These are crazy days indeed. Everyone is breaking new ground everyday across the globe. So many questions; how much of ourselves do we give to this new way of living? How much do we embrace this weird new chapter? How much do we keep back and hold on to our 'old ways' of being? How much of the old routine do we retain? How do we mesh the two together? How do we feel okay about all this?
Well, my plan is to make changes everyday, to align with what feels right. Keeping up with the news is an almost impossible task, one that threatens to overrun and overwhelm at any moment. Paying attention to new information is vital but surely it has to be secondary to what feels right. Being sensible, making good choices. It feels like a time for stripping back, paring back the layers that we've built up through virtue of just existing and shifting focus back to basic living; food, shelter, sleep. We've made it all so complicated, now feels like an opportunity to make lasting change but at a speed that is manageable. We talk about not having enough time, now we find ourselves with an abundance of it. Let's use it wisely.
Practically speaking, in business terms for 'Jamie' Gaunt', this means ditching the hurried, frantic making / selling cycle that defines my weeks; the head down approach of making, making, making which offers such limited time for reflection. It's so easy to get syphoned off down a stream of creating which ultimately leads to an unsatisfactory end. Making for makings sake can become a habit and I suspect that it's a trap I've been guilty of walking into for a while. When you love designing, making and creating then that can becomes the primary focus but often it comes at the expense of other equally important facets of living / business. Other aspects might become afterthoughts and I can find myself forcing pieces I've carved into a hole of selling which often times doesn't match-up.
So, now I have a chance to adjust this, tweak the week and set off in a new direction. All the usual avenues of selling have roadblocks across them for now, only online remains. The urge to head to the workshop, put on The National, have a coffee and carve something is overwhelming but I'll resist for today and instead I'll post this Blog, do some hashtag research and perhaps work on those SEO's!
Stay safe and well everyone. Think clearly and make good choices.