Happy new year ya’ll – I haven’t published a blog post in almost a month, and I’m finally okay with it.
I wasn’t though.
I was feeling guilty.
For the first week or so of the new year I was watching friends post about their goals, or send emails about how they were hustling while other people were watching bowl games – and I let it get to me.
I think it’s easy to fall into that trap.
The “hustle trap”.
I work for myself – but I still managed to feel a bit ashamed that I was spending time relaxing and visiting with family (how dare I….) while other people just like me were out there getting after it.
So I spent some time unpacking WHY I felt this way, and I ended up realizing that I was doing it to myself.
Unnecessarily. I gave myself permission to relax without owing an explanation.
I recorded a video unpacking my thoughts on this. I hope you find it valuable, let me know.
I totally get it!
Years ago, when I was starting out I would start work a 2 am, and work until 6 pm x 6 days a week. Not because I had too, but because I thought that I was supposed to.
I eventually realised, that all I achieved was not seeing both of my kids grow up. I missed all of their milestones.
This was ironic, because they were my driver to work so hard to be what a “Good Dad” was meant to do.
I then actively cut back on the hours that I worked, and it was not long before I realised that I was making the same money no matter how long I was at work.
I was simply, automating, delegating, and simplifying what I did each day.
But the biggest thing for me was that I was confusing “Movement for Achievement”, I was justifying the hours as long as I was busy doing stuff. Then as per your post, I started to make personal time appointments in my diary, i.e. take the afternoon of for the school sports carnival. Suddenly I became so efficient that I could cram my entire day’s workload into a morning just so I could take time off.
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing – I told my girlfriend Sara about the blog post I was writing, and she said that too many people equate “hours” to “results”, and they’re definitely not the same thing. I really like the way you put it: “Confusing movement for acheivement”; great stuff. Thanks for reading Baden.
I totally get it when I first started as a VA I worked non-stop. Now that I’m older and wiser I have defined my days by what’s important to me and that is more time and freedom in the afternoons.
I wake up early get at it and then focus on things that are Kirsten oriented and that works for me.
I am working smarter not harder and not more. The whole hustle mentality is overrated and so over spoken.
Do you my friend kick that guilt to the curb, you Rock!!!
Thank you! Yeah, even though I know better, I still find myself falling back into the “trap” sometimes.
Greg!! I can’t believe I didn’t see this earlier, especially since I’m the “friend named Jamie”, haha! Also, thank you for telling the whole world I’m an old lady who goes to bed at 8:30pm, LOL! 😀
No, in all seriousness, I love that our conversations prompted some reflection; they did for me too. I love that my business (and life) goes through seasons of wild productivity coupled with seasons of hibernation (saying this after having spent the last 2 months of 2017 in the midst of a family situation that required 100% focus without any time for work).
Thank you for sharing this type of stuff over here on the MonkeyPod blog, too. It’s super important for us to share the good, the nerdy and the challenging parts of our entrepreneurial lives.
Hey – well, to be fair, I also gave you credit for getting up and after it like a boss! But thanks for reading/watching; I certainly don’t have it all figured out, but little reminders and adjustments like these are how we get better! Let’s crush some goals this year.