#12 Be Prepared To Invest In The Process
May 9, 2008
To get back the balance that is missing in your life you will have to invest. This investment will be in the form of time, energy and money.
Part of your investment in time will be taken up when you sit and plan what you want your life to be like. Another part will be used to go to seminars, read websites, talk to other like-minded people, to get fit, to learn better techniques for managing people, and for reflection. Time is our most precious commodity and the one most of us complain we don’t have enough of. Of course, the old cliché is that we all have the same amount of time available (and I don’t really need to talk about the likes of Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Richard Branson all having the same amount of time as we do). Using your time to bring balance and harmony back into your life will reap great benefits for you and all those people close to you.
Your energy will be needed on a number of levels. You need energy to make the changes necessary to bring balance back to your life. You need energy to break out of the ‘comfort zone’ (the safety of the familiar) that tends to hold us in the state of being overwhelmed, and you need energy to keep going once you have made these breaks. The more successful you become in business the more opportunities and distractions come your way. Each one of them can play a role in throwing balance out the window. Energy is a powerful weapon in the harmony arsenal.
And last but by no means least is cash. You will have to invest in yourself in order to get fit, to reward yourself, to learn new skills and to change the way you do business. The amount you need to spend will depend entirely on you. If you are a self-starter and can get and stay fit on your own you probably won’t need a personal trainer, but if you are like me and need to have someone stalking you to get you moving, you will have to allocate money to this.
I find it quite strange that we are so focused on having money when we retire yet we devote very little time or money to maintaining our health and wellbeing in the meantime to ensure we get there! From where I sit I don’t want to ever retire, and I certainly don’t plan to. But I do want to be healthy and full of energy until the day I die. Investing in my health and wellbeing today is far more important to me than my retirement fund. You may disagree, but as always it’s up to the individual.
The moral to this tip is that to fuel the changes necessary to have a long, healthy and rewarding life in which business is a major component, it is very likely that you will have to be prepared to invest time, energy and money on a regular basis.
What can I do today?
How much time, energy and money are you prepared to invest in yourself to get your life the way you want it to be? Clearly this is not an easy question to answer, but it is a great question to ask. There is no right or wrong amount, but the important message is the realisation that you will need to invest in your Life Bank.
[tags]Balance Life, out of balance, Invest[/tags]
#11 What Are The Things You Have Always Wanted To Do?
May 8, 2008
Make a list of all the things you have always wanted to do but have never found enough time, money or energy for. I find this a very interesting exercise. It’s your ‘life wish list’, and what goes on it is entirely up to you. When we are feeling overwhelmed one of the biggest issues is that there doesn’t seem to be any way out, that often there isn’t a lot to look forward to except more of the same.
#10 Visit Your Doctor, Healer Or Naturopath
May 7, 2008
A big component in achieving balance between business and life is being healthy. Stress encourages poor health and most business owners are under a lot of stress.
I suggest that you visit your chosen medical advisor and get a thorough check-up. Use it as a baseline. Where is your body at today? Whether mainstream or alternative (and best start with the mainstream if you are aware of anything significant, and even if you aren’t), they will probably get you to have a number of tests, prod and poke you a bit, and give you advice that you don’t want to hear, but the information will help.
#9 Reward Yourself For Staying On Track
May 6, 2008
One observation I have made of small business owners is that they generally struggle with the notion of rewarding themselves, often associating reward with purely financial considerations. Associated with all the changes we are talking about there can be more than a little turmoil in the short term before greater balance kicks in. This is normal, but the turmoil can be disconcerting, and we need to give ourselves some rewards along the way.
#8 Start Every Day On The Right Path
May 5, 2008
I am a great believer in the importance of starting your day the right way. If you begin under the hammer, you will spend all day under the hammer. Taking some time each morning to start your day in a gentle, focused and balanced way lays the groundwork for the rest of the day.I tend to spend a few minutes lying in bed, thinking about the day to come, getting my head ready and right. Or if it is a nice day I will sit on my balcony and watch the sun appear over the hills, and enjoy the sensation of warmth on my face. Whatever else happens, there is a definite relationship between the way I feel first thing and the way my day turns out.
#7 Develop Your Plan Of Attack And Put It Where You Can See It
May 4, 2008
By now, we have achieved a number of key steps in the process. We have accepted the need to change, we have identified where we are going wrong, the bad habits we have formed and the daily distractions that stop us from being in balance. We have prioritised them, put time frames in place and been very clear on when we want these changes to be completed. The next step is determining what we need to do to make the changes happen. This is where we have to really spell things out. What actions do we have to take to make these changes happen?
#6 Old Habits Die Hard—It Takes Time To Change
May 3, 2008
While it is good to acknowledge that it has taken time to form the habits that prevent us from balancing our life and business, and that subsequently it will take time to change these habits, we need to get on top of the process of change and drive it.
This means that once all the distractions, bad habits, things that drive us insane, and anything else that can be blamed for throwing our lives into chaos are identified, we need to very deliberately set about changing them. Simply identifying the problems won’t make them go away.
#5 Be Clear About How You Want Your Life To Look And Feel
May 2, 2008
Just as important as making the time to sit and reflect on your life as it is today is being clear on what you want your life to be like, or how you want it to look and feel, from here on.
I find that being clear about this makes everything else fall into place. The more specific you can be about how you want your life to be, the more likely you are to achieve it.
#4 What Bad Habits Have You Developed?
May 1, 2008
The underlying cause of being out of balance is generally related to bad habits that have become part of your normal, day-to-day way of doing things.
These habits may relate to your health and wellbeing. Perhaps you eat badly because there isn’t enough time in a seriously busy day to go that little bit further and get a healthier lunch. Or exercise consists of wrestling open a bag of chips, your only meal, sometime during the day.
#3 Understand The Enemy—What Things Throw You Out Of Whack?
April 30, 2008
If someone asks me what disrupts the balance between my business and my life I can easily list the culprits:
- Overcommitting my time (I can’t say no and I get excited by interesting new projects).
- Aspects of running my company that I am no good at (websitekeeping, operational procedures, etc.).
- Day-to-day distractions that stop me getting my work done (I get hundreds of emails, countless telephone calls, letters, visitors, etc. every day).
- The internet-I love it and get distracted by it, and have to find the time to finish projects that I didn’t get done because I was distracted (as you can tell I have a very short attention span).
- Poor time management.
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By N2H
