Are we ever actually turning off our business?
A concept came up in a call I had last week - about how often we do things like self-care, that are actually really in service to being better business owners.
I know that I’m 100% guilty of this.
I take breaks and rest, so that I show up better.
It’s not because I’m doing it to take care of myself, overall.
And wasn’t that insight a kick in the ass?
One of the reasons I left my corporate job was because I wasn’t healthy. I was managing 3 chronic conditions, and working 10-12 hour days.
My parents had shared custody of my dog, because I couldn’t work those hours and take care of her. My visitation was the weekends.
I was functioning solely by acupuncture, cupping, and takeout food.
The irony, though, is that at least when I took time off, I took time off. I deleted my work email app. I turned on my out of office, and told work to consider me out of the country with zero access to them. I was able to completely disengage.
Last March, I took my first vacation since starting my business, and I was a mess. The harder I tried to relax and not think about my business, the more I thought about it. I bought a $20 journal from the cruise gift shop so I could at least write out all my thoughts, in the hope of getting them out of my head. My best friend deserves a medal for putting up with me.
So this insight, that so many of us are only taking care of ourselves so we can show up better in our business, gave me a significant pause. It made me wonder, how can we focus on ourselves and our health, just to serve ourselves? How do we actually detach?
It’s something I’ve decided to explore for myself. At the urging of another friend, I’m going to do this out in the open. Sharing things along the way. I suspect it will be a lot more of what doesn’t work before I know what does.
I don’t know how much will be on social media, so if you aren’t already, feel free to follow me on my blog, on Substack, or subscribe to my email list.
And if this resonates for you, I’d love to know!