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How to Have More Freedom and Ease in Your Day

Work-Life Balance

More freedom and ease, please!

This is the answer I consistently get when I ask people what they want more of.

And to be clear, it’s ease they’re seeking, not for everything to be easy.

A seasoned business owner recently remarked, “I just want to walk, not run all day long.”

Can you relate? Holy smokes, I can.

As a business owner, there are so many things that you can do.

Shiny object syndrome is real.

And it fuels your exhaustion and fades your freedom.

As a 29+ year entrepreneur, I’ve certainly learned a thing or two. For some reason, it was often the hard way!

I hoped that if I just worked harder and pushed more, I could eventually get to the other side, create more balance, and finally experience freedom and ease.

In case you’re curious, hope is not a good strategy. (Ask me how I know.)

During my time prior to coaching, I was a caterer. It was a fun job that allowed me to be creative, travel around the state, and build a very successful boutique catering company.

Work-Life Balance

 

While I was successful, I was also working 10–12-hour days, often six days a week.

I was missing many of the activities my kids were participating in, things I cared about.

When my kids would come to me and ask me to do something with them, I’d tell them just 10-more minutes. When they wouldn’t come back and get me, I thought, “Score, I can get one more thing done.”

It took me a while, but I finally realized that I was NOT being the person I wanted to be.

My business was very successful, yet I was burnt-out, checked out, overwhelmed & exhausted, and at times, a bit prickly with the ones I loved.

 

It is possible to have both a thriving professional life AND a thriving personal life, simultaneously.

 

Both matter. Yet I think all of us have been on a journey at some point where deep down we know we’re sacrificing our physical health, our relationships, and mental health.

That was my journey.

I was working long hours and neglecting the people who meant the most to me.

And I had convinced myself I was doing it for them instead of to them.

As crazy as it sounds, I told myself that I was being present with my family even while my phone was in my hand when we were sitting on the couch. We were watching a movie “together,” and I was still in my inbox responding to clients.

Over the years as an entrepreneur, I’ve found that whenever I’m pushing, driving, and saying “YES” to more so I can finally “make it to the next level and just breathe,” it rarely happens. Even if it does, it comes at a cost.

In fact, that head down, shoulder in, masculine drive for more moved me further away from what I went into business for in the first place…to create more freedom, flexibility, and financial security.

That to-do list is like a fluffle of rabbits. It. Just. Keeps. Multiplying.

It’s time to build a business that will sustain the life you want to live, not consume it.

Interested in changing your To-Do list to a Success list so you can create more of what you want?

 

Here are 3 strategies to start moving you closer to the freedom and ease you desire:

 

Strategy #1: Pause for Freedom

Now, this may sound counterintuitive to you.

You’re probably thinking, “Lisa, for the love of Pete, I’m overwhelmed and exhausted just looking at my to-do list…and you want me to Pause?”

There’s some serious power in an intentional pause.

Not everything matters equally

We often experience overwhelm, stress, and exhaustion because we’re saying “YES” to something that seems like an opportunity in the moment. In reality, it’s a distraction dressed in the most clever of disguises.

If you’re not clear on what more freedom and ease in your day looks like, how will you invite more of it?

Pause and ponder this question:

What does more freedom and ease look like in my life?

**With specificity, not simply, “more time, a stacked retirement account, and someone to do the damn laundry for once.”

 

Strategy #2:  Prioritize Ease

Let’s be clear, when you’re saying “YES” to one thing, you’re saying “NO” to something else. There is always a tradeoff.

There are 24-hours in a day. That is non-negotiable.

You wake up, and there are all these things you could do, all these things you could have, and all these things you could know.

Which means you have to make choices about what you want and how you go about getting it.

Refer to Strategy #1 above, then ask yourself:

What do I want more of?

What do I want less of?

Then, put your MORE list in order of priority (what you want most at the top), and unapologetically move into action starting with #1.

 

Strategy #3: Structure = Freedom

The creative in you is probably cursing my name right now. It’s ok. I still love ya and completely understand.

