ADDING SOME
EVERYDAY ZEN
to your business is the
best investment for 2015
Amber Daines
Recently the UK’s most famous entrepreneur Sir Richard
Branson came out in an article for Inc.com and said that
“time was the new money”. A fairly simple statement in
and of itself, the story pretty quickly had had social media
buzzing.
When I read this, I was one of the many retweeting
groupies because what this successful self-made
billionaire stated struck a big cord with me and it seems
also so many of the hard-working but slightly over-worked
business friends. Time for money is what most of us trade
on and it’s how we make a living.
It’s a one-way transaction though – your time can be
turned into money, but not the other way around. And the
trade-off can be scary. Lack of regular exercise, poor diet,
less mental focus, and drinking too much wine at night to
“switch off” after a hectic day all add to the pattern.
Ariana Huffington’s acclaimed book Thrive: The Third
Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of
Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder has been on my high
rotation reading and reference list for a few months now.
It speaks to the heart of every modern business person
who’s time-poor and health-poorer. She had her own
wake-up call when she pushed her body and mind to the
limit working 17 hour days for years in the early days of the
Huffington Post. Falling down and injuring herself from
sheer exhaustion was the turning point for Ariana. In her
book, she shares her own research and that of experts in
meditation, health and business who tell us what we need
to know to avoid a physical and mental breakdown in the
pursuit of more money and power. It’s a cliché that without
your health you having nothing. But it’s also a fact.
The upshot of ‘Thrive’ is perhaps nothing new but it
summarises the journey I am on and know many of my
peers are too. After seven years of running my own PR
strategy and media skills agency, I am tired. Throw into
the mix raising two little boys, balancing schedules with
an e qually career-charged husband, weekend sports,
socialising, Sydney traffic and endless demands from
every corner I look to, it is hardly surprising. Stress on
an ongoing basis is negative for everyone. It generates
cortisol and adrenalin, which wreaks havoc on our nervous
systems, and makes our minds foggy and affects our
productivity. Not a great thing to run a business on let
alone a lifestyle!
The past six months has been my professional sabbatical
in some ways. In April, after lots of thought, I made a
strategic decision to walk away from my pipeline lucrative
(but energy-sapping) PR clients that were simply not
growing my business in the direction I want it to go to.
I am committed to being the best media trainer and PR
strategist in town and that has meant saying “no” more
times than my accountant would like me to this year. But
it was deliberate and worthwhile for me to be brave and
get of the adrenalin-pumped merry-go-round that I have
probably been on for almost 20 years.
Our young family needs me home more and I want to
be there before I miss out on too many milestones and
everyday conversations that make a childhood take
shape. My days have been spent chasing up the clients I
really want to work with, saying ‘yes’ to new and daunting
speaker opportunities, working for charities and writing for
magazines and blogs (like this one) that mean something
to me.
What has also happened is I have finally understood what
it means to be mindful; not just on a walk, when I get to
smell the roses literally. It has certainly taken me years to
“get” what being truly present is all about. In my times of
great and compounding stress, with deadlines looming,
in the wake of sleepless nights with sick offspring and
a husband who has a big new job to step into, it’s been
necessary for me to stay in the moment. To shrug of the
mental “to do” lists for the days or weeks ahead. And you
know what? It’s worked.
I can literally feel my central nervous system is calmer –
though it could use a few more practice runs some days
– my head is clearer, my soul feels lighter and I can face
almost anything. One step at a time.