Feeling spring sluggish?  

I am.

I have a mountain of very important things to do. Interesting things. Vibrant, shining, exciting things. Some are feeling fresh on my skin, others are warm and safe in my pocket, and a few are prickling on the back of my neck with a desire to GO!!

But I am managing to ignore them all. Instead I am pretending to be busy figuring out how I have ended up with not just one but apparently three Facebook accounts. 

I never really wanted any. One was kinda fun. I innocently thought, why not add my account to my phone- you know, for those moments I was stuck waiting for an appointment, or having a quick lunch by myself. Or in my car – not driving or at a red light of course – just waiting to meet a client.

How grown up of me, to not only embrace tech but be part of the ebb and flow of these people I genuinely like and am connected with. Learning from, bantering with, and seeing pictures of, and even, wow – big step for me – creating posts of my own and what’s that, you say? You are already my friend and now you’ve been asked to be my friend again? And why haven’t I responded to your hilarious “Happy birthday to you” post but I’m hearing about it from other people and I haven’t seen it and…..

Yeah – I will need help to delete one, or combine two or…..sigh…. It’s kept me feeling busy.

But, there are not enough check marks on my to do list at the end of this day.  

Cause I just don’t want to. But I know I should.  

So, do it anyway. Just start.

That is the correct, maddening response to people stuck in a funk of sludge.  

Deep down, we do want to. We know, 90 seconds and our day will suddenly expand and be able to contain so much more. Like a room that is suddenly bigger once the oversized cozy couch, couple of chairs, table and a full bookshelf are added.

Professor of Psychology Dr Fuschia Sirois published that “procrastination is essentially irrational….” and it rears its ugly face only “because of an inability to manage a negative mood.”  

That’s a little judgy.  

In a 2013 study done with the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa, Dr Sirois and Dr Pychyl, head of the group, found that this feeling of funk is caused by “the primacy of short-term mood repair… over the longer term pursuit of intended action.”

It becomes a vicious cycle because it feels good. At least in the short term.  

Branding is a style of marketing that’s a long-term investment pointing towards the horizon of gold. You meant to start doing it right years ago.  

You should have.  

Don’t say that again next month. Or next year. Or a few decades down the goat path when you should be retired and fully vested in any kind of down-the-rabbit-hole kind of time warp you want to be in. And can afford to be in. Because you earned it. Earned it, perhaps, starting today.

Now, did you feel that?

This is where most of us dig in.

Because you are busy, and have been busy and running a business is hard.

Feel better? Your secret is safe with me.  

Because I know we share the Gnostic Knowledge that we are the only person in the world to suffer from this kind of “I don’t want to” state of mind and so we absolutely do not and will not reach out to anyone who will pull us in from the deep end where we are busy quietly treading water and conserving energy instead of swimming satisfying laps and racking up the miles.

For example, I categorically refuse to look at my broad strokes 100 in 20 list. That was the lesson in the Wizard’s Writers Guild Course that forces you to set the timer for 20 minutes and come up with your Absolute 100 Wish List. Kind of like looking at the Sears Xmas Catalogue 100 years ago. Except this list is imperatives you want to experience, live, buy, and beyond, before you permanently retire from all things doing in this world. No judgement. You have 20 minutes. List 100. Wow – that lesson creates a list that insists you look at who you are and why you are allowing yourself to forget or hide in favor of scrolling, meandering, and sighing endlessly. No time to meditate or ruminate or any other ‘nate – just go.

Our tribe can willfully and professionally ignore any deadlines – either provided or self-imposed, real or artificial. (Except for that one. I really love that client. And I did promise them I’d help with that idea.)

Now, if you were going on holiday tomorrow – even just a quick trip – your today would be full and vibrant and busy and efficient. It would all get done. And done well. That is called the Vacation Effect – the only problem is, it doesn’t work if you know you are not going on holidays.

A friend of mine had a mom in late stage dementia. The mom would become frantic that there was laundry to be done, a house to clean and kids to get to school – all imperatives from when she was a young mom running a well-oiled-machine of a household. A gentle reminder that it was Sunday would change the course of her day and feelings of angst. Sunday, of course, was a day of rest and church and family. And so if it was Sunday the frantic feeling of needing to get things done melted away. It was a tool of “not quite truth” my friend used to help her aging mom not feel lost.  

The trouble is, we know tomorrow isn’t a holiday.

We can’t fool ourselves into getting things done.  

Okay – so now we’ve gone beyond spring sluggishness to, this is never going to end, and we will die alone and unheralded beyond an impressive, dusty list of goals, ideas and plans for our businesses that were exciting to visualize and mediate on and track but never got done.

Unless…. We reach out to some people who feel spring possibilities in the air. Who have a few ideas to share with you. And it is spring. Let’s consider planting something. And maybe a quick walk, and some deep breaths.

Now, dive into the deep end. It feels good and I promise, there is a Wizard of Ads partner to help you move forward, never sink, and allow you to look back on the wow moment when you took the build your business with stories and branding and beyond plunge.  

And there will be lots of “Wow!” moments.

Originally, I had 100 things I wanted to do on my list. And it is already down to 93. I have a team of partners working with me – and helping your business is definitely on our list.

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