Are you chasing work life balance?

If so, why?

Is it because everyone is chasing it so it seems the thing to strive for?

Maybe you believe it is the answer to the challenges of juggling working for yourself with lifestyle, being a parent and family life.

Whatever the reason you are chasing work life balance, stop it. Yes, you read right – stop it.

Why you should stop chasing Work Life Balance

The work life balance movement was started by organisations as a way to deal with the growing problems of the impact work was having on its employees and employees disquiet about it. So let’s be clear here, it was originally an employer led initiative.

Now, far be it for me to push on you my conspiracy theories as to why employers peddle work life balance to employees like pushers dangling the next fix. Suffice to say, as someone who peddled the corporate hamster wheel for 14 years, work life balance policies often don’t work at a practical level for the employee.

But let’s come back to the point at hand.

Why are you, as a Self Employed person, chasing something that was created for organisations?

Why Work Life Balance is NOT for Self Employed folk

Work life balance is not for you for three reasons:

1. It is a flawed concept

Striving for balance will not necessarily result in you having the life you really want. It will not necessarily protect what is most important to you. It will not necessarily deliver the results you really want.

2. The word balance leads to focus in the wrong place

It leads to focussing on creating a more even balance between roles. This doesn’t allow for the fact that some roles are far more important than others. So balancing them out isn’t an appropriate approach.

3. There is a much better option more likely to deliver what you really want

Working for yourself could and should be the ultimate in personal freedom and life on your own terms. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to grab that opportunity with both hands and make the most of it.

If Work Life Balance is not for Self Employed folks, what is?

Well, I recommend ditching the word balance and replacing it with design.

The reason being is that designing life based on your core values and what is most important to you gets you focussing on creating what you really want.

Using working for yourself as a tool to support what you want to create, rather than focussing on balance, is more likely to give you the business, family life and lifestyle you really want.

I don’t know about you, but there is no way I want work to balance with what is most important to me (and I love my work). Actually, I want a total imbalance.

I want my work life not to even come close to balancing with the family life and the lifestyle I really want. I want it to fit around it and be a tool that supports me in achieving my ideal.

How about you?

Where do you stand on this subject? Please share your opinions in the comments below.

Related posts:

• Work Life Balance – A Child’s Perspective
• The Curse of Work Life Balance
• Have work life and business become a disease?

In the previous post The Obstacle That Will Kill Your Ideal Lifestyle we looked at how we are getting in our own way of having our ideal business, family life and real lifestyle freedom on our own terms.

It raises a really important question:

Why are so many people chasing having “stuff & things” at the cost of having real freedom in their work life, family and lifestyle?

Well, the reasons can be many and complex. But here is one of the huge fundamental reasons:

Lack of Financial Intelligence

Now, I am not for one second suggesting people are a bunch of dunces in relation to money. What I am saying is that most of us have never been educated to give us the financial intelligence we need to make good choices and decisions that lead to real financial freedom.

And here’s the shame of it – if we were educated and armed with enough financial intelligence to create real and lasting financial freedom we would probably make very different choices and decisions throughout our life to the ones we make.

I say this, not just from professional experience, but also from personal experience. My husband and I used to be “stuff and things” chasers. It had us chained the Corporate hamster wheel for many years with no chance of escape.

Once we realised that to be really free, in our work life and personal life, we needed to be a bit more intelligent with choices and decisions around money, we started to look at how we could increase our financial intelligence.

If you are really serious about creating your ideal business, family life and lifestyle, I highly recommend you make a commitment to yourself right now to transform your level of financial intelligence and get a plan in place to start making this a priority.

Questions on your Money Mindset to consider:

• Are you on a clearly defined path to financial freedom that will allow you to operate your business and family life on your own terms?
• If you were at a point of financial security and freedom, what difference would that make to the choices you make in your business, family life and lifestyle? Is that worth shooting for?
• What can you start to do improve your financial intelligence and mindset around money?

I know from personal experience, it can feel really overwhelming when you decide to get on a path to financial freedom but don’t know how to start. But here are some simple things you can start straight away while you are building up your financial intelligence:

• Make sure your business and personal life has budgets and review them monthly.
• Make sure you know where every cent of your money goes in your business and personal life.
• Start living well within your means.
• Read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. A good start point for thinking about your financial mindset.

Whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Just get started. Think baby steps and get stuck in.

Related post: The Obstacle That Will Kill Your Ideal Lifestyle

Lifestyle Freedom

There seems to be some confusion as to what constitutes real lifestyle freedom.

