Blog, Facebook, tweet and repeat. List, relist and update. Make, ship, engage and connect. And on and on and on. Sometimes it is never ending.
You love your business, it makes your heart sing. But so does having a moment to take a deep breath and just watch the clouds roll by, or read a book, or go for a slow walk. How can you make time for all the things you love and be successful in your creative business?
The myth of having it all
Unless you’ve figured out some magical way to add more hours to a day or to function with limited amounts of sleep, there’s just no way to have it all. And the same goes for doing it all. It’s impossible.
If you run a creative business, you wear a lot of other hats – mom, full-time employee, spouse, sister, friend, volunteer, etc. I’m not going to pretend to be a time management expert. Heaven knows I waste a heck of a lot of time on Facebook (and not on my business page). But I have managed to keep myself gainfully self-employed for the past 8 years while balancing a home, my family and volunteer work.
Sometimes I do it better than others, but when I’m really rockin’ it, it’s because I’m following these two principles:
It’s all about choices
Yes, you can have your cake, you can even eat it, but you can’t do that and stay super skinny. You have to choose what’s most important to you – the pleasure of eating the cake or the joy of wearing skinny jeans. You will make yourself crazy trying to hang on to all three.
You might choose the cake, someone else will choose the jeans. Whatever your choice, just make it the best one for you and your family.
That is to say – your business is booming, you don’t have to think twice about a $5 latte, but you might not have time to sip it slowly with your girlfriends, or if you do, you might not have time to sleep that night. Pick and choose what’s most important and sacrifice the things that don’t matter as much.
Then take it one step further and truly let go. Don’t look back at the things you choose not to do. And don’t compare yourself to other people. They may look like they are doing it all, but guaranteed, they are sacrificing something.
Set realistic expectations
I really hate that quote about reaching for the moon, because if you don’t make it you’ll land on a star.
Yuck.
For me I’d be sitting on that star, higher than I started, but kicking myself for not being good enough to make it to the moon. It’d seem like a failure and failures get me down and discouraged.
Get rid of those mile-long to do lists. You’ll never cross everything off in one day and to carry it over day after day makes you feel like you are spinning your wheels.
My favorite tool is a standard size sticky note.
I write down the most important tasks for that day on a sticky note. It is virtually impossible to write down too much for one day on that note. At the end of the day when I’ve accomplished everything it goes straight to the garbage can and the next day starts fresh and new.
The key to happiness
Yeah, I don’t have that, sorry. But I do believe it starts with balance.
I’m going to start sounding like my yoga instructor when I say this – but it’s really true. When you stop trying to do everything and be everywhere life comes into focus. You’ll be able to clearly identify the important things in your life and balance your responsibilities with greater ease.
What works for you? How do you keep sane while running your biz and wearing all your different hats?
