I’ve talked before about how running a business can feel a bit like performing an incredibly complicated balancing act. With so many things to worry about it can be tempting to prioritise almost everything else above taking care of ourselves emotionally.
Unfortunately, this is usually a bad call in the long run. Your state of mind will have a huge impact on how effective you are as a leader and manager, and if you’re not in good emotional health it’s highly likely that your business will suffer.
It’s because of this that headspace is a very valuable commodity in business. Getting in the right mindset and staying in it is a very effective way for business owners to ensure that they’re able to be at the top of their game.
But how do you get that headspace? Here are five tried-and-tested tips from me.
Take a look at the big picture
The day to day minutiae of running a business can be exhausting. Admin tasks can feel relentless and solving problems with customers and employees can really get you down. Often it can be helpful to step away from those daily processes and get a good look at the bigger picture. If you can find the time to get away from your usual place of work and really look at your successes and the progress you’re making towards your big business goals, I bet you’ll feel a lot better for it.
Schedule time for activities you love
There are a lot of things that go into building a well-balanced life, but one of the key things is to make sure you have time to do what you enjoy. If your whole life is devoted to the things you feel you ‘have’ to do: running your business, taking care of your family, maintaining your home, etc etc, there may be no time left for purely enjoyable activities. I’m a big believer in the importance of play time for grown ups! Not only are hobbies and fun activities a great way to relax and reduce stress, they can also open up your mind for creative thinking and problem solving.
Experiment with mindfulness meditation
The word ‘meditation’ often has negative connotations. If you’ve never explored it before, you may think that it’s a bit of a hippy thing to do. For many of us, though, mindfulness meditation is a key business tool. I like to think of it as a helpful method for clearing my mind and recharging my emotional batteries ready for the next task. If you’ve never tried meditation before, I’d really recommend headspace.com’s free ten day introductory course.
Consider coaching
There’s a reason I run a coaching company and that’s because I believe 100% in the power of working with a good coach! Coaching can be beneficial in a huge number of ways, including finding headspace. My Taking Care of Business, Taking Care of You membership programme is particularly well suited to business owners who are lacking in this area. It’s designed around a monthly one-to-one coaching session that gives business owners like you the space to discuss and address any issues that are holding them back, whether the root is personal, professional or a confusing mix of both!
Take a walk in the fresh air
This one may sound too good to be true, but the simple act of going out for a walk can have a big impact. I find that there’s something about the combination of fresh air and exercise that helps to clear my mind and focus on my priorities. Doing this can be an excellent way to let go of the everyday minor stresses of running a business. In fact, I find this so successful that I often invite my coaching clients to take a walk with me! Some of the biggest client breakthroughs I’ve witnessed have been during these ‘walk and talk’ sessions.
Do you have any more tips for gaining business headspace? I’d love to hear them if you do. Why not leave a comment below?
I’ve got some good news for you: being successful in business doesn’t mean you have to have all the answers all the time!
When my clients tell me they’re struggling to balance aspects of their business, I remind them that they don’t have to do it all themselves. A lot of being a good business owner is having the wisdom to know which tasks you can do well yourself and which tasks it would be better to outsource.
The thing about good advice is that it can be much easier to give than to take. Though I know it’s impossible to do everything yourself, there have been times in the past when I’ve tried! Luckily, over the past few years I’ve come to accept that my business (and my life) is better when I seek support from people around me.
Let me give you an example.
At the beginning of last year I decided that it was time to invest in a brand new website. I wanted to build something that better represented the ethos of Green Shoots Coaching and the varied services I offer.
Now, I’m a skilled coach and funnily enough my talents don’t extend to website development. Obviously this was a situation when I needed to bring in some help! I worked with Pick and Mix Marketing Solutions to design my website and Penement Design to develop it and bring it to life.
Once the website was taking shape, it was time to think about how I would fill it. It would have been easy for me at this stage to decide to create the written and visual content myself. After all, I can write and take photos. However, iI was able to accept that I am not an expert in either of these things and that my time would be better spent doing what I am an expert in: coaching. Instead I chose to work with two professionals: writer Katie M Anderson and photographer Karen Turner.
Of course, I could have chosen to go to an agency who would have handled the whole thing. This would certainly have been less labour intensive, but I didn’t feel it was the right choice for me. I wanted to be able to build my own team of trusted specialists who would be able to create a website that would showcase what I and my business have to offer.
This project taught me a lot about using the resources that are around me. Often this means arming myself with the contact details of great specialists who can help support me to focus on doing what I do best. Since developing my website, I’ve continued to work with trusted specialists when appropriate.
