Tired? Take the Time Out You Need

Living the Dream, just living the dream!

Some days it’s a battle, owning a business can have you running on empty.

Remember Roadrunner cartoons, when he’s trying to pick up speed and all that’s happening is a rather bizarre spin of his legs?

Or a nightmare, when you’re trying to get away and you can’t move.

We can all have days like that, you ain’t alone! Read that twice!

Seriously, do you honestly believe that everyone else in the world are marvellous days, with no strain, tiredness, guilt at not spending time on other things?

Hell no! You aren’t alone!

Something as simple as the internet not playing ball, or trying to write a blog post when you have lost all use of your native tongue can really throw you around.

Okay, what can you do?

Well, you can decide to call it a halt for the day or you can ignore how you really feel mentally and physically and pretend to be working as you haul your laptop to Starbucks or you can take a break!

Look, just because your gone solo, doesn’t mean you have added angelic wings, or you have made yourself invisible to the general ups and downs of life.  If your having bad months — then you perhaps got a problem.

But a bad day or two? Come on.

Okay, answer this truthfully, when did you last take a day off?

When did you last do something for you?

A day catching up with email, writing or creating a Facebook page, surfing the net is not a day off, that’s probably more ‘things I like to do‘ when things aren’t going to plan.  I mean a day doing nada, when did you last have a day with nothing to do with your business. Or a weekend? No email, Facebook, Twitter, or even talking about business?

Why is it important?

1. You get a new perspective

You can’t expect to work, work, work and have no thinking time.  Walk away for 24 hours (48 would be better!) — everything will be still there when you return. ‘Oh, but I can’t’, sure you can, if you can’t walk away for one day, you’re a slave of by your own design — something has to shift.

2. Take care of the caretaker

You may be what I call a ‘Saint Solo-er’, you’ve got yourself some yuckie virus there.

If you’ve ever been ill or knew 100% that you needed to take some time, and yet you BS everyone, more importantly yourself, with ‘oh I would love to have some time, but I can’t, I need to keep going’ or say ‘you don’t understand, it’s only me’. You’ve seriously got your priorties mixed up.

May I remind you that nobody is going to say to you ‘well done sport, for keeping on going, you’re a trooper’.

Take the time you need. That’s not that same by the way, as take time out when you know you’re just procastinating.

Or don’t.  But I can almost guarantee, carry on, you’ll lose the plot!

This is not a hobby! It’s business. You have to be healthy.

3. You are not your business!

Now, I know some of you will be defining yourself by what you ‘do’, but you aren’t your business. You have defined it, it has not defined you.

Your business is part of your life, not the whole sum. ‘Oh but it’s everything to me‘, I hear you cry, if that’s you, why on earth are you making yourself ill to operate something that you love?

Think about that?  If you let yourself get seriously ill, who will have the reins then?

If taking time for you freaks you out, start small.  Go to Starbucks, but go without your laptop! Read a book for an hour everyday (not a business book!), learn something new, enrol in a class for 2 hours a week.