We all start our business for many reasons. For me, the core reason was about being able to make a greater impact in the world and help small business owners achieve their dreams. I also craved constant creativity and being in charge of my own time. I wanted to be able to have a lifestyle that I loved and that suited my personality best so that I could give my best to the world. I also wanted to be able to invest time into the things I was passionate about like volunteering. I think community is really important too, so it was important to me that I could invest energy into important relationships in my life. I wanted to be able to be there for my friends and family when they needed me and enjoy adventures and time with them. Another major factor for me starting my business was also the freedom and flexibility that I knew would come with it when my husband and I started our family. Which I am so blessed to be able to see that now coming to fruition now in this new season. I have never felt more blessed to have my business than I do right now that we are bringing a little human into the world and I can do it on my terms without worrying about being limited by my corporate.
I can almost say for certain that most of us started our businesses with one reason being that we wanted more time in our lives to do the things we love and not be slaves to the 9 to 5 right?!
It was a major thing that I craved. When I worked in corporate, I worked long hours and then would go home from the office and was still working from my laptop. When I wasn’t working, I was so drained from work and from not looking after myself properly that I would be too exhausted to do anything.
When I started my business it was very easy to stay in that routine and fill my time with working every spare minute of the day. It was so hard to unlearn the way society teaches us what “hard work” looks like. And I had to go on the journey to learn what working smart looks like and living and loving life as you’re in it, rather than just always trying to hustle to that next level of success.
The hustle culture is so unhealthy in my opinion. It becomes like a brag to say that you work 80 hour weeks or getting to dinner at 8pm all flustered because you just came straight from the office. When people ask, “how has your week been”, our natural response is “oh so so busy!”. It is like a badge we wear with honour and we feel like it makes us look more successful. When it comes to our business, we take on too many clients because it “sounds better” to say we have 30 clients than “only” 4. We say yes to everything. We feel guilty saying no. Or we feel like we will miss out on opportunity if we ever say no. Like things will only come to us once in our life and there will never be another turn for us.
Look, this is not our fault. It is a deeply ingrained culture in our western society and raised learnt behaviour. It takes intentionality to create new habits about rest and to let go of those lies and misbeliefs we have. It also means letting go of caring so much about what people think of us. What would you prefer? To be running a successful business that is making lots of money, but be working every waking minute of the day, never get to see your kids, not have any deep friendships, not spend any time doing things that make you feel good or looking after your health? Do you really want 50 years of your life to look like that??!
Not me. 🙅♀️
That sounds like my worst nightmare.
I would prefer to design a life I love and then build a business that works around that. A life that I actually don’t need a holiday from every year, because I am looking after myself well during the weeks. Rather than pushing myself to burn out each and every year, only just saving myself thanks to the two week resort holiday each year in September and then doing it again, until I retire.
👉🏼 Learning how to rest (which looks different for all of us) changed the game for growth and productivity in my business.
When I look after my body better, I have found that I can work quickly and produce higher quality work. If I am feeling uninspired, then I know that a walk outside will get me back to feeling creative and ready to work for the afternoon. Morning yoga clears my mind and helps me deal with stress. I have also learnt since starting my business that we can have a habit as business owners of spending time on things that actually don’t move the needle in our business. So I have learnt to recognise priorities in my business and only work on the things that are the most productive to where I am trying to go in my business.
Rest for me looks like time with my people (hello extravert), my morning routine (reading, yoga, journaling, coffee with my husband), exercise (I love running regularly and strength workouts to feel strong in my body) and adventures (with people of course; travelling, late-night hangs, swimming at the beach, camping, firepots and more).
What does rest look like for you?? 💛