By Susan Crutcher, Life Empowerment Mentor
How do you find balance between life and business/career?
For the self-employed complementary care (or holistic) practitioner, the lines between life and business are blurry at best. At worst, there is no line at all and the practitioner crosses into the area of servitude vs service and often becomes exhausted, overwhelmed and drained at all levels. All too many times, this leads to a serious illness requiring a lengthy recovery period … which, for many small business owners, can bring about the end of their business.
For those with a career, it is a little easier if they are going into the office/workplace at regularly scheduled times. Since CoVid, those scheduled times have disappeared for many as they do their best to work from home while managing the additional distractions they did not have at the office/workplace. If boundaries and scheduling are not put in place, very soon there is no balance between life and work. Both life and work begin to suffer as the blurry lines get blurrier and blurrier with the potential of great dissatisfaction for yourself and your career.
So, how can you create better life and work/career balance?
Instead of trying to juggle everything as a separate item, and feeling like they’re all going to crash at some point, there are ways to integrate so that, while the boundaries between life and business may blur slightly, the lines are still very much there. Integration, when done consciously and with intention, can benefit and create balance.
Knowing yourself, your goals, your primary focus, your strengths and weaknesses, your energy ebbs and flows, your purpose, profile and various archetypes can assist in guiding you in the merging of your life and business. That list might sound overwhelming in and of itself but, the more you understand yourself the easier it becomes to blend all the ingredients of life and business.
This includes blending interests and items you enjoy into your business in various ways increases the positive energy you transmit which then attracts clients who are meant to work with you while simultaneously allowing life to flow more easily.
EXAMPLE from an ‘item’ I’ve learned in one of my many certifications:
I am, archetypically, an Alchemist, a Teacher and a Jester in that order. Simply knowing the sequence made a major difference in how I approach decisions.
The Alchemist ‘makes something out of nothing’ … to me, that is about seeing the possibilities and potential in and at any given time.
The Teacher … is sharing the lessons I’ve learned from my life-long learning and personal experiences and translating those lessons into tangible ways for others to understand and incorporate them into their lives.
The Jester … is bringing not just humour but also a different point of view to a given situation. This, in marketing terms, is what is sometimes referred to as ‘secret sauce’ or ‘super power’ or ‘unique selling proposition/USP’. It is a large part of my uniqueness which, in turn, attracts people into my circle of influence.
Those archetypes, together, transmit a specific combination of energy that only I can emit. Referring to last month’s article of April 28, where I wrote about “Authentic YOU” … you can’t get more authentic than being the same you in all areas of your life.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE from my many and varied interests: photography, wildlife, contributing to the planet, meeting new people, bird watching and being in nature.
Recently, I was out on our trails with my binoculars and camera as well as all the cleaning and supplies needed for restocking the five privies on our private wildlife nature reserve. Along the route between privies, I stopped to check bird boxes we had installed to encourage specific species to nest. At several of them I had the privilege of seeing birds busy with their nest building. Near the different ponds, a nice variety of birds were seen which I took the time to stop and watch for a while, take a few photos and move on to the next privy. And, I had a relaxing break under the gazebo overlooking a pond enjoying the peace and serenity.
Cleaning and restocking the privies is a necessary part of maintaining our property which has hiking trails open to the public. The trails and property are also a drawing card for our three vacation rental properties. The wide variety of birds is another drawing card for those choosing to vacation here. The photos help promote both the birds and the natural surroundings to potential guests.
Speaking of potential guests, I often meet people on the trails where conversations flow easily and naturally. Many topics come up in those conversations which can lead down interesting avenues such as: camera club members wanting to take photos; knowing someone who is looking for a venue to host a workshop; relatives visiting in the future and needing a place to stay nearby; hiking clubs looking for new trails to explore; opportunities for coaching; first-timers needing directions; etc.
So … I have the opportunity to embrace and enjoy my hobbies while, simultaneously, gathering material for advertising and promotion of businesses; maintaining the property and, most of all, relaxing and being in the moment.
I hope those examples helped you see how you might incorporate or mingle areas of your life and business to create more natural, balanced flow in your world.
Are you curious to know more about anything mentioned in this article? Simply email me directly with any questions and I’m happy to reply to you personally. Email is private to me only … no one else sees or reads it.
Of course, you’re always welcome to share any comments and/or suggestions with me as well
I look forward to hearing from you!
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