What to Prioritize in your Business when Life gets Hard
If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that LIFE happens. Always.
There will always be a time when…
- Your car breaks down
- Your kid is sick
- Life is busy
- Tragedy happens.
We can try to plan for these times through – having an emergency fund of cash, getting ahead at work, hiring help – whatever the case may be for you.
But the fact remains that it will never be entirely smooth sailing, whether at work or our home life.
During those times, I challenge you with this: Remember why you started.
I can remember a week a bit ago when I had to remind myself of this exact same thing.
There was a death in my husband’s family, and he was going to be traveling quite far for the funeral. It didn’t make sense for our whole family to come, so he was going alone.
With him gone for 4 days, it was going to throw my work schedule for a loop. Kid schedules were a little crazy, I had appointments and meetings, and many more things. I was trying to figure out how to get babysitters and help so that I could shoulder the burden of plowing through and still meeting some business goals I had set for myself.
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And then I asked myself this very question: Why did I start this online business in the first place?
The truth is, I started it so that I (and we) could have FREEDOM. Schedule freedom to live life, to be there for our kids and families, and to take the time off when we need – without guilt.
And here I was, shoveling on self-imposed guilt and deadlines – the very thing I created this business to avoid.
And so, I didn’t meet my time-sensitive goals. I didn’t “crush it” at work for a few days. I put away work altogether and focused on my real life.
Because that was the whole reason I had started in the first place.
And so now I turn it to you:
Why did you start your business?
What was your hope and goal from the beginning?
If you do not have set priorities for your life and business, something else will always set them for you. There will always be someone or something that is “urgent.”
But, just because it’s urgent does not mean it’s important. The beauty is – YOU get to decide what’s truly important to you.
I challenge you to think through this NOW – why did you start in the first place? What’s truly important to you?
If you think through those things now, then when life happens, those priorities are already decided. You can look back at your priorities and know exactly how you should handle the given situation.
And let me be the one to tell you – it’s perfectly okay if the true priority is not your business. As much as I love social media, marketing and business success, it’s okay to shelve it all for a bit and focus on the truly important things in your life.
All of the work will be there later. Take some time for you and your family and regroup.
You’ll be glad that you did.