Hi there, if you’ve been following along then you will know that I’ve been taking part in the 30 Day Blogging Challenge with Sarah Arrow (for the 2nd time) and combining it with a content challenge that was running in July in Jenn Scalia’s Little Black Business Book membership group.
I have found it really difficult to get back into it after my break in the summer. I was finding the daily videos a bit too much, on top of client work and other day-to-day business ‘stuff’ too. Sometimes you’ve got to know when to slow it down, haven’t you? I was doing my usual burnout thing! So here is day 21 of the challenge – I will finish the 30 days but not necessarily by posting every single day now.
Today is day 21 of the challenge and I’m sharing an apt podcast show, all about how you can start to enjoy the journey of running your own business! 
Listen using the player below. Prefer to read? Scroll down for the full transcript.
Prefer to read? Here’s the transcript:
Are you enjoying the journey of being in business? Do you find living in the moment a real challenge? I know I do. I’m definitely getting much better at is as now I write a daily gratitude journal and appreciate the little things in life. I surround myself with really positive people so that support helps too.
I’ve always been future focused, constantly thinking about the next thing I want to achieve, the next goal, the next big milestone. It’s so important though to stop and appreciate life. It’s so fragile and so easy to take for granted. Where would you fit on that – do you focus more on the past, present or future?
Are you enjoying the journey of running your own business or racing ahead to the next thing and the next? Do you stop and celebrate your successes or do you just discount them as another tick on your to-do list.
We all know the benefits of living in the moment but it takes awareness to start enjoying what’s happening now. When your business hits a lull are you pushing forward to create the next thing or do you notice that it could be an opportunity for some time out to reflect?
Life is beautiful – We just need to notice it.
If you’re so busy coming up with the next thing and the next you won’t notice how well you’re doing. You might be comparing yourselves against the progress of others. Forget the others, enjoy your journey. Just because someone else is launching one new programme after another doesn’t mean you need to. They might be posting constantly on Twitter – that doesn’t mean you have to. What would make your business journey more fun, more authentic for you?
Accept that you have your own unique path to building your business and what isn’t working for you right now might be a lesson to help you move forward in a different direction. Who knows, it might even be the very thing you’ll end up helping people with in the future.
When did you last stop?
I mean, really stop to notice your life.
Remember whatever is going on right now will never happen again. You might be going through a tough time right now and say, well thank goodness for that! Can’t wait for it to end!’
There may still be some positive things that you can note right now though, your special friendships, flowers on your window ledge, a bed to sleep on, a smile, or a butterfly. The little things.
Are you rushing to do things in your business or going with the flow?
If you’re a follower of my blog then you’ll know I set my 2015 word as simplicity. Part of that simplicity has been to go more with the flow. If technology is being a pain and I’m not making progress I now walk away, I choose to view that as an opportunity to do something else. Maybe it’s that I need to get a pen and paper out and do some brainstorming or maybe I choose to take the whole day off and not stress about it, knowing that everything will happen in its own sweet time. What that brings is peace. All of the pushing stops us from enjoying the now. Where are you pushing too hard in your business?
It’s important to take care of yourself as you’re running your business. Listen to your body, it’s usually good at giving you signs that you’re pushing too hard.
When did you last take some time off to look after you? To do something crazy? Now crazy for one person might be throwing themselves off the side of a mountain or it might be as simple as not doing the next task on your to-do list and stopping to read a book!
Self-care is vital if you want to run a successful business, it also helps you not to burn out. Aside from the obvious health risks of burnout there’s also the risk that you will fall out of love with your business if you push yourself so hard that you make yourself ill. You need to figure out a way to enjoy the journey, to allow things to fall into place as and when they should.
How good is your self-care? When working with clients I get them to create a maintenance strategy of self-care, where they do something each and every day for themselves. The opposite of this is the coping strategy when your self-care only kicks in when you’ve got to that burnout place. You then start to run that bath, treat yourself to a massage and all of the other things that get you back to feeling like you again. You need to start thinking maintenance, not coping.
The interesting thing that you might notice is that the more you go with the flow and the less pushing you do the more opportunities come your way and things all seem so much easier somehow.
So I ask again, are you enjoying the journey of being in your business or are you rushing to the next thing and the next?
How different would things be if you went more with the flow and lived in the present, enjoying each day as a business owner and being excited at the opportunities that will unfold as you take each day as it comes?
Notice the little things that you do in your business that make you happy, and do more of them!
Action: Write down some ideas for your own self-care maintenance plan. What could you do each day to look after you? Maybe you like doing lots of things. If so, create a list and choose from your list depending how you feel on the day.
I’d love to know your thoughts, share in the comments below.
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