In fact, I would go so far to say that some folk are positively delusional about the lifestyle they have. This kills peoples chances of achieving their dream lifestyle and real freedom.

Let me explain:

What a lot of people are calling “having a lifestyle” isn’t a lifestyle at all.

They are referring to things such as a trophy home, numerous flashy holidays every year, spending shed loads on clothes every week and so on.

What they are actually describing is consumerism not lifestyle.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not being the fun police here. I like nice clothes, holidays and nice stuff as much as the next person. But not if it results in me being a slave to the business and costing me living life fully.

To me a kick ass lifestyle is about having real freedom in all areas of your life.

Freedom to only work when you want to, on your own terms. Freedom to have the family life you really want with work fitting in around it. Freedom to have enough time to nurture and keep important relationships healthy. Freedom to really life live.

Here is the point I am making:

Many people are so busy chasing consumerism (and calling it lifestyle) that it is actually costing them true lifestyle freedom and the life they REALLY want.

The reason for this is they have to strap themselves to their business hamster wheel and pedal damn hard to feed their consumerism habit.

Things to Consider

• Are you confusing consumerism with lifestyle?
• Are you having to flog your guts out in your business to feed consumerism habits?
• If so, what is that costing you in relation to lifestyle freedom? (and I don’t mean just financially!)

There is a lot of focus these days on how work life impacts quality of life, families and lifestyle. And rightly so.

But if you are genuinely looking to create REAL lifestyle freedom you also need to take a long hard look at what impact the choices you are making in your personal life is having on how many hours you have to work, the level your business has to perform at, your family life and so on.

Is your business life feeding your ideal life or consumerism?

So, I invite you to take a step back and take a good long hard at all the choices you are making in your personal lif:

• Which are keeping you a slave to working longer and harder?
• Which are really moving your towards true lifestyle freedom and a business life on your own terms?
• Is it time to make some changes?

What is your take on this? Do you agree, disagree, have an alternative perspective? Please share your views.

Rules.

Where do they come from and why do we follow them?

It is an important question to ask because many people just follow rules blindly, without question, even if it compromises how they really want their business, family life and lifestyle to be.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe there is a value in certain rules. Rules like it is not OK to kill someone or don’t text while you are driving. Great rules. Totally on board.

But it is the unwritten and self imposed rules we live our lives by that concern me. The rules that society or our parents or peers have decided are the “norm”.

When I challenge the rules that are holding people back from having the business, family life and lifestyle they want I often get the response of “well everyone does it” or “that is just the way it is”.

Rubbish. Just because everyone does it doesn’t make it right for you, your business or your family. It used to be “normal” to put kids up the chimney but it didn’t make it right.

All rules are made up. Are you living by rules you made up or someone else’s?

Here is my point:

Conformity is the killer of creativity

Conforming to rules set down by anyone other than yourself, based on your values and what is most important to you is stopping you from living, working and having family life on your own terms. Blindly conforming is like getting on the train to mediocrity central.

So, I invite you to look at the rules you are running your business and family life by. Ask questions such as:

• Is believing and operating within this rule helping me or hindering how I want things to be?
• What if this rule isn’t true?
• What new rule could I put in place that more closely matches my values?
• If I wasn’t buying into those rules what would I do differently?

So, here’s the challenge folks – start breaking all the rules (obviously not the ones that would mean breaking the law!). Start creating your own rules and “norms” based on your values and what is most important to you.

What unwritten or self imposed rules is it time for you to break?

The Curse of Work Life Balance

The whole work life balance movement has been around for a fair amount of years. Yet there is still a significant amount of people who feel that they are struggling with juggling all the balls of life and the things they value most are suffering.

It seems to me that something with the whole work life balance thing isn’t working or surely after all these years we would have the situation nailed.

So it begs the question:

What is Going Wrong with Work Life Balance?

The problem is what we are focussing on – balancing work with life. The two aren’t separate things. There is only one thing – your life. Everything else is a label for an activity you are doing within your life. So what is going wrong is that we are focussing on the wrong things – balance, and seeing work as separate to our life. This focus is resulting in sacrificing what we value most and our ideal life.

The Curse of Work Life Balance

The curse that work life balance creates is that it just gives you more of the same. You are still juggling. It doesn’t actually remove the problem totally. It doesn’t lead to you living your ideal life on your own terms.

