A recent run-in with nature had me ‘on rest’ for the day.  After dozing, working and reflecting in no particular order and in staccato fashion, I ventured to the supermarket to purchase dinner.  I must have been in a bubble all day, as the world that greeted me seemed somehow ‘orchestrated’ and unreal, in a surreal way. To my surprise, I bought home much more than the purchases!

I seemed to be ‘on the outside looking in’.  With the rush hour accompanying dusk, I walked and simultaneously witnessed ‘prisoners’ escaping a world that has ensconced them all day.  Some had bodies moving along yet stuck in a state of awkwardness, some had acute focus on grabbing the last hour of the day for living and others seemed to be in a bubble just not sure about anything other than the day was over.  All were on a mission, with an energy that had been put on reserve during the workday especially for this short interlude called ‘after work and before bed’.

A voice screamed at me – prisoners of their own choice!  Why couldn’t that man walk without some small challenge, why couldn’t that lady stand tall, why was that chap focussed as if it was his only chance to live?  Whilst I couldn’t be sure, my guess was that they were products of a life of burden, resulting from the commands of  others and daily incongruence.

When had I entered a different sphere? Whenever it was, I certainly can’t mark the day, time or moment when my entrepreneurial life held its own magic – probably after I let go of the fear of the unknown and failure – even that became all too hard to sustain.  A typical day now may commence with online work, bringing together global communities, making meaning together – this can happen in a park, in the office or a wonderful lounge somewhere but yet definitely in an environment where equality and choice reigns.  I then place a fence around ‘design work’ time where silence and immersion is paramount. Emails, FB and the social and technology hemispheres come next. And wow, where did the time go – it’s time for my swim!  A daily jaunt in the middle of the day, flexibly disciplined around a 45 minute allowance, to do my laps in the sea, which not only constitutes daily exercise and my essential elixir of life yet also the connection time I need for me, with myself and with nature.  Feeling revitalized and after lunch of choice, (creating a surprise for myself when I most feel like it always a fun part of the day), I will enter more work of various forms, and invest valuable search engine time.  Now of course, there are client meetings to attend, strategies to discuss, workshops to deliver, networking over coffee, developing relationships with suppliers etc to fit in as and when required.

Yet when I look at a typical schedule, there’s nothing but ‘non-typicality’, balance, free choice, flexibility and wonder.  All that sounds great, but yet again, is there ever a perfect solution?  If both of these scenarios had to be on sides of the same fence, I know what side I would be on…

What was it that I brought home from the supermarket that evening – huge insights:

• I was out of a situation I had been so wanting to be out of for so long
• So many are in the situation without even being aware they are in it
• The need to open minds of others to choice – we cant take a choice til we see we have a right to make a choice!
• A question for yourself! What is it that YOU really want in or out of life?  What is the consequence of not having that in your life?

So other than the ‘on rest’ scenario, what a day it was!