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As an entrepreneur, the default is to just keep pushing. But as we keep moving the goalposts further out, it’s easy to forget that the whole reason we started this business. It was to make our lives more fun, flexible, and fulfilling–not to work ourselves into early graves.
So how do you know when you can stop, shut the laptop, and say enough is enough? Listen in as Nicki and Kate discuss their own personal challenges with boundary setting and how to overcome the feeling that your work is never done.
Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!
A Sneak Peek at the Episode
[2:25] As a business owner, setting boundaries around your working day is tough, especially as there is no end to your to-do list. Nicki has also struggled with knowing when enough is enough.
[6:05] When you are so invested in your business and have sales coming in automatically, you have more time to come up with all kinds of ideas to implement. The trouble is, there is never going to be an end to those ideas.
[7:30] It’s tempting to keep moving the goalposts and keep making bigger strides but it can feel like a never ending impossible, especially if you’re not celebrating wins along the way. Constantly judging yourself against others only worsens the feeling that you’re not doing enough.
[11:05] Setting quarterly goals has helped the Nicki K Media team be more strategic with projects and prioritize the tasks that will most impact the business.
[12:44] You didn’t build this business to be at your desk from 9 to 5 every day, you built this to give yourself some freedom. As you hit your goals and add to your to-do list, be sure to add things for your self on there, including half days and vacations.
[17:02] The chronic challenge of being a high achiever is being satisfied with “good” and not necessarily great every single day or every single week. It’s hard to accept that not everything has to be A+—sometimes B+ work is enough!
[19:05] It can be very easy to find yourself using nights and weekends to “get ahead”. But remember you aren’t really “getting ahead”—your schedule is a vacuum and you will always fill that time. You have to build in those parameters and they have to be ones you are comfortable with.
[21:37] As a business owner, especially if you don’t have an operations manager tracking your time, you have to be aware of your schedule, impose limits on yourself, and block out time for strategic thinking and creativity.
[26:49] It can be useful to batch tasks like meetings, but batching creative projects can be more difficult. It comes down to knowing yourself, knowing where you tend to trip up, and putting in and enforcing boundaries.
[31:39] If you are looking at your to-do list and feel overwhelmed or disappointed in yourself, then the problem is with your to-do list, it’s not a problem with you. Just making progress on something worthwhile in your business should be enough.
[34:21] For a lot of us, the default is to just keep pushing. But we have to take the time to pause, look at how we spend our time, celebrate the wins, and be kind to ourselves.
Must-Hear Takeaways
As with every episode, we highly encourage you to listen to the entire conversation! But, here are a few of the highlights:
“Your to-do list should never be a reason to be disappointed with yourself, if you’re looking at your to do list and you feel overwhelmed or you feel disappointment with yourself, then the problem is with your to do, it’s not a problem with you.” –Nicki
“It really comes down to knowing yourself, knowing where you tend to trip up and putting in boundaries and enforcing those boundaries because a boundary is no good unless you enforce it.” –Nicki
“I didn’t build a business and none of us built a business to give ourselves a job. Right? Almost all of us built a business, yes because we wanted to create some positive change in the world but also because we wanted some freedom, we didn’t want to just go in and work for somebody else and do what somebody else tell us what to do, and be on somebody else’s schedule.” – Nicki
“We didn’t start a business so it would become our entire lives. And don’t get me wrong, I love this business, I love working, however, if you do anything all the time, it’s going to burn you out you need time away from whatever you’re doing whether it be work or a hobby or parenting or anything along those lines, you need a break.” –Nicki
“It’s hard to stop. It’s hard to set boundaries and then enforce those boundaries. It’s very easy to say ‘yes these are my working hours and I’m going to end the workday at 6pm,’ it’s so much harder though right at 6pm to say ‘okay, shut the laptop and I’m walking out and not thinking about work, turning my brain off.’ Especially running a business, it’s very hard to turn your brain off when it’s everywhere.” –Kate
“It get’s into the concept of the goal post, right? Yeah it’s so easy to move the goal post, and to say ‘okay I hit this, I’m not even going to stop and recognize that I hit my goal, and now I’m just pushing it out further.’ And ‘okay we hit this number so let’s push it out further’ and always moving it. And especially if you’re not taking time to celebrate it along the way, it just feels like never ending. Impossible. It’s always in front, versus, ‘okay we actually achieved that do we need to move this goal post? Or do we need an entirely different goal post to work towards?'” – Kate
“There’s that mindset shift and the goal posts, kind of limiting the goal posts to compare ourselves to ourselves to say, I did what I needed to do and that’s good and that is enough”- Kate
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About the Energize Your Online Business Podcast
Are you sick of the stress, chaos, and risk of trying to keep up with the next big thing in digital marketing? And what about the confusion of trying to scale, build a team, and still try to make sure your business is worth the effort it takes to run it? You are not alone.
Join Nicki Krawczyk, a 20-year marketing veteran and owner of a multi-seven-figure-per-year digital training company and her co-host Kate Sitarz as they bust through the online business industry echo chamber to talk about how to make consistent, predictable sales and how to scale your business with simple and stress-free systems.
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Previous Episodes
Ep. 8: Nearly Doubling Revenue Year Over Year – Megan’s Story