Here is something to think about:

Do you really want to balance and juggle the things you value most with less important things that cost how you REALLY want things to be?
OR
Do you want to live a life built on the things you value most with the less important things fitting in around them?

If it’s the first option, keep focussing on work life balance. If it’s the second option, then kick focussing on work life balance into touch. Instead, make a decision right now that you are going to build the life your really want for yourself and your family.

Here are a few tips:

• Make sure you have a crystal clear picture of what your ideal life would look like. Define what constitutes a successful life for you including all aspects of your life as one.
• Is that worth fighting for? If so, start thinking “designing life” NOT balancing life.
• What would need to happen for your ideal to become a reality?
• Don’t wait, start now – even if you don’t know how you will make it all happen. Think baby steps.
• You can find more detailed tips and ideas in this 3 part mini series – Part 1 Why work-life balance is misleading. Part 2 The Alternative To Work-Life Balance Part 3 Goodbye work life balance! Hello success by design!

End the curse of work life balance for yourself. Eradicate mediocrity. Choose really living your ideal life on your terms. The freedom and fulfillment it gives is worth fighting for.

Do you have challenges with work life balance? What are your views on the whole work life balance movement?

People running their business from home can sometimes become self imposed prisoners, rarely venturing outside their home office feeling that if they are at work they must be in their office.

Working in total isolation like this is not good for you or your business. And here’s the point – it is totally unnecessary. Running a business from home doesn’t mean being a prisoner in it or that you have to do all your work from it – being home based gives you freedom to chose which should be grasped with both hands and made the most of.

There are many personal and business benefits to working from different locations outside your home. Here are just a few:

• Reduces feelings of isolation, stagnation and boredom.
• Can increase your personal effectiveness and time management as you aren’t distracted by the internet, day time TV or the dirty dishes in the sink.
• Boosts creativity which helps effective decision making and improves quality of work.

So, if you have become a self imposed prisoner in your home office here are some tips to break the habit:

• Make a list of all business activities that are not dependant on being in your home office
• Pick a location suitable for that activity. For example, for business reviews, strategy and planning meetings I go to a hotel lounge that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean because it inspires me. A quiet coffee shop is a great alternative venue for writing blog posts. You get the idea.
• Schedule in your diary times and dates to do those activities. Space them at regular intervals to break up your week/month.
• When the weather is good, work outdoors. To me that is one of the real luxuries of running a business from home.

I encourage you to make the absolute most of the freedom that running a business from home can offer. Right, I’m off to the beach to do some business planning!

Have you become a home business prisoner? Do you already do some of your business activities outside you home office? If so, how do you feel it benefits you and your business? Please share your thoughts and any tips, ideas and/or experiences you have on this subject below.

Related post:

5 habits that help improve work from home effectiveness

One of the most common issues I hear from clients who are self employed or run a business from home is that they would like to work less hours.

They want to have more time to do things like be with the kids more, protect family life, improve quality of life and just live life more.

Even though they don’t have a boss dictating their working hours to them, they often feel unable to reduce their hours because of the demands of the business.

The first step to reverse this situation is to stop blaming the business.

The business operates the way it was set up. So with the risk of over simplifying the task, it is a matter of setting the business up to operate a different way and for you as the business owner to operate differently.

It isn’t about working hard, it’s about working smart.

How to work less hours

Now, I am not suggesting you wake up tomorrow and decide you are working 50% less hours and just do it and to hell with the consequences. What I am suggesting is that if managed correctly, reducing working hours is possible.

Here are some points that will infuence how many hours you work:

1. Get clear on what you really want. Exactly how many hours a week and weeks per year would you ideally like to work? (Forget, “should” “must” and “ought to” – what is your ideal?).

2. How much revenue would you need to bring in each week if you only worked your ideal number of weeks?

3. Review your business model and revenue streams. Once you have the answers to question 1 and 2 brainstorm what changes you can make that will allow you to generate revenue more effectively to meet your ideal working hours. Get creative.

4. Increase your personal effectiveness. This factor is a significant contributor in reducing working hours so you can’t afford to ignore this area. Look for ways to upgrade the areas that directly impact your personal effectiveness.

5. Review your business processes and procedures. I know this subject bores the pants off many people, but like point 4, it is one of the keys to your ability to reduce your working hours. Look for ways to automate, outsource, simplify and improve the way your businesss operates.

There are many more things you can do to get on the path to reducing your working hours but I hope these few points will provoke some thought and help you get the ball rolling.

