You don’t have to choose between profit and enjoyment
We are right on the cusp of the longest day of the year, and some of the kids are starting to get out of school. Perhaps if you’ve got kids, you’re feeling it already – that the summer has started for you. Sometimes, as entrepreneurs, we are stuck in this funky place where we want to really enjoy our summer….yet we feel the “pull” of “omg I can’t leave my company in the dust!”
Summer might look like spending a lot of time on the beach with our kids. It might be with our grandkids. It might be taking an extended trip. Yet, we need to keep the business going. We need to continue on with some basics through our work. It also may be that your work gets busier in the summer. Maybe it’s a really busy time for you and that adds another level of confusion. And then on top of it all, you might consider yourself a distracted entrepreneur or a scattered entrepreneur…which does not help with the “being pulled” feeling.
To get to a place of peace, confidently make those decisions, and ditch regrets…follow these 5 steps.
- Plan your time off. If you haven’t already done this, first and foremost, plan your vacations – even if your vacations are just a few long weekends. I’ve got three weeks of vacation set up (I wanted four, I ended up with three. I’m okay with it).
- Decide if this is enough. I was going to take the whole of July off, and due to some other circumstances that came in, I decided to go with the first two weeks of July and then one week in August, and I’m okay with it. Would I like to have four weeks? I would. Next year, I’m going to try again. I’m going to try to take the whole of July off. So, even if it’s just a week or a few long weekends, it doesn’t matter. Plan those vacations, and then be okay with it.
- Ask: what are the important milestones in my work/ business this summer? Write down where you wish to be on September 1st and look backward. One way to make it personal is to write a letter to yourself dated Sept 1st. Write how you feel. For example, “wow, you had a great summer. While you took every weekend as a long weekend, you were able to work Monday through Thursday, 8am- 12pm. And you were able to create [these certain milestones for yourself that are important for you and your business].”
- Work backward. Create a plan for yourself so that you’ll be able to achieve those milestones.
- Review and adjust mindfully. This is something that we can often forget – to have a system that reminds us of what we said we wanted. Remember, while we love to be nimble as entrepreneurs, it’s important to be in the decision making piece of changing our minds.
For example, say your milestone was to work Monday through Thursday, 8am to 12pm, and to do x, y, z – but something came up on a Wednesday that was a once in a lifetime opportunity. As long as you go back to what you said your milestones were, and ask yourself, “will this affect it negatively?”
If the answer is no, it will not affect my milestones negatively when I adjust accordingly, you then make tweaks. Maybe you work a whole day for a day or two on those times. You make that conscious choice and conscious decision– versus just “kind of forgetting things” and going with the flow. You honor that commitment to yourself. If you do change your mind, you change it purposefully.
And there you have it! Those are five steps to have the summer of your dreams with productivity, peace and profitability or whatever you decide that you want.
What is the NEXT step?
Come to my Free Wisdom Warriors tomorrow!
We’re going to talk about how to decide and still keep your options open. So that is something that I find many people have an issue with. They want to make a decision, but they don’t want to lose their options. So it’s all about time management in the summer for the Distracted Entrepreneur.
It’s always free at Wisdom Warriors.
While this is usually a monthly event, I’m skipping over July, so if you don’t come on Monday, then just know that you won’t have another opportunity to go to the Free Wisdom Warriors until August 7th, because I am taking those first two weeks of July off and I’m honoring my commitment to myself – but I’ll miss you!
Join me at 12pm lunchtime Eastern on June 12th.
- It’s so simple
- It’s free
- There’s no high pressure sales for anything.
- It’s all, it’s all information and community and you really get clear and you know what to do next.
- AND you feel like, “Oh my gosh, I am not alone here”.
See you on Monday?