Here’s the thing, when you have more structure, it will be easier to pause, prioritize, and intentionally invest your resources (time and financial) rather than spending them. Investing provides ROI.

Spending rarely does.

Pause, Prioritize, and then Ponder this:

If what I want is more of X, what’s one action I can take today to ensure that my calendar (and checkbook) reflect that? What’s one action that will structure my time around that priority?

 

Here’s a favorite quote of mine by Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, and author.

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space.

In that space is our power to choose our response.

In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

As I said earlier, there’s some serious power in an intentional pause. Choose your growth and freedom.

Need some help figuring out what more freedom and ease is for you? Set up a complimentary 20-minute call so I can support you, here.

 

 

 

Breaking Plates & Establishing Priorities

Breaking Plates & Establishing Priorities

“Fitting in is the greatest barrier to belonging.”
– Brene Brown

 

Brene Brown’s quote jolted me awake as I was leisurely sipping my coffee and enjoying my morning reading a few weeks ago. It stopped me mid slurp and made me think deeply (no easy feat at 5:30am) how the need to fit in over the years has at times pinched me off from my gifts, my success, my happiness…my authenticity.

It’s not something I’m comfortable admitting.

To be honest, it makes me cringe a bit.

But I believe it’s more important to share because as a woman who is confident, independent, and most definitely boundary bearing, I still find myself on occasion choosing to hustle for my worth…putting my priorities on the back burner while accommodating the expectations of others.

My ‘fitting in’ of choice over the years was the belief I needed to do it all to be a whole woman as a person in business.

Run a successful business, chauffeur my kids to multiple events (a day), always make family and friends a priority, keep a clean house, work out, keep my shit together, and, of course, make it look easy. And still get a good night’s sleep. Is this ringing true for you too?

I’ve experienced this many times in my 27-years as a business owner.

It’s something I see and hear consistently through my work with women.

We continue to add more and more spinning plates in the air, believing that we can balance them all.

I call BS.

We can selectively choose which plates to set down (instead of break) and which to keep as a priority.

It’s important to choose. It’s important to stay one step ahead of dropping a plate, or three. Or maybe the whole damn lot.

Don’t let the breaking plates determine what you do and don’t do.

You get to decide what’s a priority, where you place your focus, and what drops out of focus, instead of stopping to clean up the pieces of broken plates that inadvertently fell.

You’ve got to be clear on your priorities because let’s be honest, ‘WHO’ are those breaking plates? Your children? Your aging parents? Your clients? The people you lead at work? YOU?

Which plates are you breaking each time you add to the plethora you already have up there spinning when you say yes to someone else’s priority? When you accommodate, adjust, fit in, ignore your intuition, and move your boundaries…again?

work-life balance

Priorities

It’s important to say, “these are the things I need to do to accomplish everything I want to accomplish…and there simply isn’t enough time. AND, I get to decide what goes into the priorities and alignment of my life.”

Give yourself the gift of slowing down for an afternoon so that you can get clear what and who you want to be, what you want to create.

There are 24-hours in a day for everyone, no wiggle room there.

How will you prioritize and structure those 24-hours?

How will you fit in your self-care? How will you build in your work, parenting, family & friends, personal and professional growth…your belonging?

What do you need so that you can say no to what’s pulling you off course from your goals and putting your priorities on the back burner, adjusting yourself for the expectations or needs of others?

It’s about aligning with your priorities.

It’s not about balance.

It’s not about keeping 457 plates spinning in perfect balance.

Create your vision then align your goals and daily actions with who and where you want to be. Without apology.

Powerful possibilities come with prioritizing. This I know for sure.

As a result of my epiphany that morning, it has put a megawatt spotlight on the work I do with women, as well as my WHY. 

Clarity is a beautiful thing. It’s impossible to make intentional and aligned choices in our life, and business, without it.

It can also be a double-edged sword at times… highlighting areas that we’d prefer to keep out of view, from others as well as ourselves.  This was the case for me as I was enjoying my coffee that morning.

