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Taking ALL the Space

As some of you know, I took a dance class recently that was held online due to the movement restrictions in place in my area (no pun intended…). At one point, the instructor asked the group if anyone wanted to do the piece for us. One of us volunteered, and after doing it, moaned that her living room was too small for her legs. We all laughed – everyone was in some kind of less-than-ideal situation for dancing.

As we wrapped up the class and were about to run through the choreo one last time with music, the instructor said, “You may be in a space that is too small for your legs. But don’t forget all the space around your arms, your torso, your head. Take ALL the space.”

Well, that’s been ringing in my head for the last several weeks. I am so inspired by it. Shout out to Lanea – her latent brilliance in the dance studio often finds its way into the rest of my life. She has a way of putting things that is so applicable to just about every arena of life. I love it.

And this one, I know we can all relate to. Every single one of us is in an uncomfortable space that is too small to accommodate all the things we were in the middle of doing when the world turned upside down. We may feel jerked back, jerked around, just jerked altogether into a space that does not seem fitting for what we need to get done.

The way I see this is basically like all the sudden, someone drew a box around me and told me I can’t step across the lines. It’s making me look at the confines of that box differently – noticing the texture of the ground, the colors I see, what it looks like inside my lines and what I think I’m seeing outside at a distance.

Perhaps you are lamenting the client you were about to start working with. Maybe it’s landing a new account, or embarking on a new project. Maybe even the existing things that were keeping you busy have just sort of…died off as people try to figure out what they are doing with their situation. Maybe you are so busy in this time my fun dance class story is a big joke and you would like to have nothing to do with any of this.

Whatever the space you find yourself in, it is an opportunity that was designed for you. So take ALL that space! Use it all! What is the space you have? How can you – or your business – move into it, plant yourself firmly, establish yourself, and be so strong there that nothing can shake you?

Caveat: The opportunities you see in the space you have might not be the opportunities you want. Don’t let what you want deter you from what is in front of you to accomplish in this time. It might be that the opportunity you have in front of you is rest. It might be learning a new management style. Whatever it is, it will probably make you really uncomfortable – that’s how you know it’s a really good one and you’re going to grow a lot if you meet the challenge.

That’s the point of this time, friends. That’s the gift we have right now. Things are going to pick up again. I can’t say I believe they will go back to “normal.” But they will pick up, and we will be thankful for the time we got to spend rooting ourselves deep in this space so that we can expand when the opportunity to do so arises.

Activity: Close your eyes. What does the space you find yourself in look like? Is it dark? Foggy? Brightly lit? What’s in it? Is it empty? What do you see around you? List the opportunities you find in this space with you. Pick one. Take it. Establish yourself there.