If you have any tips and/or challenges around reducing working hours, please share them in the comments section below.

Do you feel that your business is sucking the life out of you? If so, what you have on your hands is the business equivalent of a vampire.

Tell tale signs that your Business is a Vampire:

• Working longer hours than you want to
• Feel like you are peddling really hard but not moving forward
• Struggling to generate the income levels you desire
• Personal and family life is being adversely affected
• You feel like your role as a parent, spouse/partner and other relationships are suffering
• You can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel
• You feel like your business is sucking the life out of you

If you can identify with any of these points then you have a business vampire.

Stopping your business sucking the life out of you.

So, what are you going to do about it?

You can try and blame any number of other factors for your business vampire but as the business owner the buck stops with you. The harsh reality is that what you are experiencing is what you have created.

The first step to killing the vampire

Awareness is the first step to any change.

If you have awareness you can decide to make things different. And that is the first step.

Make the decision right now that you are going to kill the vampire. Decide that you are going to create something better starting now.

Just make the decision and commitment to yourself to find a way to make change happen.

The “how” comes after you make the decision so don’t worry about that at this stage.

Just focus on creating awareness around what is the real cause of your business vampire. Once you feel you have a good handle on this then it is time to step up and start taking action to kill your business vampire.

If this feels like an overwhelming task, break it down into bite size chunks and get stuck in.

Related posts:

• Have work life and business become a disease?

• Is working for yourself really the key to freedom?

• Why work-life balance is misleading.

I absolutely believe that working for yourself is not just the key to freedom but the ONLY way to REAL freedom.

Let me explain where I am coming from on this:

Being an employee

Even if you love your job, earn buckets of money and wouldn’t want to work for yourself, being an employee means you will never have true freedom.

Here’s why:

You are always dancing to someone else’s tune. Someone else dictates when and how long you work, what hours you are free for your family, how many days holiday you can have, and so on. That isn’t real freedom.

Working for yourself

So, if being employed isn’t the route to real freedom, is working for yourself?

Well, as I have already indicated the answer for me is a huge yes. Working for yourself gives you the opportunity to have real freedom because you call the shots. You get to set things up exactly the way they suit you – work and lifestyle on your terms – real freedom.

Now, whether home based business owners actually turn being self employed into true freedom is a different matter altogether.

So what is the reality?

Whilst working for yourself can, and should, be the route to real freedom the sad reality is that many people are peddling the hamster wheel of work life as fast and as hard as their employed counterparts.

Why is this?

The reasons for this can be many and complex. However, there is a common theme in many cases – the business owner isn’t behaving, acting or operating in the way that successful business owners do. The point is this:

If you are working for yourself and you don’t have the Business Success and Lifestyle Freedom you want there is only one reason – YOU!

Sound harsh? Maybe it is. But remember this:

It is you who have created how your business operates and performs. If it isn’t delivering what you want, it is up to you to make change so that it does.

Related posts:

Have work life and business become a disease?

Why work-life balance is misleading.

It seems to me that our society has lost the plot in relation to how it allows work life and business to impact the things we value most in life.

The evidence can be seen in things such as lack of personal freedom, damaged family life and relationships, fractured communities, social problems, to name but a few.

Has work life become a disease creating a sick society?

We have created a society where work is the dominant force in our lives. Every other aspect of life dances around it. Things that are most important to us play second fiddle to work. What our society has created is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.

Does all this sound a bit dramatic? Maybe it is. But it does raise a serious question:

What is the purpose of working?

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not anti work or business in any way shape or form – far from it. It could, and should, be a fantastic tool for enhancing all areas of life. Maybe this is putting it over simplistically, but here is what I believe the purpose of working should be:

• To enhance personal freedom and really living life fully
• To support and constructively contribute to family life
• To allow communities to flourish

It’s time to create a new reality.

Imagine an economy built and measured on how work impacts personal freedom, family life, communities and how much it contributes to social problems. Maybe you think these are just the rantings of an idealist. I would beg to differ. Here is why:

The economy, society and work life, as it stands, has been created by people over time. This means something new and better can be created by people over time. And thereby lies the key – by people! The solution lies in each of us taking personal responsibility for creating something better.

So, I think it is time for a work life revolution. It is time to create something better for ourselves, our families, our communities. If this is something that resonates with you, I would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, think about this – how many people in their twilight years do you think say “I wish I had spent more time at work”

Related post: Why work-life balance is misleading.