Patience is a virtue but eventually, a dog's gotta eat!
The carpenter whose house is in disarray.
The chef that lives on Taco Bell.
The stock broker with bad credit.
The world is full of examples of people who are experts at doing work, giving advice, and generally offering a skill or expertise to others but when it comes to their own life, seem to reflect the exact problem that they are so astute at solving for others. Sound familiar?
The back story of many of these otherwise successful citizens is that they are, despite everything, human. They have lives. Those lives often put the very thing they are so passionate about on hold for themselves.
We might say the same thing about the birth of VitalConex - which has been a long time coming. "On the side," we have spent years, separately, helping people get their own dreams and businesses to the next step and loving it in the process. Now, the wait is over and we used our own framework to get here. Here's how we did it and a few important lessons we learned along the way:
Wait doesn't mean late
You get to a point in your life when you inevitably feel like it may be "too late" for something. Let's face it, if you really can have it all (but who would want to), you can't have it all at the same time. Something is going to feel like it's "late". We learned that there is no "late" for a lot of life's choices. It just feels that way because of outside messages and "steps" that we have been programmed to believe. The experience we bring to VitalConex could never have been as rich and robust as it is now. It's not always "better late than never." Sometimes, it is just better to wait than never.
Open the safe
The psychological safe, that is. When we came together, we had to understand not just what we thought about starting a business together, but also, more importantly, how each of us felt. We used humor to be open and honest but never dismissed the importance of being safe with who we are as feeling beings first.
Get a GPS that keeps "recalculating"
Using humor techniques, we mapped and then mapped again and then mapped some more. Using various methods to ascertain exactly who we are, what we're about, and what we are offering, kept us "recalculating" in a fun way but also, in a manner that led to everything from our mission and logo to our core strategic frameworks.
Don't shy away from a good peanut butter cup every now and then
The whole point of bringing true psychological safety and creativity through humor together was to foster those vital connections that unleash ideas, solutions, opportunities, and discoveries that are new, empowering, and reasonable. You know - possibilities! But building a business can get pretty heady so it was important to take a break from the coffee, water, and healthy hummus and carrots, and grab a peanut butter cup once in a while as a reminder of why we were doing this in the first place.
Plant for more cocoa and peanuts
Getting all of this work to stick means checking in - on how we are feeling and doing. It means further sharpening the various humor techniques to mine for new, creative ideas. It also means cultivation - the final step. Cultivating is not just growth, it calls for preparation and care. Each is a seed to eventually get more of those peanut butter cups (metaphorically speaking - we do have a blood sugar level to maintain) that make sure vitality, even if momentarily lost, is still within reach.
The VITAL5 ROUNDUP– Better wait than never.
1. Wait doesn't mean late– timing matters. Patience matters.
2. Open the safe – psychological safety makes feelings matter, too.
3. Get a recalculating GPS – humor mapping isn't a direct route but it's more fun and you see a lot more!
4. Grab a sweet – don't forget the peanut butter cups!
5. Cultivate – plant, prepare, and care for the equity you build with people.
VitalConex is a connect-and-create company. To learn more about the "peanut butter cup" of successful teams, check us out at www.vitalconex.com.
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