12/27/2016 Work Life Balance for Business Owners

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Work-Life Balance For BusinessOwnersWhat and How to maintain a balanced lifeDo feel stressed often?

Do you feel bad for spending time in one area of your life versusanother?

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Do you run out of energy to spend on important areas of your life?

Do forget to important tasks, birthdays or meetings?

Do you spend your holidays searching for wifi?

Do you sometimes forget to eat lunch?

Do your friends and family say they rarely see you out at functionsnow?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions then thisblog post is for you. In this blog post, I'll share what work-lifebalance is, why it is important and 11 key things you must do toachieve and the one thing you need to stop doing now that willgive you a quantum leap in achieving and maintaining a balancedlife.

First, what is work-life balance?A very simple definition of work-life balance is how you do thethings you have to do and the things you want to do where youfeel fulfilled, satisfied and comfortable with your entire life/lifestyle. Work-life balance means different things to differentpeople because we have different personalities and preferences. For example, some people need a lot of down time to relax, whileothers like to be busy much of the time. Some people like beingmore connected, while others appreciate more time on their own. 

In the end, you have to define what is work-life balance looks likefor you. A big part of that is deciding which tasks are priorities foryou at this stage of your life, year, week or day and which onesaren’t so important and can wait.

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Why has this become an increasingly hottopic of conversation and why is itimportant to me?Well, your work-life balance becomes out of balance when youfind yourself spending so much time on things we think that youmust do that you neglect the things that make you feel happy andwell. With the advancements that we have seen over the year, weseem to be getting more busy and less happy and so this topicbecomes important to you if you want to have a more fulfilled andenjoyable life. 

In particular poor work-life balance can not only lead to yourfeeling unhappy and unfulfilled, but it can also lead to you beingmore susceptible to burnout, experiencing more health problemsand the people and things that matter in your life not getting yourattention like they deserve.

Realistically, balance isn’t something that people achieve in asingle day. It’s something that you achieve over time. However, ifyou constantly find yourself putting off important pieces, you mayneed to re-evaluate the balance in your life. You may also need tore-evaluate the pieces on your priority list that you’re putting off.

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Do you want to be alone, sick and depressed? Thought so, meeither, so here are the top 10 things you must do to achieve andmaintain work-life balance.

Top 10 things you must do to have work-life balance1) Be flexible with yourself and others

Successful business owners are flexible with themselves, theirclients and their teams. While it's great to have a plan and setgoals, it important to be responsive to changes and results so youcan stop doing what's not working and tweak your actions basedon the results you are seeing versus the results you want to see inyour business. 

2) Cultivate positive relationships

Success can not happen in a vacuum. Any successful businessowner that you have seen, regardless of the industry, hasdeveloped strong and positive relationships with their clients,partners and especially with themselves. Have you considered

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doing a joint venture or partnership? This could be the one thingthat could skyrocket you to success faster so reach out to like-minded business owners in your area of expertise orcomplimentary industries and build mutually beneficialpartnerships. 

3) Check Your Ego

For all those uberly successful people you love, do they have ahuge ego? Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins, Gary V? No! They do notand in fact they practice humility, they practice teamwork. So...youare not as important as you think you and there are many otherpeople who are just as smart or smarter than you. Set your egoaside. Stop thinking you are indispensable and see how thingscan go just as fine when you take a day off, let someone else dothe work or lead the meeting. The more you control your ego, themore your life comes into balance. 

4) Take breaks

The most successful business owners understand that our brainswere not meant to concentrate for stretches of time longer than 2

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hours and therefore build “brain breaks” into their workdays. Youshould too! Build those breaks into your daily planner and watchhow productive those other hours become!

5) Honor your word and Follow through

This is perhaps one of the most important healthy habits in life aswell as business. The most successful people choose carefullywhat they commit to and then do what they say they're going todo, keep their promises and often acknowledge or rearrange inadvance when they see that they will be unable to. This goes along way in them being able to build and maintain healthy andmutually beneficial relationships as well as retaining clients. 

6)Take time off

You that question "Do you spend your holidays searching forwifi?" If you answered yes, then, this one is for you. If you go onholidays that live in the moment and truly enjoy that holiday.Hobbies, pastimes, and vacations enrich your spirit and life in a

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much-needed way and in turn make you a better businessperson.These times away can give you fresh perspectives on oldproblems, and ultimately help you achieve higher and higher levelsof success.

7) Be more active

Sitting for long periods of time can seriously impact and shortenyour life. So think of ways to incorporate movement into your day.People go for walking or running meetings now or having walkingdesks. It could be something as simple as setting a reminder onyour phone that every hour you get up and take a 15 min walk.Your life may depend on it!

8) Overcome your fears

This is one of the biggest challenges that you and I face asentrepreneurs be it the fear of failure or the fear of success and allthe responsibilities that might bring. Fear is often one of thebiggest reasons most entrepreneurs don't finish what they start.Fear can also to focus more on your failures or inadequaciesrather than all the amazing qualities you have. So find a way daily

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to conquer your fears so you can move forward to a more fulfilledlife. Part in parcel with that is taking the time to celebrate all yourvictories, big and small.

9) Stay organized by using systems

Avoid the awful feeling when you recognize you have doublebooked yourself and both appointments/ relationships are equallyimportant to you. Create a scheduling system where you knowand have prioritized clearly upcoming engagements anddeadlines. Think of ways that you can implement automation/systems in your processes to manage your back office, forexample having a customer relationship management system cansave you oodles of time in staying on top of contacts and keydates and more importantly remove that scatter brained stressedout feeling from your life.

10) Outsource

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If your budget allows, consider the value of your time and the keyactivities that you want to retain and look to outsource the others.It could be a simple as hiring someone to clean your home. Timeis not money. Time is more valuable than money and working 70to 80 hours per week is not sustainable so consider investing yourtime in the key activities and getting someone else to do the rest.With the global online community. Sites like Fiverr can be anamazing resource to find great talent at ridiculous prices.

 

The #1 one thing you can stop doing NOWthat will give you a quantum leap in work-life balanceSTOP MULTI-TASKING -Don’t multitask – IT DOESN’T WORK!

Was that a surprise to you? Likely not!

When you stop multi-tasking, the quality of your work will soar.Your interactions with clients and colleagues will become muchricher and valued. So, instead of trying to answer that email, call

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or blog post while listening to voicemail, do focused activitieswhere you remove all distractions from your workspace and giveyourself a strict time limit to finish each task.

To recap, the top 10 things that one must do to achieve andmaintain work-life balance for Business Owners is 

1> Be flexible with yourself and others

2>Cultivate positive relationships

3> Check your ego

4> Take breaks

5>Follow through

6>Take time off

7>Be more active

8> Overcome your fears- find a way every day big or small to takeaction to overcome your fears

9> Stay organized -systems will be the key to your success

10> Outsource

and the one thing you should stop TODAY to have a quantum leapis multi-tasking!

I welcome your feedback and comments. Do share this article withothers that you know may be struggling with work-life balance.

I hope you found value in Work Life Balance for Business Owners.

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