Do you feel like your work-life balance is out of balance?
There was a time when I would cringe at hearing the phrase “Work-Life Balance”. You see, I had taken the leap, gone all in owning my own business. I had a goal to grow a successful business, and I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than that.
My second child had just been born a few months before I launched. I was putting in 90+ hour work weeks, one after the other. It was so rare that I took a day off that when I did, it was treated as if it was a holiday that only came around once a year. If you mentioned work-life balance to me I just thought it was a pipe dream, something that just wasn’t possible for me.
After a few years of working like this, there were obviously some problems in my life, problems that I think are specific to business owners. I felt overwhelmed, felt like life was passing me by, I even felt dehumanized at times as if my existence didn’t matter and I was nothing more than a cog in a machine to make money. I was failing in my relationship with my wife, I was missing out on being a father, I was in poor health- working myself so hard that at one point I could see all my ribs and weighed only 130 pounds on my 6-foot frame. Not exactly the life I had imagined when I had a dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
If you are reading this and are facing similar problems, then your burning question is most likely, “How do you solve these problems and get the life you want while running a business?”
Although there is no one size fits all solution, I’ll share some of the things that helped me and that have helped clients that I work with.
It all has to do with YOU- the problems are within YOU. That may be a tough one to accept. If you believe that your problems are only due to other people, other circumstances, or any number of external excuses (no matter how good of an excuse it is), then things most likely won’t change. The good news is that the solutions are also within YOU. Things change when YOU change.
Seek to understand your current situation. I’m going to push you here to put in the hard work and really dig deep. Why did you choose to be a business owner? What does success mean to you? Have you considered the whole picture- being successful in both business and in life? In as much detail as you can, what does that big picture look, feel, and sound like in your mind? Get really clear on the destination that you want to go towards.
Now look at the reality of your life right now. Ask yourself where are your weaknesses in life and where are you falling short? You may have some great excuses as to why things are a certain way, or you may come across some limiting beliefs. You may be thinking, “my relationship is this way because my partner doesn’t understand that I have to work to make money for the family” or maybe “someday when I am successful, I’ll be able to have a great life”, or any number of beliefs. It’s necessary to let go of these.
Next, you must commit. And I mean a true commitment. As in you cut off any other possibility. You may be thinking “but wait…. I don’t know how I’m going to do this”. Yes, you must commit even though you don’t know the “how”.
Once you have committed, and are in a resourceful mindset, then It’s time to identify the path forward and the obstacles that you will have to overcome.
Finally, this is a brief overview of a process to get the life you want. There are many other approaches that I take with clients depending on what works for them. If you want to expedite the process and increase you chance of success, I highly recommend working with a coach. If you are interested in seeing if we are a good fit to work together, book a free consultation at https://www.sunshinecitycounseling.com/brian-holbach