Digging deeper, becoming more grounded in my gifts and my brilliance (how dare I claim my brilliance for fear of getting too big for my britches…), I was able to see I was the one getting in my way, choosing to experience life through a lens that kept me over-balancing and out of alignment.

When I read those eight little words that morning, it jolted me awake and into alignment, like a chiropractor…with no copay. Win-win.

Struggle with Time Management? Do This.

Time Management

As a business strategist, one of the struggles I hear most often is the topic of time management.
Has this statement ever rolled off your lips?

“I need to be better at time management.”

Here’s the thing, time management isn’t the issue.
It’s your priority management.
Are you prioritizing your schedule, or scheduling your priorities?
If you schedule your priorities, your goals are much easier (and faster) to attain.  If you prioritize your schedule, you may have a great schedule, but it’s less likely you’ll achieve your goals.
Here’s a quick video where I share three strategies for how to get clear on your priorities so you can create a plan of action that will work for you.

 
We all have 24 hours in a day. It’s how we manage those moments and hours within the day so that we can achieve what we want and still have time AND energy at the end of the day.

These 3 tips will help you shift your thoughts about time management so you can achieve all that you want and still have a life and have energy at the end of the day.
  1. Clarity. Be sure to have crystal clarity about exactly what it is you want. When your business is fully ‘cooked’, what does it look like? Where do you need to be at the end of the year for you to feel you’re moving closer to your goals? And even more, who do you need to be to make that happen?
  2. Skills. What are the skills you need to augment or acquire to create the success you want? The skills that have gotten you to where you are now won’t be enough to take you to the next level.
  3. Prioritizing. I cannot stress this enough. Taking the time to prioritize your vision and defining the skills you’ll need, will allow you to take what’s is important and place these action items on the front burner and place the urgent items on the back burner. No more whack-a-mole all day long.

Knowing your priorities helps you not only leave your time management struggles behind but also enables you to create structure and freedom throughout your day.

If you need help with your goal and priority setting, feel free to comment below and let me know what’s going on for you. I’ll personally get back to you with ideas to help you gain focus and traction!

time management

Priority management over time management will give you your compass

 

Are YOU Earning Your Busy Merit Badge?

Many of the entrepreneurs I know would give a resounding “yes” to that question!  Maybe you would too.  By the end of this blog post you might not feel so strongly about it, though.

My private one-on-one work with clients always begins with getting them in touch with their deepest desires and doing some Big Vision planning.

Next we dive deep into structure. We tackle the big three: time management, boundary-setting, and building a schedule.  Let’s start with time management, a hot topic these days!

Time management can feel a bit like going backwards.  Do you think about the timeslots of your day and eventually find yourself thinking, “this is NOT the freedom I wanted when I left my job!”?  Maybe you left a stifling structure behind when you broke out on your own.  Maybe you built your business on the side while working full time.  But now that you’re out on your own, you are busy all. the. time. And still not getting enough done!

Being “busy” is all the rage.  In fact, Silvia Bellezza, a professor of marketing at Columbia Business School, recently did a study that found that there’s a common idea that “a busy person possesses desired human capital characteristics (competence, ambition) and is scarce and in demand.”

But being busy might be killing us.  Bellezza wrote, “Working all the time is dysfunctional and becoming a workaholic society is not healthy.”, and….it’s not sustainable.

Okay, chances are you didn’t follow your passion in order to become a workaholic.  You wanted flexibility and freedom!  Nonetheless, we’ve still got to get the structure in place in our business so that we can have the fun and freedom we’d dreamed of in our big full lives.  You’ve probably heard me say this before: Structure = Freedom.

One thing about a merit badge: it’s to show other people.

If you’re finding that by Friday your to-do list is longer than ever and you’ve run out of time, we should talk.  If you want to work less, earn more, and create the lifestyle you dream of, you are in the right place!  Sign up here for a complimentary 1-hour clarity call where we can talk about the ways I can help.