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Running your own business can be both fun and frustrating at times, but there is always something you can do to keep yourself relaxed and focused. When things get too stressful or you feel like giving up, take a break!
It’s important to understand that no one else will walk this path for you, so don’t try to handle everything by yourself. Take a few minutes every day to do something that makes you happy and enjoy it, because you'll need your breaks later.
In fact, research has shown that people who work less than five hours a week are as successful as those who work more than 15. So why not aim for the former?
Running your own show may help you focus on what matters most in life- helping others and creating an experience they will talk about for years to come- but staying motivated should be your top priority.
Business owners often put a lot of pressure on themselves to produce results quickly, which sometimes leads to poor quality or even harmful services being offered. This could hurt their reputation or make them lose customers.
Fortunately, you don’t have to go through this alone. There are many ways to motivate yourself and help other entrepreneurs reach their goals. Here are some tips for keeping calm and focusing on doing good work.
One of the biggest reasons why business owners stop doing their job is because they give up. They believe that nothing can happen for them, so they quit trying to achieve their dreams.
Running your own business includes keeping busy, learning new things, promoting yourself, interacting with people, creating relationships, investing money into resources and tools, developing skills, responding to messages, staying motivated, etc.
If you have given up, then you are not working hard enough or smartly to succeed. You will probably fail!
Hands-off managers sometimes don't realize how much power they actually have. As a manager, you create opportunities for others by offering rewards or benefits to those in your organization. You get very little return on this investment unless you go beyond offering a reward and taking action to help someone else perform their jobs better.
I’ve heard stories where an employee was leaving for another position and the owner actively worked against the transition. He didn’t want the other person to feel appreciated and therefore left feeling underappreciated himself. It is his responsibility as a leader to make sure that his employees have what they need to be successful at work and to keep them engaged.
One of the biggest reasons why employers have to be involved in their employees’ business dealings is because they can’t trust others to do it responsibly. As we've discussed, workplace gossip is damaging and harmful, not just to you but also to those around you who may get hurt or even fired as a result of it.
If you find out that someone is talking about you behind your back, confront them immediately! Don’t let these individuals drag down the rest of the team.
It's everyone's job to keep an eye out for potential red flags when performing due diligence on anyone -- including superiors. If something seems off, say so and take appropriate action.
Don't allow malicious talk to destroy your reputation or that of other people.
As human beings, we need both structure and freedom in our lives.
We need to have rules and guidelines that help us maintain consistency and efficiency, as well as understand what is expected of us so we can focus on doing our job. We also need some amount of space to operate outside these boundaries.
This internal balance helps you be successful because it gives you time to think about how you are going to handle new challenges or changes happening around you.
You will not perform at your highest potential if you do not give yourself time to reflect and process information.
As an owner, leader, teacher, parent, friend — anyone with responsibilities beyond just themselves –you must create this environment for yourself.
It may feel like a lot of work at first, but eventually you will find ways to use this part of your life as a tool to improve yourself and others.
By giving yourself this space, you will achieve higher results than if you were with people all the time, constantly nudging them towards their goal.
Consistency is one of the most important qualities in being successful at business. What I mean by that is staying within regular patterns, which can be good or bad depending on the situation.
As human beings we develop habits and routines as part of our everyday life. We become accustomed to these repeated actions and experiences.
These practices help us conserve energy and time, give us some sense of security, and make us feel better about ourselves.
But what if you were able to improve your effectiveness by breaking up those routines? What if every now and then you needed to do something different?
That’s when consistency becomes a problem.
If you have too much consistency, you may lose touch with how well you are doing your job. You could even start to feel like you are not performing very well, which would hurt your self-confidence.
On the other hand, if you never stick to anything long enough, you will fail to learn anything properly.
When starting your business, make every decision as hands off as possible! This is not only for now, but also in the future when you decide to take over the world. As mentioned before, being in control of your destiny takes work and leadership skills that many people do not have.
As leader, you will be expected to make decisions and influence others to make the right choice. If you are never faced with a decision, then how can you expect to lead someone else?
Also note that as your own personal brand grows, so does yours as a leader. People may come to you for advice or input, and if you don’t feel like giving it, they probably won’t hold this against you.
On the other hand, if you always seem to have things all figured out – well, then nobody seems to want what you have to say.
Changing how you manage your workplace can go very, very wrong quickly. If you’re constantly having to challenge poor work practices or skills that are no longer needed, it may be time to look for new jobs.
If you feel like your job has become more about changing what you do rather than teaching people something new, then it may be time to search for somewhere else to spend your career.
It's important to remember that there is always someone who wants to learn those things you're spending all your energy on educating others about.
A few days ago, we discussed why giving good performance reviews should be an easy thing to do. But if you've got nothing to put into review, what are they worth? Absolutely nothing!
That was the case when most companies made their employees earn their paychecks. Now, with the constant need to improve efficiency, bad evaluations mean nothing.
Work can be fun! Finding ways to make your job interesting is one of the biggest perks of working. You will enjoy what you do if you find ways to connect with other people, promote teamwork, and use your skills to help others.
You’ll also want to consider how much time you should devote to your career. If you put in too many hours, you may burn out and lose interest in what you are doing. On the other hand, if you don’t take enough breaks, you won’t get anything done outside of work and that would not be good for your personal life.
A great way to achieve this is by using the “two hats” approach. For example, instead of spending eight hours at the office every day, only spend four or five during business days and then leave the rest of the week open for things such as hobbies, family, etc.
A lot of people talk about how effective the hands-off approach is, but what they fail to mention is that this also creates a situation where your business can get run into the ground or destroyed.
Without someone in charge, there’s no one to keep an eye on whether or not things are running smoothly. If something does go wrong, there’s less of a chance of it being fixed quickly because there’s nobody who can do so.
In both cases mentioned above, this can be disastrous for your business!
If you want to ensure that your business will stay afloat and succeed, then you need to put in some effort to manage and lead it. This could mean hiring new employees, developing leadership skills, promoting from within, etc.
It may feel like a hassle at first, but investing time in your career will pay off in the long run.
