It doesn't start when you have time
I hear the same three sentences, or variations of them, more than almost anything else in this work.
I can't just stop. I've got clients to look after and deadlines looming.
I can't even take a day off. There's just too much to do.
I'll deal with this when things settle down.
Maybe you've said one of those to yourself this week.
I used to say something similar myself, back when I ran my event business. The only time I let myself really stop was the two weeks over Christmas and New Year, when the whole industry shut down anyway. Everyone else was closed, so I gave myself permission to close too. I'd shut the laptop and focus on my whānau, without the distraction of work.
And for those two weeks, it worked. But everything else, every idea I wanted to explore, every change I knew I needed to make, went on a list. A 'next month' list, but next month never actually arrived.
I realised I wasn't waiting for time. Turns out I was waiting for permission I didn't know how to give myself. So I found the only version of it I trusted: two weeks a year, when the whole industry shut down anyway and nobody was expecting anything from me.
I didn't see that then. I just thought that was how it worked, that was the industry, that was the job.
It took me a long time to actually name the pattern: rest only happened once a year, and everything else, every change I knew I needed to make, kept getting pushed to next month.
You might be doing the same thing right now and haven’t yet clocked it. Waiting for the quiet before you deal with ‘the thing’ you know needs to change. Telling yourself next month, or after this project, or once things ease off.
Or maybe you have clocked it. You can see the pattern clearly enough, you know you're doing it, and you still don't know how to do it differently while the business is still running flat out.
Either way, here's what I had to learn. The change doesn't start when the quiet arrives. There isn't going to be a 'quiet' you didn't have to fight for. It starts while everything's still running at full speed, with you deciding to think about it differently, right in the middle of it.
🧠 THINK (mindset shift)
Change doesn’t wait for the quiet. It begins the moment you decide to think about it differently.
💡 DO (practical action)
Stop waiting for a quiet moment you'll have to fight for. Name one thing you've been pushing to "next month" and start with it, right in the middle of the busy.
🚀 HAVE (expected results)
You've prioritised something that starts the change, instead of parking it on a list you never touch.
💬 Your Turn
You don't need to overhaul everything this week. You need to start noticing. So pick one and sit with it, right in the middle of your week, not after it:
- Where are you carrying more than you need to?
- What keeps coming back to you that shouldn't?
- What is your business currently asking of you that you no longer want to give?
Noticing is the start. What you do with it is where it gets harder to hold on your own.
Behind the Shift isn't a retreat from your business. It's not another programme to implement, and it's not one more list of things you need to do.
It's a thinking and coaching space that runs alongside the business you're already running, where you get to look honestly at what isn't working, make actual choices about what comes next, and start leading differently while everything keeps operating.
This is exactly why I created Behind the Shift, and this is your invitation to work with me. Find out more →
💛 Sandra
