Power Moves

The other day I was talking to my friend Aaron and I kept finding myself talking about power moves. This may not be the proper term for what I am talking about but it is the name I used. It started with me talking about part of a life class I saw on Oprah Winfrey’s network. This particular class was talking about living your dream. When I mentioned it to my friend he said “I thought Oprah retired.” I said she retired her show on ABC, but she is still on television. Oprah made a power move. She took her show and moved on to bigger things.” He said what do you mean. I said “She went from having her own show to having her own network, and she still does shows. She has more freedom and has others, who she chooses, on her network. That’s a power move if I ever saw one. Before I go any further, when I say speak about power I don’t mean it any a negative dominating way. I mean moving from where you are to a place of more influence or a place of more peace, more time, or simply to a place you would rather be, while still serving the world in ways that suit who you have become.

Making a power move does not always mean becoming bigger. With my gutter and window cleaning business one of the best moves I ever made was when I downsized years ago. It took a lot of signs and pushes from God to get me there but when I got there I began to charge more for my work, do less work, have more control of my business and have more time and money for my family, and other pursuits. Sometimes making a move can be very simple and it is often brought about by a problem at hand. For example at one time I was having trouble getting to my estimates. I felt like I was being stretched too thin. I was with a crew on many of the jobs and liked being out there, but it left less time for estimates. I began to feel like either I would have to pay someone else to do estimates or be on fewer jobs myself. Then an idea came to me about ways of giving the prices for many of our services right over the phone when the customer called for at least half of the jobs that I estimate. I thought of it many times but had not ironed out exactly how to do it until at this time. It saved time driving, helped the customer have an answer right away, and was the perfect answer to my question.

Here just recently I was asking if I should put more energy into expanding my business, which seems to be growing more and more on its own, or put the time and energy into expanding what I am doing with the meditation teaching and coaching. I decided I wanted an answer right away, so I opened a book expecting the answer to be on the page I opened up to. I opened up a Russel Simmons book. I am not sure if it was “Do You”, or “Super Rich”, but the page I opened up to had my answer right there. It told a story about how he had a business selling weed when he was younger and decided to put his energy into promoting parties because he knew he did not want to sell drugs the rest of his life. For me, I knew I loved the gutter and window business. I love serving the people and the life it gives me and my family, but I also know it’s time to devote more time and energy to my other endeavors. So I decided to keep the business going the way it is, giving the best service we can give without putting a lot of energy into expanding and use my free time to move on ideas I have been sitting on with the meditation teachings and positive movement. Now it’s time to expand in this area.