How to be Both Intentional and Productive
Yes, you can have both. Even as an Entrepreneur.
Lately, I’ve decided to get intentional, take the entrepreneurial advice I give to everyone else and try stepping back a little bit.
This is still an interesting concept for me. I climbed the corporate ladder for a long time. In years past I have pushed myself to the furthest degree (to my detriment), I have worked late, early, though lunch and over holidays to keep up (note: not to get ahead, just not to fall behind). Like many, I have taken my smartphone on holiday and to bed with me at night never missing an email or text that pinged my way, no matter the time.
So what did I learn?
I learned that working all of those hours made me a bore. Working late, early and through holidays made me so run down, I could barely continue to function never mind excel at my job and, without fail, every single holiday, what happened? I got sick. You could guarantee that as soon as I set my out of office (yeah, like I wasn’t going to check those babies over the holidays!) I would get flu or tonsillitis coupled with cold sores or the worst ever, a month-long bout of severe Vestibular Neuronitis.
It was plain awful.
But you don’t know what you don’t know. Before I examined my behaviour, I didn’t appreciate that it was a choice. That may sound ridiculously simple and obvious to some of you reading this, but when you’re in it up to your magnetic eyelashes, I really couldn’t see past it. I was in the doing and not the strategic thinking of the work and its a classic mistake. It took my poor, worn-out body to lay me flat for an entire month (having already put me into quarantine on my favourite day of the year, Christmas Day, with a violent stomach bug) for me to accept that I had, in fact, finally hit the wall.
So, what’s the point in me telling you all of this? Well, I’ve been talking to my community of entrepreneurs lately, and many of them are struggling with the extraordinarily tricky demands of work-life balance. Maybe you are too? As entrepreneurs and breadwinners, we typically take it all on our shoulders to plan, prepare and execute to the finest degree, but why? Why do we put ourselves through it when we can delegate, let go of the reigns (nobody panic, we don’t have to let go completely!) and actually, god forbid enjoy ourselves! It’s all about choice and setting your boundaries.
It’s taken me two years to work this out for myself — two years since my month-long forced retreat. I hope that by this, I can help save you 24 months of your life you’ll never get back.
So what about now? I’ve never been happier; I’m not saying I never get stressed out or overwork myself, it happens, but I’ve learned that when you know better, you do better and I can forgive those moments and be easier on myself. As I move into a new chapter of my life and work, I am more ready than ever to let shit go and move on and you can too.
Wherever this article finds you, know that it’s OK. Read the blogs, drink some hot tea (or a G&T, whatever works) and take a few minutes back for you. It will all still be there tomorrow.
I believe in you.
