Unlike Tim Ferriss, some of us do not work 4 hours a week. For small business owners, it’s not even 40 hours a week. It’s roughly…400 hours a week.
Sometimes, we’re so inundated with our work that our businesses might look like this. Does yours?
If we were to look at our business (or life) so closely with a magnified glass, this is all that we’ll see – blurry nothingness. And this is very likely to happen after a full year of blood, sweat, more blood and more sweat.
As a result…
- we can’t make sound decisions
- we are easily frustrated with the business direction
- we wish that we could take a vacation from our business
- we want to go back to 9-5 jobs
Two Solutions to Business Suffocation
…what you’re doing. Literally stop [even thinking about your business]. Step away.
I had to do this recently. I went to Alaska on a cruise for a week where there was nearly zero communication. And when you get back, you will realize that your business is still intact. The world hasn’t blown up.
I had a chance to breathe and realize a clear direction. I was able to see the bigger picture…in all its glory…and in full clarity.
(image is A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Seurat – arrow points at zoomed area in first image)
What is the point of working so hard, making money, and not spending it? …on things that make us happy. I Facebook‘ed this a couple of days ago.
There are a few things that make me happy. And I finally purchased a machine that would yield me happiness at whim. It was a present to myself.
How will you treat yourself this year?
Those who love their jobs do the best work. If you’re burnt out and potentially hate your job, your work will reflect it. So, to avoid capsizing your own business in this ocean of stress…
- turn off your computer, phone and work-brain
- disconnect yourself from everything
- devote time to yourself
- reduce the noise
- treat yourself to something nice… just because …you deserve it
Start anew. Rejuvenated. Fresh. Ready for 2011.
If you want…
- Share this with a friend if you think it’ll help him or her via email or Tweet and Facebook buttons below.
- Comment how you will treat yourself.
Cheers to 2011,
Lawrence Chan
P.S. Did you see the episode where Stewie on Family Guy looked at A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte? That’s where I got the idea.
P.P.S. This year, I also plan to disconnect by snowboarding. I haven’t gone for about 4 years, so I’m probably going to eat…a lot of snow.
P.P.P.S. Super tiny spoiler alert for Mini Shopaholic…
Luke Brandon (husband and super workaholic) –
Losing all my technology has been weirdly liberating. I’ve been forty-eight hours now without email or Internet or even a proper phone. And you know what? I’ve survived.
So true, def. need to step back and breathe sometimes. Thanks for sharing!
Great post! I tried to do this the week of Thanksgiving for 2 weeks. It didn’t work. I can’t say that I actually took a vacation. I was doing something, anything everyday… This is getting plastered on my desktop as a reminder. Thanks for your insight. :)
Your timing with posts are always impeccable as far as relating to what I’m going through. I’m trying really hard right now to take the last 2 wks of this month off just to re-energize and have a semblance of a life. Not sure if I can get 2 wks, but I’ll be happy with even 1 at this point. Taking a break is so vital to your overall sanity!
As someone who grew up LOVING the outdoors and things like camping, hiking, climbing, biking, etc. …I don’t enjoy being connected with technology, AT ALL… Disconnecting from it all has always come easy for me, but of course each new thing that comes along; Twitter, Facebook, etc. still distracts me for a while. But then after a phase, I reach burnout and I tone things down a whole lot.
I don’t just mean I take a short break, I mean *permanently*. Call me anti-social, but I can’t deny my real feelings towards “social media”… I don’t need 1,000 friends, I just need 10. And I prefer to meet up with them in real life, and do real things.
So, over the past two years I’ve turned off almost ALL my Facebook notifications, and I’ve turned off TweetDeck’s update for my main Twitter feed… Then when I finally got a smartphone this year, I went through the same phases all over again, and eventually turned things way down.
Call me senile and grumpy, but I can only handle X number of random acquaintances tweeting “Just booked a wedding in Fiji OMG!!!!” …or… “DANG my workshop is sold out!!!”
Unless you’re TRULY a close friend and I truly care about you, I just don’t care to engage in such a level of “social media”… Maybe I’m not cut out for this business, but I have a hunch that if I’m just true to who I am, there WILL be others out there who can relate to that, and who I can do business with. :-)
Thanks for posting this, Lawrence!
=Matt=
LOL!!
Your comment, “Just booked a wedding in Fiji OMG!!!!” is too funny. I admit that I sometimes do that too.
Screw you guys for booking weddings in fiji!
lol jk =)
Bravo! I made the move to full-time photography this fall after teaching for the past 18 years:) I love the freedom my business gives me to travel and set my own schedule….however it is truly necessary to “unplug” on a regular basis. If you want to be fresh and juiced-up for our clients, you need to do the rejuicing on a regular basis! I’m not which is harder…the business or my 27 fourth graders!!!!
Yep…great post and great reminders! I will attempt to do this on my 10-day vacation to the PNW w/ my family. I admit it’s super difficult for me to disconnect and to actually “stop”. But I will try!
Well put, mate. This is something I’m constantly having to remind myself to do…
By the way, can I assume that the “A Sunday Afternoon” arrow is a glorious nod to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? If so…well done, sir. Well done. :)
Human should be spending most of their time thinking of them self and how to have fun to the max.
Work to live and not live to work. Thus, minimize the work so that you can live the living happily.
It’s funny…people don’t ever think of doing that. Especially, when they run their own business. People get so involved in what they do, which isn’t wrong to love what you do, that you tend to forget what’s going on around you. You only want to focus on the task at hand and nothing else. When others ask how things are going, you snap because you have so many things on your mind.
You’re right Lawrence. Sometimes it gets to be too much. Sometimes it gets you ridiculously close to the edge. Thanks for reminding us to step back and appreciate life for what it is.
Cheers to starting completely fresh in 2011!! lets have some fun, and come up with some new creativity.
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