Wellness & work – keep things in balance
Ask any business owner if their first one to three years in business was easy – I know that I didn’t have an abundance of time and I certainly didn’t have a whole lot of money. At times I thought I was a failure for not making a million dollars in my first year.
I began my weight-loss coaching business in 2009. On the days my husband was home with my young son Judd, I started work as soon as I woke. Other days, my workday began the minute I dropped Judd off at childcare. I might come up for air at dinnertime, then it was a quick play, a hi and a bye, and back to work, usually until 11pm.
The more I worked, the more I struggled. Things began to bother me. I felt disconnected from my husband and my son Judd. I was driven to succeed yet I started to think, what would this cost me?
I always knew from coaching that people do more to avoid pain than they do to experience pleasure. Yet there I was, in pain and not doing anything to change my situation.
My clients knew how hard I was working and began to model my patterns.
Balancing yin & yang
In Chinese philosophy, the yin-yang concept is about natural dualities that need to be in balance. My personal-family-social life had got out of balance with my work. Now the challenge was creating a balance that would see my business continue to grow and my personal life also flourish.
I decided to just let go, to trust that I was good enough to make my business a success. Then it was time to sit down and set some rules.
Rather than work less on my business, I made everything else a priority. I learnt communication and organisational skills, and set myself boundaries and time limits. Even though it was hard, it had to happen – immediately.
Setting boundaries
Setting boundaries around online presence time – such as checking and responding to emails – gave back more time. I informed my clients of my working hours. Earlier, I’d believed that I had to respond to every message, email or phone call immediately.
You must set boundaries – be clear what times you are open and closed for business.
Set boundaries – be clear what times you are open and closed for business.
I scheduled time with my family, husband, friends, and time for myself.
Seeing results
It takes determination to change a habit. Things soon started to realign and with that came clarity and purpose. Not only were both my yin and yang feeling nurtured and loved, but my business went through exponential growth.
As soon as I began to live a more balanced life, my clients started to get exceptional results. Weight-loss coaching morphed into business coaching and mentoring as my existing clients, a lot of whom were business owners, saw the results I was getting. Suddenly I was in demand.
Keeping your message congruent
If you are the face of the business you must live in alignment with what you want your clients to value. Your message must be congruent in all your communication, both online – in Facebook posts, blogs and emails – and offline – at networking events, workshops etc. People can sense whether someone walks the talk within a few minutes of meeting them.
The right balance
Being in business is great – the highs are higher than anything that you experience as an employee. Yet finding the right balance is challenging.
It might be time to stop and take stock. As Australian speaker Terry Hawkins says, ‘There are two times in life, now or too late’.
Four tips
1. Make decisions. The best decisions are made in a calm, neutral state, but quickly, based on your gut feelings. You will find yourself with more hours in your week if you only learn to make fast, smart decisions and thus eliminate one of the biggest time-wasters, procrastination.
2. For parents, get as much work done as you can in children’s sleep times. Replace your TV time with work on your business – you will be present for your children yet focused on growing your business so that you have the lifestyle of your dreams.
3. Use a state breaker. If you find it hard to switch from business mode into family/friend mode – especially working from home – this is one technique my clients have had great results with. Think of a song or a dance that breaks your business state so you can be the mum/partner/friend you want to be. I found that playing a song I love, even for 30 seconds, is enough to break my state.
4. Share your challenges, wins and experiences with your loved ones. Let them know that there is plenty to go around of the ‘you’ they crave love and attention from.
Natasa Denman, coach and entrepreneur
