Beverlee Rasmussen CEC PCC My husband and I decided on the weekend that we are Confirmed Workaholics. Are you a workaholic small business owner too? Can you relate?
Sitting on the couch early Saturday evening after a long day of work we looked at each other and almost simultaneously said, “What do we do now?”
It was too early to go to bed. The kids didn’t need us. We didn’t have plans with friends or family and we were kind of bored.
So what did we do? We grabbed the paint and headed over to finish a project on our rental property.
As we painted into the twilight hours we talked about the fact that we don’t seem to have an “off” button when it comes to working.
We justified our actions by saying that we both love to work. Both of us enjoy and are proud of the results of our hard work. We thought the effort, for now, is worth it.
So we decided that even though we were working on a Saturday night when everyone else was out doing something fun that we were, in fact, having fun.
But are we kidding ourselves? At the end of our days do we really want to look back and say “wow, that night out painting our rental house was so memorable.” And… if we say yes to working what are we saying “no” to?
If this is all too familiar to you, I hope our experience in evaluating our work-life balance will help you find your way to freedom, too.
What are workaholics saying “no” to?
Saying no to rest.
Workaholics don’t get enough rest. Bodies need downtime to heal and brains need downtime to think. If we are always working we can’t possibly be our best on Monday morning. The lack of rest has proven to lead to early disease and reduced brain function.
Saying no to life’s joys.
Imagine watching a beautiful sunset at the beach or listening to music in the park or hanging out with friends beside a campfire. Workaholics don’t have time to nurture friendships and they can easily miss out on many other joys of life.
Saying no to balance.
If we work too much we are saying no to balance. This limits us from experiencing that highly sought-after state of joy that tells us we are good. We want to actually experience the benefit of the efforts we put in at work.
How Business Systems Can Help You get the Work-Life Balance
Looking back at a time when we had a great work/life balance, I think of my travel agency days. Back then everything ran according to how I had set it up. With systems firmly in place, that business ran without me having to “work” in it.
I made the connection that owning rental property is another business. It will require the same amount of strategic planning and systems structure to ensure that it does not consume our lives. That includes having a list of competent house painters to call on if needed!
Funny enough, I hadn’t been thinking of this project as a business, so it wasn’t working without me. It was time for me to take my own business development course to get organized & profitable!
The tools of recovering from being a workaholic include figuring out our priorities in our work and life. When we know our goals and the most important things we need to do, we can learn to get help with the rest of it.
Are you a confirmed workaholic?
Are you a confirmed workaholic? Is this serving you? Do you have a suggestion for other small business owners working 24/7?
My entire goal for creating a business development company is to make life better for small business owners. The concept is simple enough: get things organized and structured in a way that runs independently of you so you don’t have to be a workaholic!
Transform your Business with our Business Development Training and Free Small Business Challenge.
To help you design your business so that it brings you time for joy and rest, we have a monthly small business challenge on our community portal, Organized and Profitable®. These will cover key takeaways from our business development courses. They will be practical and useful ideas, and give you a taste of our larger training program.
Sign up for the Small Business Monthly Challenge here.
