In praise of ordinary days

Three cheers for the Inbetweener days.

If you are like many women, you probably have frequent forays into the BIG THREE as I call them.

#1 Days

These are the days when you feel connected and inspired and thriving. Where you wake up bursting with new ideas and delighted with how fulfilling your life and business are.

I love these #1 days!

I’m full of energy and I’m focused and excited and it feels like there is just nothing that could possibly be better then what I am doing for a living. I’m fully charged and ALIVE!

#1 Days are great aren’t they? I’d love to bottle these days and have them up on the shelf to grab whenever I need them because…..

# Two Days can hit without warning

Unfortunately there are also #2 Days – yep those are the shitty days my friend.

Days where you can feel flat and unsure and self-doubt creeps up on you. When you wonder “is it really worth it? Who am I to think I can do this? There are sooooo many (insert your title here – wellness practitioners, coaches, consultants, service professionals etc etc etc…..) what makes me different? How can I stand out? Will I EVER breakthrough?

Maybe I should just give this all away and get a “real job”….

Totally crappy days when you just want to pull the shutters down, get under the doona and eat chocolate.

I used to hate those days. Used to. More on that later.

Then there are #3 days. The inbetweeners.

The just cruising along, getting stuff done sorta days. Ticking things off the To-Do List. Kicking small goals. Working with lovely clients. Going networking. Working on your website. Writing copy.

Just making it happen. But no thunderous, heartstopping “oh my god THIS is why I am an entrepreneur I was BORN to do this”, happy dancing sort of stuff going on.

But equally so no “oh my god HOW did I EVER think I born to do this, let me outta here, I am an impostor and I can’t do it anymore….” It’s all over sorta doona moments either.

I think Inbetweener days are vastly underrated.

And I think we need to appreciate them a little more. I’d like to champion and celebrate the “ordinary” days. The days when our wild emotions are resting and we do the work.

I must admit I didn’t always feel like this.

I used to fluctuate crazily. Emotions high and almost feverish with popcorn brain on fire. So excited and excitable. I actually believed this is when I did my best work.

Ah no.

That’s when I get my best ideas. And I still do today. But this big picture kinda woman that I am, I just don’t even think about details on days like that. Implementation? Forgedaboutit…. I’m too excited by the VISION the POSSIBILITIES the…. GLORIOUS multicoloured revelation I’m having.

I was completely addicted to the #1 days. I thought they were the stuff that the entrepreneurial adventure was weaved from. But I now realize they are the cupcake days of being in business. Delicious, light and such a treat. But you can’t live on a staple diet of these alone!

And equally so when the #2 days hit I would wallow in them…. Oh this is the shadow side of being in business. It’s so hard for me. It’s easy for everyone else. My dreams are just that… dreams. I’ll never make it (cue the violins).

I thought the dark days were the price I paid for being an entrepreneur. And although I HATED these days that flattened me just as surely as I’d been hit with a sledgehammer I accepted them as being par for the course. I used to lack the understanding that they were temporary, that they were just days when I chose to listen to and believe my darker thoughts. (Check out my post on avoiding the slippery slope of self-doubt if you’re beating yourself up a little too much)

And that was how I viewed the world.

Until I began to work on my mindset and recognised that the highs and lows were indeed, a normal part of being in entrepreneurs land yes, but there was another whole state I was missing – the #3 days!

The inbetweeners.

The inbetweeners are where you take the wild and crazy ideas that you have on #1 days and actually put the steps in place to bring them to life!

The inbetweeners are the action days.

The inbetweeners are the days where you Get. Shit. Done.

The inbetweeners are the days where you are fully present and focused and in flow and have the presence of mind and the ability to learn from the past and plan for the future, but to take action in the moment.

The inbetweeners where you understand that #2 days do come…. But they also go. (just like the # 1 days)

So three cheers for the inbetweeners.

Three cheers for the ordinary days.

Extraordinarily ordinary is undervalued.

Angela Raspass Business Coach & Self Worth Educator

Angela Raspass

Angela Raspass is Business Strategist and Self-leadership Coach for female business owners.

1 Comment

  1. Sarah - Hunting for Ladybugs on August 28, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    Loved this post. I’m catching myself wallowing a lot at the moment but this is just the reminder I needed that they are just days and the next one will be along tomorrow 🙂 Thanks Angela.