How many times have you been told you need a better work-life balance? Well, we are here to tell you to stop trying – it is never ever going to happen.
When you first start a new business there are a lot of aspects of your life you need to juggle. Family, health and fitness to name a few.
But the early stages of a new business require a huge commitment. You had to invest significant time and energy into those first two or three years.
All too often we see entrepreneurs invest all their time and energy into starting a business. Their relationships begin to suffer. Their friends, family, kids all start to feel neglected. It happens to anyone starting a new business.
But hope is not lost. Finding the balance between your business and personal life may be impossible, but you can find harmony.
Here are three of the key ways you can manage to bring harmony to your life.
1. Help your friends and family understand what you do.
Start by sharing your vision for the business with them. Find an easy and high-level way for them to understand what you do and where the business is going. Try to keep your vision limited to the next one to two years. Do not go too deep into what you do, keep it light and easy to understand. Sometimes using a pictorial method can be the easiest way to explain what you do in a simple way.
2. Block out time to spend with friends and family.
Helping people understand what you’re dedicating your time to is one thing, but you still need to spend time with them. Time blocking is important.
Take a close look at your family and your health. Identify the minimum amount of time you need to spend on each of these things to be effective. We call this your minimum effective dose. This will ensure you dedicate, at least, the minimum amount of time to sustain your family and your health. Over time you will be able to dedicate a greater amount of time to these aspects of your life.
Once you know how much time you need to dedicate, work with your family on a schedule that suits you all. Make sure it is blocked out in your diary.
3. Provide feedback on how you are performing.
And finally, you will want to give an update to your friends and family. Bring them on the journey. Provide them feedback on how you and your business are performing.
Three times a year, Abundance Global runs a four-month sprint. A four-month sprint is a way of dividing up the year to focus on specific business areas. We have found that the end of a four-month sprint is a great time to review and update friends and family on how things are going. This is also the perfect time for you to let them know of any challenges coming up.
Building a business and becoming a success isn’t worth it if you sacrifice your family and health in the process. Make sure building a business is sustainable.
If you need some help holding yourself accountable to this, we’ve got an amazing little support network in the form of a private Facebook group full of people prioritising that rest time and kicking goals in their business because of it!
Join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/AbundanceGlobalEntrepreneurs
