I used to really struggle with how to balance my time. As a new entrepreneur, I wanted to build my business, but I didn’t want that to consume my life. When I was in corporate, my work was my life. I didn’t really have much time left over and I certainly didn’t have any energy left over. After retiring from corporate to start my life coaching practice, I wanted to have a successful business, but I also wanted to have a successful life.
I didn’t know how to balance my life with my corporate job (at least I thought I didn’t), so I was afraid I wasn’t going to know how to do it in my business. I assumed that it wasn’t possible to have a successful business without giving up the life I wanted in retirement.
In the beginning of my business, I was really focused on the life I wanted and I was just trying to fit my business in around that. I traveled with my husband to his family, thinking that I would work while I was there. But I always came home feeling discouraged, feeling like I didn’t get anything done in my business. Then I would feel overwhelmed and so behind.
Each time we traveled there, I would work some, but I felt so pulled between the two. When I was working, I felt like I should be connecting with people and when I was connecting with people, I felt like I should be working. I just couldn’t seem to win.
Despite my struggles in the past, I have learned to balance my time during the holidays or when I’m traveling. And it has given me so much peace and control over my life and over my business.
How did I do this? I learned to ask myself some great questions so that I could engage my higher brain, the part of my brain responsible for rational thinking, analysis and planning types of activities, to help me decide ahead of time and decide on purpose what would be best for me and for my business.
Questions like:
What do I want? In my business? On the trip?
How much time do I want to spend in my business? Connecting with people?
How will I spend my time when I’m working? What do I want to accomplish? What results do I want from that?
How will I plan to be present wherever I am?
What do I need to do to create the outcomes I want?
How do I want this all to look on my calendar?
I answer these questions, I put the times on my calendar, I assign the time I’m working for a specific purpose and a specific outcome I want from that. For example, instead of just blocking time for writing, I decide that I want one blog posted, five posts scheduled on Facebook, or one article posted on LinkedIn.
I decide on purpose in advance, I plan, I execute. I know I’m making this sound simple. And truthfully it is simple. But I know it’s not easy. It took me a really long time, much longer than I thought it should, to get to this place. Because it sounds so simple, I judged myself very harshly every time I didn’t succeed at it. But now I check in with myself along the way. I notice how I’m feeling and I manage my brain around that feeling.
I don’t judge myself. I don’t beat myself up about it. The goal is not to be perfect. The goal is to be intentional.
This past month, we traveled to my husband’s family for Thanksgiving for a week and a half. Before I left, I decided in advance, on purpose, when I would work and when I wouldn’t. I decided what I wanted to do, what I wanted to get done and how I wanted to feel about all of it. And for the first time, I felt really good about how much I got done, how present I was, how I balanced my business and my life.
This is doable. You just have to be willing to experiment. Like anything else, you have to be willing to risk failing, you have to be willing to risk being wrong and you have to be okay with not being perfect. And just like me, you will live through it all. And hopefully you’ll agree that it’s worth it.
#NotPerfect #JillTheBusinessMoneyCoach #ChristianMoneyCoach #BeIntentional #BalanceYourTime #BalanceYourMoney