Newsflash: You are not your business.

You still work there.

It’s important to remember that your business is an extension of you.

This one mindset shift will allow you to start understanding that there are levels to the goals you are trying to accomplish.

When you make decisions about what’s best for your life, your business is just one aspect of the decision-making process. You. Your relationships. Your lifestyle. Your commitments. They make up the other parts.

No matter the circumstances, there is always a version of your business that can function, and that’s what I want you to identify today.

Whether your business is still an idea in your head or you’ve been operating for a few years, here are two questions to ask yourself to make sure that your business fits your life and goals instead of something you’re just cramming in.

 

1. Why are you really doing this?

Take the time to list all the reasons why having a business will be a benefit for you. No one starts a viable business on a whim. You have hopes and dreams that you want your business to help provide for you. There are things you want to add to your life, and there’s things you’re desperately wanting to subtract.

It’s time to be very honest because challenges will happen, and if the only thing you have to fall back on is “I just liked the idea of it,” you will give up prematurely.

Your WHY might be financial-related like paying off your house early or retiring your partner. Once you have a money number in mind, you know what’s enough.

Your WHY might be time-related. You only want to devote a certain number of hours or days to your business a month. Once you know your time limits, you can decide what business model will allow you to work within those constraints.

Your WHY might be exploration. You’re not sure if this is something that you want to do for the rest of your life, but you want to experiment and see what happens. You want to have actual data instead of just wondering.

Once you determine your WHY, use it as a filter. Use it as a way to measure whether you are being successful or not based on what’s actually important to you.

 

2. How will it impact other areas of your life? And is it worth it?

Starting or maintaining a business requires a commitment. Working on it means time that you can’t spend doing something else.

What else is important to you in your life?

There are 24 hours in a day. 168 hours in one week. We spend a good portion of that sleeping.

If you had to choose between your business and something else, what are the things that take priority?

Once you’ve identified the areas of your life that you want to keep in consideration, make sure that they are part of your decision-making process going forward.

 

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Having a business doesn’t have to overwhelm you. There’s a version that fits into your life perfectly right now. Focus on that, and when your life circumstances change, re-evaluate and build towards a different version.

If you need help, we offer a business coaching workshop that walks you through answering the exact questions you need to identify the perfect version of your business right now. Reach out to us today.