I now regularly rely on the virtual services of Cloud 9 Admin and have even brought in Pro-Development, a people development organisation, to offer extra value to my clients. This last choice turned out to be extremely beneficial, as I have since been asked to support them by offering my expertise to their clients. This kind of cross-pollination is something that I’d love to explore more in the future.
So let me ask you a question: could you be more resourceful? If you were able to build your own team of specialists to support you, how much more effectively would you be able to get your job done? I think you might just be pleasantly surprised.
Some of the most common New Year’s resolutions centre around taking care of ourselves. Things like stopping smoking, cutting down on coffee, exercising more and losing weight tend to be very high on the list. This is because we all know how important it is to look after ourselves, even if we don’t always do it in practice.
Often the things we think about when taking care of ourselves are more physical things. However, I’d argue that taking care of our emotional selves is just is important, especially for business owners. I’ve blogged before about how you are your business’ most important asset, and therefore why it’s important to invest in yourself. But it’s easy to prioritise looking after your business over looking after yourself.
In the short term, doing just one more piece of work or winning one more client might seem like the best thing you can do for your bottom line. But if we look at the long term, we’ll see something very different. A stressed, run down business owner is not going to be working at their best. And if you’re not working at your best, your business will suffer.
It can sometimes help to try and imagine yourself as a prized member of staff. Picture this: you’re watching someone who is absolutely vital for your business run themselves right down. Would you keep piling on the work regardless, or would you consider how you could support the staff member to manage their workload to ensure they stay at tip top condition? The second option would certainly be better for your business in the long term, but every day business owners like us take the first option instead. It may be the second week of January, but it’s not too late to make a new resolution, or as I prefer to call them, wise choices, for 2015. The more you take care of yourself this year, the better able you’ll be to build your business.
Once you’ve made this decision, you might find it’s difficult to know where to start. After all, looking after ourselves doesn’t just mean swapping chips for a salad or going out for a jog. It also means finding ways to effectively manage stress, ensuring there’s space in our lives for quality time with our loved ones, setting priorities, managing goals and improving communications with those around us. These are all things I work on with my business coaching clients. In fact, those clients have told me this is so important that I’ve developed a business membership programme to fit their needs: Taking Care of You, Taking Care of Business. If this is something you’d like to prioritise in 2015, why not get in touch? I’d be happy to discuss how the programme could work for you and your business, and I even offer a complimentary initial consultation.
How will you be looking after your business self this year?
When I use the phrase work/life balance, how does it make you feel? My guess is that the answer is something along the lines of “not great.” Perhaps you try really hard to achieve the perfect balance, but the scale always seems to be tipping to one side or the other. If this sounds familiar, don’t worry: you’re not alone.
One thing I’m reminded of over and over again when working with coaching clients is that there’s no such thing as the perfect balance. In fact, thinking of our lives in this way can actually set us up for dissatisfaction, as it pushes the idea that our personal and work lives should be totally separate. There may be a small minority of people who are able to compartmentalise in this way: but I haven’t met them. For most of us there’s a great deal of overlap between our work, our family, our social lives and our hobbies. This means that if we’re experiencing frustration or discontentment within one or more of these areas, it typically leaks out into the other ones too.
It might be healthier for us to accept that there’ll always be a work/life overlap. After all, the more we come to appreciate the different areas that make up our lives, the more likely we are to enjoy each of those areas and experience greater overall happiness.
Why not try these ideas for embracing the overlap?
Try to focus on being present in where you are, whether it’s at home or at work. If you’re constantly worrying about the school pick-up while you’re at your desk or the following day’s meetings while you’re eating dinner, it’ll be easy for dissatisfaction to creep in.
Give yourself permission to talk about work with friends and family members, especially if there are issues that are bothering you.
Think about how much of your personality you’re currently showing at work. If the answer is “not much,” you might want to consider how you can work in a way that’s more authentic to who you are.
Aim to address issues head on instead of dwelling on them. Bottled up negative feelings will affect your whole life, even if they just relate to your job or your relationship.
If you are feeling generally dissatisfied, it may be time to take a good look at your life and consider which aspects are causing problems. In many cases the problem might be solved with a few small tweaks, but in others you may need to make bigger changes.
Don’t underestimate how much of an impact changes in one area of your life might have on another. For example, addressing issues with your relationship might help you to be more confident at work. Equally, re-focusing your business could enable you to be less stressed during family time.
The world is becoming more connected than ever, and as a result the image of the perfectly balanced scales just isn’t working. Instead of taunting yourself with the myth, why not embrace the imperfection of the work/life overlap?
