A Balancing Act - Summer
What does harmony mean in the life of a pet companion? As a business owner and pet companion it means finding the common ground between working in the business by doing the pet visits, working on the business via the blogs, marketing, social media, finance, and the vision for the company while finding quality time for family, friends, and self-care.
Depending on the time of year this too can look different. The summer schedule is like balancing on a surfboard – continuously making incremental adjustments to maintain harmony between doing too many visits and steadily moving forward or upward without tipping the board too much in any one direction. There are times it is a very fine line. And no two years or months are the same.
In the last two years, I’ve worked in the business an average of 74.5 days out of 85 days during May through July in 200 visits which equaled 516 hours with travel time and actual pet visits as I conclude this month’s visits. That being said, my travel time decreased from 73 hours in 2019 to 59 hours this year. In 2018 and 2019, I did 76 days out of 92 days covering the same months doing an average of 185 visits. This equaled 395 hours with travel time. This summer I have 30 overnights versus in 2019 it was 13.
The rebuilding that has occurred since 2020 has incorporated a different vision and ways to work smarter utilizing my energy and bandwidth more efficiently while shifting my focus to harmony and health instead of solely on the growth of my business. Though growing is still an element – health is at the heart of Dream Pet Care. Without my health and harmony, the business and the high level of care provided doesn’t exist.
Adaptability is a key component not only in the type of schedule, locations, overnights versus individual visits, home environments, and the beds in which I sleep. All requires flexibility and being highly adaptable to change.
As a Taurus zodiac sign, I find this funny as the symbolism states that the bull is a fixed sign that doesn’t like change?! In the last 32 years, all of the job positions I have held have included aspects of fixed looking elements that are actually forever shifting in some fashion.
Either the job itself changes or each visit is different, or we ourselves are growing and shifting in our outlook. Individual focus comes into play more and more as with each step of learning via doing, we become further aware and understanding of the impact on our mind, body, energy, and focus. This then brings about shifts in outlook for the business.
