Navigating The Chaos of The Business Creation Journey

If you follow me on Instagram you know this blogpost was coming.

I don’t know if it’s the spring equinox, the new moon, a bit of both, or something else, but I’ve been feeling a bit chaotic for a few days now and I decided to write about it to better understand what it means for me to feel chaotic, where it might come from, and how to function and get my work done anyway.

I’m going to dive deep into it and try to provide answers and solutions for all of us who might be dealing with chaos in one, or all, area(s) of our lives, because we don’t have to be victims of it and can make it work for us.

Do you ever wake up in the morning overwhelmed by your to-do list? (or even at night in extreme cases)

Do you feel like there’s too much to do and nothing is really moving forward but rather stagnating?

Do you feel like your energy is all over the place and you’re not able to focus on one thing at a time?

That’s how I feel today. That’s how I felt on Monday. And it’s not the first time I feel this way.

Feeling chaotic in the business creation journey, or more generally in our life journey, is normal, and does not have to be bad.

It can be a catalyst to start fresh, try something new, put new systems in place, and get better at what we do and how we do it.

Let’s look at how we can make that happen, but first, let’s talk about accepting chaos.

Accepting chaos as part of our journey

Feeling chaotic and like everything is up in the air and nothing is going to land the way it’s supposed to is not inherent to entrepreneurship but rather to life.

Though this feeling can be exacerbated when you are trying to build a better life for yourself and you don’t see the expected results coming (yet).

Accepting that the entrepreneurship journey, or our life journey, is not linear but rather a series of obstacles, challenges, detours, and hills, is going to be your salvation.

But life is not just that, it’s also a series of happy events, encounters, moments of joy, connection, love, and even moments of bliss. We just tend to focus more on the previous type of events.

Every experience you’ve had so far has taught you something, whether you labeled it as a positive or negative experience, you’ve learned from it and came out the other side wiser and more prepared for what’s next.

The same goes for your business creation journey. Every setback, obstacle, and “defeat”, but also every win, success, and high, taught you something that you will be able to use in the future for the betterment and overall success of your venture.

I find peace in accepting that all these aspects are part of the journey. Fighting the “negative” aspects of life or the entrepreneurship journey is just plain exhausting.

If I sit still for a minute and think about the past, I see how I’ve had a variety of good and bad experiences that lead me to this moment. And aside from feeling out of control, I’m actually doing pretty good right now, I know I am on a path to building a life I actually enjoy living.

But if I focus on everything that’s out of my control and feels out of control, I am more prone to feeling anxious, terrified, and give up before I even see the blooming season of all the seeds I have planted for my business so far.

I know that this moment of chaos is just that, a moment. It will go away, and it will come back, but it will never last forever.

And if I keep showing up for myself and my business, chances are that I will have more and more moments of peace and bliss between these moments of chaos and it will make it all worthwhile.

Diagnosing chaos

How do you know you are in the midst of an internal chaotic storm, and how do you look at it in a way that is going to help you grow?

Sometimes we are right in the middle of the storm and we don’t even see it, those are the most powerful storms.

You feel frantic, out of control, anxious, and pessimistic, but you are so caught up in all of those feelings that have been normalized (to some extent) in our society that you don’t even see that you’re stuck in it.

It might take a direct hit to the head (figurative) to wake you up and get you to realize what’s going on.

It’s all part of the process.

But once you realize what’s going on, it is your responsibility to look at that situation for what it is, diagnose it, and learn to make it work for you.

What is this storm telling you about your lifestyle? Your work schedule? Your organization skills? Your relationships?

I know my current storm is telling me that I am trying to do too much at the same time.

I am trying to do and be everything, everywhere, all at once, and it’s effing exhausting!

But that’s how you most likely feel if you are creating or running a business these days. There’s so much pressure to wear all the hats from what should be different departments of expertise within your business, that you can’t help but feel like you have to be all self-sufficient if you want to be successful.

And sometimes the storm can mean something else, maybe you are trying to be too controlling in your relationships, maybe you hate your job but you are lying to yourself because you are terrified of change, or maybe you have been ignoring something inside of you for too long and it’s trying to come out one way or another.

We each have our very own relationship with chaos, but if you sit with it, look at it right in the eye, ask it questions, and listen for answers, you might find out what’s really going on and be able to make it work for you.

Making chaos work for you

I think with enough self-awareness and attention given to chaos we can make it work for us.

Let me start by giving you a practical example before breaking it down in simple actionable steps for you.

Right now I am feeling chaotic. Everything feels out of control, my career, my financial situation, the future of my business... it feels like a chaotic year.

But if I look at it from a different angle, it is also a very fertile year.

There is an infinity of new possibilities opened to me at the moment because I am in this fragile state of being wide open as a new business creator.

Now, how can I make this chaos work for me instead of against me?

Yesterday I simply asked myself: what do I need to do to gain more control of the situation (while remaining aware that I am not actually in control because I’d be fooling myself) and make sure that I am in the position to receive all the gifts I have been asking for and working for for the past seventeen months?

The answer was simple: get my coaching offer ready, update my pricing, launch my new product (yes, the free workshop on limiting beliefs I have been talking about for weeks), and finally launch my coaching offer.

I have been feeling chaotic in my business creation process because I don’t feel ready to be hired as a coach and welcome the clients I’ve been praying for. And it’s all my fault, I’ve been focusing on other areas of the business creation, that are not less important, but maybe less urgent, and it makes me feel like I am not ready to launch my offer and welcome clients.

Which is not true. I have today everything I need to start welcoming clients into my program, I just need to “officialize” things by taking executive decisions and taking the right actions. And I’ll be on my way to meeting my new clients.

See how out of that feeling of chaos I was able to identify what it was trying to tell me and the actions I need to take to get out of that feeling, make it work for me, and move forward?

Here are some simple steps you can follow to make chaos work for you:

- recognize and accept the state of chaos

- ask yourself where it comes from

- ask yourself what you can do to regain “control” of the situation

- take executive decisions and actions to move toward peace and alignment

Sometimes embracing chaos and making it work for you will look like a 180° curve, and sometimes it’ll be a simple nudge, but whatever it is, I believe that facing chaos rather than running away from it is the way through.

Life and the entrepreneurship journey are not of a linear shape, they are, I believe, of the shape of the Ouroboros, a never-ending circle of mutation, loss and gain, death and rebirth. A never-ending journey of opportunities to learn and do better.

Embrace chaos, rise to the occasion, and improve your life experience and your business just a little each time.

Here are a few other tips to help you make it through a chaotic time:

- Practice self-care: this was not the focus of this blogpost but it’s been my focus for the past few days. Self-care is very important during a trying time like this, it will help you recenter your energy and attention within, slow down, and be mindful of your thoughts and environment

- Reconnect with your body and nature: get out in nature, take a breath of fresh air, hug a tree, sow seeds, or go for a run, reconnecting with your body and nature is a great way to ground yourself when things feel out of control

- Journal: writing down your thoughts and feelings can help you get a better understanding of what’s going on on a deeper level and help you find your way out

- Simplify your life, your tasks, and your schedule: this week I am making my to-do list easier to digest and my schedule easier to manage by theming my days around a certain type of tasks (admin, content creation, writing...) and not overwhelming myself by trying to get too much done in a day

If you enjoy my writing and are interested in finding out more about living in alignment with your purpose, personal development, the entrepreneruship journey, and the road to living an impactful life, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter where I explore those subjects each month and offer you insights and tips to help you on your journey!