For the last few weeks I have run Dr Zigs on the road again, from my van, the wonderful Bobbelix, a 2005 Hymer. I spent much of last year like this. In Europe navigating Brexit.
This time I’m in northern Spain, in Catalunya. My connectivity a mifi router; my power, solar; my location a whim of random. At the moment I’m parked on a sandy dead end track, ahead of me the breaking waves of the sea and a dune system regenerating in brisk February winds, to my side a nature reserve, a precious wetland. My company newly emerging insects, a purple heron, reed warblers, the Bubbles of course and meetings on zoom.
I guess as a business owner this is my way of getting perspective. What works well for me is stepping out of the day to day and trying to find an overview, create a strategy, work through the challenges, think for the future.
There is still a lot of management, firefighting, pallets getting lost in Brexit transit, storms and staff holidays BUT being away, being here, there are also those moments when I can sit and think, find my eagle eye view, plan and make decisions.
It’s also a way for me to recharge, to focus on myself – something we’re not always ‘supposed’ to do. So I work hard, and when the day is done I take myself for a walk. I gather herbs, make friends with a local cat, I pick a few early wildflowers, and treasure them in my mum’s chipped cup. I watch the birds begin to migrate, a grasshopper, a bumble bee, a kestrel a’hunting.
And there, in the magical, in the mundane, there, suddenly out of the blue – I think up a new toy, that lightbulb moment – a new direction, a new inspiration. And I’m buzzing.
And then from thoughts of work I am transported again, into the pure magic of a Catalunyan sunset, I go get the Bubbles, and as they dance in the wind, as they fluoresce in kaleidoscopes of colour, I breathe and watch in mindful wonder.
This is how I want to run a business. This is how I want to live.
And this, this, for today at least, is home.
This time I’m in northern Spain, in Catalunya. My connectivity a mifi router; my power, solar; my location a whim of random. At the moment I’m parked on a sandy dead end track, ahead of me the breaking waves of the sea and a dune system regenerating in brisk February winds, to my side a nature reserve, a precious wetland. My company newly emerging insects, a purple heron, reed warblers, the Bubbles of course and meetings on zoom.
I guess as a business owner this is my way of getting perspective. What works well for me is stepping out of the day to day and trying to find an overview, create a strategy, work through the challenges, think for the future.
There is still a lot of management, firefighting, pallets getting lost in Brexit transit, storms and staff holidays BUT being away, being here, there are also those moments when I can sit and think, find my eagle eye view, plan and make decisions.
It’s also a way for me to recharge, to focus on myself – something we’re not always ‘supposed’ to do. So I work hard, and when the day is done I take myself for a walk. I gather herbs, make friends with a local cat, I pick a few early wildflowers, and treasure them in my mum’s chipped cup. I watch the birds begin to migrate, a grasshopper, a bumble bee, a kestrel a’hunting.
And there, in the magical, in the mundane, there, suddenly out of the blue – I think up a new toy, that lightbulb moment – a new direction, a new inspiration. And I’m buzzing.
And then from thoughts of work I am transported again, into the pure magic of a Catalunyan sunset, I go get the Bubbles, and as they dance in the wind, as they fluoresce in kaleidoscopes of colour, I breathe and watch in mindful wonder.
This is how I want to run a business. This is how I want to live.
And this, this, for today at least, is home.