How’s your relationship with your business? If you’ve been following Michelle’s tips last month hopefully you’ve rekindled your passion and remembered what was so special about it in the first place!
But keeping the spark alive in your relationship with your business can be difficult. We all know what it’s like – what started out so fresh and exciting can begin to seem humdrum. And when life gets busy, and the tasks start to mount up, then it’s easy to fall out of love. Those minor niggles are suddenly a whole lot less endearing.
While of course we’d all prefer to spend our time on the fun bits of our jobs, most of us have things that we’d rather just put off. There are a few ways to tackle that feeling, and at least come to accept our businesses flaws, even if we can’t quite love them.
Prioritisation
Much talked about, not always wisely done. You may have seen the advice to ‘eat the frog’, which means getting the tasks you find unpleasant done first in your working day, so they’re out of the way. But there’s a great Stephen Covey quote that says ‘don’t prioritize your schedule; schedule your priorities’. If you do that and focus on the activities that drive value for your business, then you’ll probably find fewer frogs on the menu. You’re also more likely to enjoy and appreciate your work when you know that what you’re doing is moving your business forward.
Mind your language
How we describe tasks can give a really clear indication of how we feel about them. It’s so easy to find ourselves mentally saying ‘Ugh, I’ve got to deal with all that stupid admin’. But that negative language can create habits of thought that then become difficult to break. If you always say ‘stupid admin’ then you’ll resent it every time you have to deal with it. Try a bit of the Pollyanna spirit and switch to neutral or even positive language instead. If you say ‘I’m going to tackle the admin, which I don’t love but I do know that paying the bills keeps the lights on’, then at least you are recognising the importance of the task.
Delegate, delegate, delegate
Does it really have to be you? Really, really? I have seen my clients both resentful of parts of their job, and very reluctant to hand them over to anyone else. Which is natural, it’s their business after all. But maybe, you can give up a bit of control. Maybe one of those actions you prioritise is to take the time to train someone else up, because the short-term loss of time is worth it for the long term gain. Or maybe you can outsource?
If that task is so core to your business that only you can do it, then you actually still have a choice. You can grit your teeth and choose love. Because we all know that real love takes work, right?
Guest Blog: Rebecca Cullen, Business Coach
Follow her Facebook page.
With more than 25 years of varied business experience,
she’s been enjoying putting that experience to good use
with coaching clients.
