Here’s the thing about owning a business: it’s legitimately very hard. We’re always caught up in ourselves, our own businesses, our own lives, and sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. It becomes ALL-CONSUMING and we don’t know how to get out of it. Our friends need us, our families need us, and our schedule dictates something else entirely. But you’ve got to have some fresh perspective about it – and maybe take some life lesson advice from someone who’s regularly learning to do the same.
Our problems are only our problems. Every one you encounter EVERY SINGLE DAY has a set of problems all their own. Things that are devastating to them or time consuming or stressful. I’ve been met with frustrations from others on how busy my schedule is. On how much a work. Right now, as I type this, my kids are watching Descendents 3 in the other room, it’s 7pm, and I’m knocking out my to do list since I spent the afternoon riding bikes and swimming in the pool with them.
Don’t Forget Your Why
The fresh perspective is this: don’t forget your why. I’d imagine 88.5% of us aren’t living to work – we’re working to LIVE. Things like my “don’t fucking work” days on my calendar fuel the time that I do work. Lunches with friends? Yep, I schedule them. Play dates with my kids? A lot of those are scheduled, too.
At the end of the day, our businesses matter so much. We’ve put so much blood, sweat, and tears into what we’ve created. For me, our business helps out so many other businesses that the pressure of directly effecting others’ livelihood can be overwhelming. My team feels that pressure, too.
We aren’t serving ourselves or our clients, ourselves, our family, our friends – any good if we can’t see outside of our own bubble, though. If we can’t take a few extra moments to realize that our fresh perspective may just need to be that it isn’t the ONLY perspective. Our great ideas may seem great, but there’s always outside factors to consider. If someone doesn’t have time for you in that moment? There’s probably a whole other world out that they’re dealing with. It’s not that they don’t want to make the time -it’s that sometimes, truly, the time doesn’t exist.
Sure, if I lived and died by my computer and phone, I could always be accessible. Well, maybe I could. If I’m on the phone with one client, how can I talk to another? That’s one of the reasons that I appreciate our team so much. Because they afford me the ability to walk away. They support one another. This team isn’t just a way for me to put my phone down – they’re a way for us to all have some fresh perspective when we need it. Sometimes that’s in the form of a reset, others that’s putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes, sometimes it’s taking an idea you’re unsure of and running with it.
See Things in Another Light
Start trying to see things in a different way, and you just might find that all-consuming problem you’re having isn’t even remotely comparable to someone else’s. Maybe that little bit of grace will be the only grace that they’re given that day. And chances are – you’ll feel better that you did.
That’s one of the reasons I started the Anti-Marketing Podcast (hey – you should listen to it on Spotify!). I wanted other business owners, potential clients, whoever – to hear the trials and tribulations that their counterparts go through, and know that they aren’t alone. Subscribe to it. Hear from businesses weekly. That perspective might be the thing that ends up getting you through the day.
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