Women and entrepreneurs keep reading. You will identify well with what I am going to say!
As a successful business owner and mother of an energetic toddler, doing laundry is something I do frequently between training sessions. As I was starting my sixth charge the other day, I realized as I adjusted that dial once more that it was a teaching lesson. Yes, my washing machine knows a lot about success, and we would do well to pay attention. In fact, as women and business owners, some of our most powerful lessons on success and prosperity are right under our noses, perhaps even as close as the laundry room.
It sounds a little crazy, I know. But our usual daily routines are opportunities to learn something. One of my favorite writers, the famous playwright Samuel Beckett (yes, the one who wrote Waiting for Godot) wrote that habit is “la grande mute” and “the great deafener”. His works are powerful expressions of what happens when we lose ourselves in our routines, when we keep repeating the same thing over and over again without awareness of what we are doing.
Success, Beckett, and a washing machine. A strange combination for you and me. Or maybe not.
I decided to pay attention and this is what my normal washing machine and laundry routine taught me about my success and yours:
1) Success is a process. You have to go through the whole thing. If you stop in the middle, you end up with a mess. And once you’re “done”, it’s time to start over with another load, another project or idea, that demands your attention.
2) You have to be careful what you put together. The “what”, “where”, “who”, “when” and “why” must be carefully resolved or you will end up with a tangled mess and everything working together. The key components have to match and go with each other or you will regret it.
3) Once you have planned the process to successfully achieve your goal, you should get up and start. You can then monitor your progress as you go through the stages of the process. You must be patient and persevere. And you have to trust that the process will work, giving you the result you want, or better.
4) Each cycle of your process has a different beginning and end. Make sure to acknowledge those successful completions and celebrate their progress before continuing. Give yourself rewards as you complete each stage of the process and not just when you finish everything.
5) Stop airing out your dirty clothes, stop blaming people, places, and things for your lack of success, and get to work. You are responsible for making a change in your life. Chances are, no one else is taking care of your laundry!
6) Don’t forget the stain remover, detergent and fabric softener. Once you have started the process, you will notice that some components are missing. Make sure to add what you need to be successful; a mentor or coach who has done this before and can save you a lot of time, energy and money.
7) When you’ve reached your goal, take stock and find out what else needs to be done. Want to air your ideas for a while or expose them to a more arduous and heated scrutiny process – the tumble dryer? The point is to realize that this particular goal can lead to more and it benefits you to consciously PLAN the process so that you can take another load and move on, connecting your successes in a long, complete line.
The next time you do the laundry, let me remind you that the process of finding what you want takes time, energy, planning and focus, but you can do it and then you will truly dress successfully. Hey, I’m glad you’re pressing your ear against the top of your washing machine to listen, but let’s go around, okay?