Women run their businesses while handling the rest of their lives. It’s often a disjointed way to run a business, but it’s what we have. My morning’s yoga practice was a perfect allegory.
If you have cats, you know there’s a remarkable phenomenon that happens with a cat and a closed door. If the cat is outside, “Cat wants in.” If the cat is inside, “Cat wants out.”
Like many American women entrepreneurs, I squeeze my exercise in when I can — yoga in the early morning. It’s my time, calm and peaceful stretching, more challenging triangle pose and the head rush of downward facing dog. I’ve become particularly adept at squeezing door opening in as I change postures during standing poses. It becomes a little more difficult as I move to the floor. Avoiding squashing a cat during bridge poses, being head-butted during cobra and trying to avoid kitty-butt during twists are all part of the morning routine. Some day I figure out how to open a sliding door with my foot during downward facing dog (perhaps to be renamed downward facing kitty?), but I haven’t quite accomplished that.
This is how women run businesses. They create grocery lists during really boring meetings, make appointments when they could be taking a break and squeeze in drive-by doctor’s visits. If there is a spousal unit or children, the interruptions multiply. And if there are pets, well, you know.
The point is, we need to flow with it. Too often we beat ourselves up because we aren’t always focused. Or we stress because we feel life shouldn’t be this way. Or we don’t allow time and space in our day for things to go wrong — things over which we have no control. As women, we know that life doesn’t come in pretty little boxes (maybe that’s why we like them so much). So let’s acknowledge our lives as they are, particularly with each other.
Excuse me, I have to go let a cat out.
