In Praise of Flim-Flamming
Dec 24, 2020
My mum called me a ‘film-flammer’.
All my life I was led to believe that my inability to focus on one thing all the way through to completion was a flaw in me.
If I announced a new project / hobby / interest /plan, everyone would raise their eyes to the ceiling - here we go again!
To be fair, my completion rate for just about anything WAS fairly low… and so I just accepted the label they all gave me.
I was someone who never saw things through.
When we allow others to label us in this way, and we unquestioningly adopt their paradigm, we kind of step into that persona, and the personality traits that earned us the title become amplified. Others expect us to give up on things, so we expect that of ourselves too.
It’s simply ‘who we are’.
We don’t disappoint ourselves or anyone else because we’re just behaving as we’re expected to.
In my mid-forties I began working with a wonderful therapist who helped me look at things through a different lens…
What if my enthusiasm and fearlessness around trying new things was a skill, a wonderful personality trait that some people who felt like slaves to the status quo might be very envious of?
What if the truth was that I DO see through to completion the things that matter to me the most, I just have no problem letting go of the things that no longer serve me or light me up?
What if being multi passionate is a choice I make and embrace every day?
You see, we can choose who to be every single day. We can choose how to feel, how to act, what to say. Of course, with every choice we make, we’re also accepting the consequences of that choice, but we’re all free to choose.
I choose to embrace my ability to ‘fail forward’. I accept that I start projects and often don’t finish them. I trust that they weren’t right for me.
I now own 3 separate businesses. I don’t feel the need to focus on just one thing. (And let me tell you, when I was still working a corporate 9-5 and setting up a side business at the same time, that served me dam well!)
I’m an entrepreneur. I juggle a lot of balls, and my mind is agile, nimble and wholly capable of flitting between multiple projects / clients / problems.
My non-negotiable is delivering on what I promise my clients… what I promise myself is always up for discussion, and I’m ok with that!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Until next time,
Gill
p.s. If you'd like to talk through your multiple business ideas and want help sorting and prioritising what to wrk on first, book a free strategy session with me gillmoakes.com/book
Suggested Listening
#001 - Are You Building a 'Lite' Version of Your Dream Business?
