Stop running your business like Industrial Agriculture

By Debra Joy

Have you ever heard of permaculture? And - whether or not you have - why should you care?

Well, last year I became a Certified Permaculture Design Consultant. While some of the technical stuff hurt my brain, I had a visceral grasp of the principles and approach. Having never been a gardener, I didn’t understand why it all made complete sense to me right away.

Then, one day, it dawned on me…

It’s the same principles and approaches I teach my clients to work less, stress less and achieve greater results.

Even though permaculture is an agricultural approach and you’re not a farmer, I want to share how the method can work for you too:

• Permaculture works in sync with nature 🌿🌿🌿 It harnesses and conserves energy, produces abundant yields and strengthens people and communities.
• Alternatively, Industrial Agriculture works against nature 🏪 🏪🏪 It depletes soil and biodiversity, requires huge inputs of energy, creates excessive waste and illness.

Unfortunately, many of us are running our businesses like Industrial Agriculture – going against our own nature, working harder, requiring more energy inputs of time & money. And often producing diminishing results for the amount of effort we put in.

Remember that you aren’t separate from nature. You are part of nature, and if you’ll work in sync with your own nature, you’ll work less and yield more for you and your community. There are many practices I’ve been teaching my clients that match the principles of permaculture, but I want to keep things simple so…

Here are 4 simple permaculture principles to apply to your business:

1. Spend more work time doing what you love 🥰 Permaculture teaches us to plant what we love and want to eat. No point wasting energy on what you don’t like.
2. Work in sync with your energy ️⚡️ Your body has natural energy peaks and troughs. If you try to push through energy troughs, you’ll work harder for diminishing results – it’s like depleting your own soil.
3. Know where it’s most important to invest your energy 📍 In permaculture we first focus on how to harness the energy of the sun, rain, wind and soil to support our land, so that we don’t waste any. That will work for you, too. Focus first on what’s most important for your business and you’ll be far more productive during the time you work.
4. Honor the seasons  🍂 Many entrepreneurs are always working and constantly focused on growing their business. They’re stressed and on the edge of burnout. When you honor the seasons, you accept there are times when your business may be slower, gaining energy for the next blooming season. In a natural setting chickens eat less, produce fewer eggs, and grow slower in winter when there is less light. In Industrial Agriculture, chickens are kept in light 20 hours a day to keep them eating to grow faster. Treating your business that way isn’t natural or sustainable.

I bet you’d love to work in a way that’s more authentic for you, that suits your nature, feels good, and produces better results. I imagine you’ve read a book or a note like this before. You’ve watched an inspiring video or taken a class and gotten excited. You wanted to change the way you work to get better results. But soon found yourself doing exactly what you’ve always done, getting the same results. Maybe you keep repeating this pattern. 

Why?

Because we all have patterns that run our lives. The patterns of neural pathways in your brain determine your thoughts, feelings and actions. They’re automatic. They’re the habits you live by that determine the quality of your life.

Changing habits is hard because those pathways have been well developed over years. You’ve got unconscious blocks that keep you from changing, because your nervous system responds to change as a threat and, until you discover the block, you’ll stay blocked.

That’s why you get inspired, want to change, believe you’ll change and find yourself thinking, acting and feeling the way you always have – but maybe worse because you’d dared to hope you could change.

If you want help changing the habits that are running your life and business, join us here for this year’s cohort of The Success Solution beginning Feb. 20th.

You’ll learn how to harness stress for good, alter your relationship with time, work less, do more of what you’re good at and love doing, and get better results in your business and life.

Get ready to start working in a way that is regenerative, feels good, and supports your true nature - ENROLL NOW