When it comes to business, the default thinking is to put our heads before our hearts.
But one-sided thinking does two things…
- It doesn’t necessarily take account of the people who sit within your business. Those souls who make your business work.
- And it creates an imbalance in “the force” – the mind and matter, the yin and yang of what makes each of us “US”.
This doodle was inspired by a quote from Mary Portas, who I watched (via a dodgy internet connection) deliver a superb and speedy Skype interview on a farm in Wales. :)
Mary was talking – with great passion – about her initiative that’s getting Britain making women’s underwear again. And she touched on the big question that got her knickers in a twist in the first place:
“What if I worked from my heart … instead of just my head?”
Mary Portas
This got me thinking about the imbalance that can occur when working from just one side of this mind/matter relationship.
The head
It’s rational, reasoned and controlled. So, while it enables us to be cool and calm, there’s also the potential for our business decisions to be limited, constrained or cold. This creates heartache, if those decisions don’t gel with our values and beliefs.
The heart
It’s warm, imaginative, passionate, empathic and feeling based. But, too much floaty-mindedness could make our decisions seem flaky or irrational. And that doesn’t sit well with our logical side either.
So how about a truce?
Think of it as a partnership, union or collaboration. When we weigh up our thoughts and decisions from both sides – head and heart – to my mind, we’re more likely to make a balanced decision, because both parts of “US” are involved.
This is also known as “level-headedness”.
Think about how much stronger you’d be in your decision-making, if you employed both your heart and your head, instead of just one or the other?
Granted, it takes effort, agreement and consideration (and probably a bit of squabbling) between the two, but if Mary’s initiative is anything to go by, using your head AND your heart is a power combination!
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