.
You’re not ‘successful’ in business (yet).
But you are an expert in YOU.
And that’s all you need.
So here is the permission bit.
You have permission to ignore the experts, especially the ones who seem to have it all figured out.
Ignore them and do Your Business Your Way.
What is my way?
That leads to my second point. The sifting and sorting.
The fact is, you are an expert in you…but you’ve piled a whole lot of ‘not you’ on top of it.
Much of how we do things and how we see the world is poked down our throats at a very young age. Like an endless bottle of pills we’re forced to take one by one every day before going out and encountering the world.
Those pills keep our eyes pointed outward, alter our view of the world and deaden our receptivity to the real information we might gather there.
Strong pills.
That transport us here.
To the screen.
Riddled with doubt and buying more.
Pausing the scroll to listen to the advice of someone we have never met who purports to live a life we have never touched who offers a narrow frame of “proof” that could be artificially altered in any number of ways.
When we stop the scroll, the search ‘out there’ for answers, we find the answers right where they are. In front of us.
Within us.
Beneath the doubt and the hangover from the pills…there is something pulsing with life. Waiting to dance in the sunshine.
You.
Your natural cadence.
Your natural cycles.
Your natural way of being in the world.
And curiosity will help you feel it again.
Curiosity is asking the questions that get the answers to light up.
LIterally light up. Illuminate some part of you previously obscured.
Which is sometimes painful. Because the questions often don’t originate from intentional self-discovery.
You don’t simply go scrolling through your deeply hidden patterns.
They arrive haphazardly from situations and the people that lead us into them.
Like my kids and my stunning array of open tabs.
And their laughter.
Laughter…in my youth and beyond … came with a distinct possibility of rejection and eventual banishment. Typically, it’s the last emotion you wanted to elicit from someone.
Unless you’re a comedian.
And I am not.
You’re probably not either.
But it’s times like these, when the opportunity for self-discovery rears its ugly head that it’s up to me to get curious.
Past the automatic self-doubt
Like…am I doing business wrong?
All of these open tabs, are they a sign of an addled mind?
Should I close them all every night and start fresh every day?
Is actual illumination.
Illumination is just that. Illuminating.
If you allow it, the answer sparks inside of you in a way you can’t ignore.
Anger, frustration, obstinance, relief…and everything of the like.
Somewhere your self-doubt will illuminate a tendril of truth.
For me in that moment, it was dread.
The thought of starting with a “clean slate” unearthed a zombie apocalypse of horrifying moments.
Staring at a blank page (back when there were pens) waiting for words to describe the book I didn’t read for the class I didn’t want to take in the first place.
Walking into the first day of a new job, not knowing anyone or anything.
Sliding behind the wheel of a car sitting on the wrong side of the road with all of the gadgets reversed and no idea how to get to my destination.
Nope. “Blank slate” does not mean “clean” to me.
It means test.
A test I would probably survive but painfully flounder.
And I hate to flounder.
Here’s me. I like to be prepared.
I studied up on how to put gas in my car before I left my driveway for my first time at the pumps.
I always pack my suitcase for every eventuality, including shorts in the winter, a coat in the summer and a swimsuit? Stays packed.
And I always do a dry run before….just about anything.
Prepared. That’s my M.O.
When tossed in the deep end without floaties, can I swim? Absolutely. Do I prefer to have floaties at the ready and dip each toe in separately? You bet.
50 tabs open across three windows on my computer are my floaties. The way to dip my toe in each morning, continue toe by toe through the day and eventually end up swimming in the deep end of the latest project.
Could I listen to 100 “blank slate” gurus (or my two children) and close all my tabs?
Absolutely. But I choose to work the way I work best.
Once you know what’s yours, the question changes
Not… What am I capable of enduring?
…but…
How do I operate optimally?
That’s sifting and sorting. Not therapy. Not healing. Just noticing what’s actually yours and keeping it.
So watch the video, put the reel on repeat, read every one of the flashing words. Then ask yourself — not am I doing it wrong — but what’s right for me?
If the whole world were lining up asking what I want, what would I order?
Me? I’d order the mess. Every tab open, nothing closed, no clean slate in sight. That’s not chaos. That’s how I think.
My son is still sitting at my computer. Fifty tabs. Three windows. He doesn’t see the trail I’m following, he sees mess.
He’s not wrong. It is a mess. It’s also mine.
My way is fifty tabs open. Yours might be a clean slate. Neither one is wrong. Only one of them is yours.
I hope this passage stirred something true in you; whether clarity, inspiration, or the simple hum of recognition. If you feel the pull, here are a few ways to walk further with me:
For the Listeners
Let the words rise through voice. The podcast version of these transmissions lives here:
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/melinda-perkins
For the Visual Seekers
If you resonate through symbol, image, and ritual inspiration, you’ll find visual transmissions, mythic imagery, and meditative sparks here:
Pinterest: https://pin.it/3wavboY1X
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primalbeastcoven/
Or step deeper into the Dragon-temple for readings, channeled messages and more here:
https://primalbeastcoven.com
Or if you are a Soul-Aligned Entrepreneur reaching for the next level, but not sure where to start take the Business Integrity Diagnostic https://trainingwithlife.com/the-business-integrity-diagnostic/
If you are craving a business framework that amplifies your gifts and lets them soar, you might be ready to enter The Primal Foundry: Where businesses are shaped by truth, moved by inner rhythm, and built to evolve https://theprimalfoundry.com/
