The PeopleAlchemist Edit: change & transformation, business & lifestyle experimentation for TheWomanAlchemist - behind the scenes

Hello and welcome back to my monthly Behind the Scene blog; this month, just say yes and the art of spontaneity. That and pivoting are the keys to progressive change. Learning to go with with the flow But what does that mean? And how can you be spontaneous? Does that mean how not to be boring? Routine and making foolproof plans give you comfort both in your personal and business life. That's how you achieve things, right? Maybe. But at what point does comfort become inertia? All the well made plans can sometimes go out of the window when life throws you a curveball (Covid-19 comes to mind).

Just say yes and the art of spontaneity

Research shows that it is good for you to be spontaneous. It reduces stress, boosts creativity and improves satisfaction, plus it helps to cope with adversity. Spontaneity is about being flexible and being able to adapt, both of which are characteristic of resilience. And this is applicable both in the personal and the business sphere.

"A planned life is a dead life" - Lauren Bacall

Set the challenge to learn the art of spontaneity, improvise. The inability to be spontaneous depends on how anxious people are about the unknown and about control. We tend to avoid anything unplanned if we have this false sense that we have control over it if we plan. Do not block; say yes. Yes leads to adventure, no to safety (and boredom, predictability and potential inertia). Improvising and saying yes helps with overthinking, too. By incorporating moments of spontaneity into your life, you can reroute your brain to trust your intuition better and that you have the skills and confidence indeed to make things work. "Winging it". Men seem to do it all the time (pardon the somehow sexist remark, but women seem to be burdened more by the sense of responsibility and less prone to "winging it"). To overcome the sense of responsibility, you can try "planned spontaneity" into your life. I know it sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it isn't. It is about having times during the day/week when you mix things up and allow an alternative to your usual stuff.

Pivoting

Change is inevitable, whether that's in your personal life, your business, or your relationships. Pivoting in life means looking for opportunity and new beginnings. And after you have been practising improvisation, trusting your intuition and spontaneity looking for opportunities and ideas is much easier. From a business perspective, Pivoting means refocusing a significant aspect of what the business does to find a higher-performing business model. It can involve changing the customer product or service offering. Or it can affect a change in any of the different elements in a business model like customers, product/offering, revenue model/pricing, cost structure, acquisition channels, distribution channels, resources used, core activities, and even partners. All of this whilst keeping in mind past successes – and lessons learnt from past failures – and then apply these learning insights to refocus for success.

"Pivoting isn't plan B; it's part fo the process" - Jeff Goins

When pivoting, you need to take into account the numerous factors that entail a successful pivot:

• Build from a base what aspects of the company need to be kept and re-purposed whilst looking for a new direction
• Keep customers at the forefront. Customer feedback is an excellent indicator of whether you should pivot or not. Listen and use as a base
• Look at growth opportunities. When pivoting from the original path, consider options for growth and expansion in your new way to avoid future issues.

Pivoting and just say yes and the art of spontaneity are keys to progressive change. In life and business.

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