When I was growing up, not washing my hands was a total sin.
Every time you come inside to eat anything, you washed your hands.
It didn’t matter whether you had been playing, or out shopping, or doing sport, or whatever. The rule was: Wash your hands.
Do people still do this?
I ask because I never see mothers take their kids into bathrooms to wash their hands anymore. They used to. You’d go to lunch or dinner somewhere, and be asked to go to the bathroom and wash your hands before you eat.
Think of the last time you went to a business event, after doing a bunch of things in collective environments. Did you wash your hands before you ate those nibbles? After shaking hands with a bunch of new people?
You don’t know where their hands have been, as they say.
This winter, everybody is sick. It does make me wonder if they would be, if they were more vigilant about their own hand hygiene.
As for this week, I spent two days working half-days while in my pyjamas, then crashing out in bed by 2 pm, thanks to illness. But you know, at almost 6 years into this business, I don’t mind. It was a quiet week, the work was still getting done. All I had to do was sign off some financials, QA some content for delivery, and keep the sales program moving. And I could do all of that without leaving bed, if I wanted to.
That’s why it made me shake my head when I saw a young person, in a young business, wailing on social media about her business falling over because she wasn’t at work for one day. That’s entirely because of poor design and poor customer training. As one person replied to her, ‘you’ll work it out’.
Well, you have to. If your business collapses around your ears when you’re absent for a day, it’s not exactly sustainable.
Though, to be fair, while I was lounging around in bed feeling gross, and watching hours and hours of Joe Rogan interviews (I’ve listened to about 9 hours of them this week), it did strike me that as my business has settled into a groove, and as my personal projects have ramped up on the side, I’m afraid of getting stuck in a groove.
Settling into a structure that works while you’re absent for a short period of time is essential.
Setting into a groove that stops throwing ideas is terrifying.
Perhaps it’s an indication that running harder at it, moving forwards more significantly every day, is necessary for Brutal Pixie if I’m going to have more time in which to rest and cogitate.
Sustainability in business - to me - isn’t just about being able to step out. It’s being able to think, dream, and action, without barriers. After all, great ideas emerge where both space and implementation exist.