What frost can remind us about business and life

‘Magpie’ is what those who know me, call me. I am attracted to all things sparkly and shiny and have had to learn to pause and look past the shine, to the actual product! Will I wear that pair of glitter-covered hot pants - probably not right now – although, I won’t say never…

Recently I have added a brisk 30-minute walk to my mornings. I do not take my phone! Michael Mosley is to blame for this after extolling the benefits of a morning walk in his podcast.

Today, the frost was on the pavement and every now and then as I walked, it caught slivers of sunlight and glittered - and that of course, caught my Magpie eye. At one point I stopped and just looked at the frost, glittering, it seemed that it never glittered from the same place but moved as I did. 

It occurred to me that walking on frost is a bit like business and life - stay with me here! When you set up your own business or get that job you want, it feels great, you have seen the sparkle, and unlike the hot pant scenario you have ‘bought’ the product. However, frost is not just sparkly, it’s also slippery and can be dangerous. I passed two women talking and heard one tell the other how she always walks on the road to avoid it, why don’t I do that I thought.

My reflection was that I would always rather see the sparkle than avoid it. I engage with risk. It occurred to me that by walking on the frost, in fact, by deliberately crossing the road to find more of it, I was asking my body to use a lot more energy and focus. I was trusting my shoes to grip through it, and my muscles and my brain to do that constant recalibration that enabled me to stay upright. I trusted that I could enjoy the sparkle without breaking a limb.

Life is like that, starting a business is like that, leadership is like that. We are forever weighing up risks so that we can enjoy the sparkle. We trust that we have a certain skill set that will enable us to do what we need to do and that if we don’t, we can ask someone else to help. We trust ourselves that we can constantly recalibrate around the challenges and the struggles that will come our way so that on most days we can just focus on the sparkle and enjoy it. We take the risk that occasionally we might break a limb…(whilst also knowing that while painful it wouldn’t kill us!)

When was the last time that you reflected on all the challenges and struggles that you have slipped and skidded over, but found your footing before you fell? When did you last realise that it is, in fact, the exhilaration of challenging yourself to stay upright that really and truly allows you to enjoy the frost beneath your feet, that rush of adrenalin as you feel your foot slide and then regain balance?

Tomorrow, go for an early walk and if you are lucky enough to see it, just pause to look at the frost. Let it remind you of all those beautifully sparkly moments that you have come through. Congratulate yourself on all you have learned, and thank your body and your mind for bringing you through those times, maybe not always gracefully, but safely, and if you did break a limb, I’m sure you learned useful lessons…

Some of us are born to walk on the frost and enjoy the sparkle, and some of us prefer to stay on the road, neither is better, it’s just a choice. I wonder which one you are?

More importantly, did you make an active choice to be wherever you are? Remember road walkers, you are also taking risks of a different kind…