Hello love,
When was the last time you allowed yourself to play?
The last couple of weeks in my business have been a series of spontaneous events.
First, I turned my Google Meet interview with Claire Venus into an impromptu live on Substack. It was so fun!
I loved it and found it not so scary after all, so I continued my experimentation with lives on Substack.
I hosted the very first Nervous System Regulation session and then the monthly group coaching session of my Soulful Biz Club.
In that coaching session, I answered questions about my experience on Substack.
I remembered the first Substack publication I had created for my previous teaching business, Bubbles of French. It brought back such wonderful memories that I woke up on Sunday with the urge to get back to it.
Not to the business, don’t worry.
But to write for that publication as a side quest for self-expression.
Within a couple of hours, I had renamed it Bubbles of Languages, come up with a new logo featuring a silly and colourful capybara, and published an article announcing its revival and new direction.
I’d always wanted to write about my experience as an expat in Portugal, learning Portuguese, homeschooling my two kids in two different languages…
Now I can do that with zero expectations, zero pressure… And that is so refreshing, as if I had just reclaimed my creativity.
Your business is your playground.
It doesn’t have to be all that serious.
Maybe you've also experienced that fear of being judged for saying or writing the wrong things or for starting a project that could flop.
When we get so attached to the idea of success, it often makes us terrified of making mistakes! But do you see how much that imprisons us?
How much we restrict ourselves from writing whatever we wish to write, from showing up goofier, more colourful, more us?
How can we ever be authentic in the spaces we’re building if we don’t allow ourselves to play and experiment?
That’s when visibility feels horrible and threatening.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Not if you give yourself permission to explore, to create, and to play. Just like kids would on the playground.
Be spontaneous.
Have an idea and roll with it without considering for too long if it’s great or not.
When you allow yourself to do that, something inside of you shifts.
From fear to hope. From seriousness to fun.
And it’s a muscle: the more you flex it, the more ideas you get; the more you follow the joy, the more people want to come and play with you.
So what do you say? Let’s play?
If you're not sure where to start, why not organise a spontaneous networking event as I did for my last birthday? Or plan a temporary series of weekly live events just to hang out? Or write a newsletter around “5 things you didn’t know about me—find the one that is a lie.”
If you do one of them, email me with a link! I’ll mention you in my next newsletter ;)
Power and light 🌸
Jessica