What Are You Waiting For?

We all have some thing that we are putting off in our lives. The timing isn’t right. Someone else needs to step up to the plate….. It usually involves phases such as:

I’ll be happy when…
I’ll relax when…
I’ll take more time off when…
I’ll travel more when…
I’ll spend more time with my family when…
I’ll invest more when…

What are you waiting for?

Life is meant to be lived in the moment. This moment, right here, right now.

Most of the phrases above typically end in “when I have more money” or “when things slow down at work”

I have been on this hamster wheel and I can tell you that there isn’t any getting off with that approach. It’s always “Hang in there family. I’m almost there and then we can really have some fun.” Except the time for fun never gets here.

You don’t get any extra points for putting off until tomorrow what you can do today.

~ Choose to be happy TODAY. (Happiness, by the way, is a choice that only YOU can make so why not be happy today?)
~ Take time off TODAY! Maybe it’s a few hours and not the 3 week vacation of your dreams, but start somewhere. I walk my boys to school almost every day. It’s our time together and it means the world to me. I can just as easily start my meetings at 9:30 as I can at 9.
~ Plan a trip TODAY for the next 30 days. Maybe it’s camping this time versus the Four Seasons, but commit to doing what you love. We travel as a family a couple of times a year. We are so busy with work, life and ‘chores’ when we are home that the time we spend traveling is priceless to us. It is our time to truly be a family and enjoy each other.

I know that it’s scary sometimes to take time out for yourself and your family. I have often struggled with feeling like I needed to spend every waking moment on my business or it would not succeed, or I would not be worth the money that I made.

When I lived that way I was frustrated, cranky, scared and jealous of all the people around me who seemed to be having all sorts of fun in life while I wasn’t. For a while I felt superior. “They just are not as committed to their success as I am.” But then I realized that I was the one missing the boat.

You can have a successful business AND a life. In fact “having a life” outside of work is a critical requirement for having a successful business.

So get out there and do something TODAY that you have been putting off. Something fun and completely not work related.

2 Comments

  1. Lisa Wilder on March 16, 2011 at 7:16 am

    This reminds me of a tweet I saw the other day that just stunned me. It read, “You have to care more about your business than you do about yourself.”

    Really?! I couldn’t disagree more. If you care more about your biz than you do about yourself…you will burn yourself out and nothing will get done.

    I’d go so far as to say it’s just the opposite. You have to care more about yourself than you do about your biz.

    You have to care enough about yourself to take good care of your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. You have to know when to power through and when to quit pushing and take some downtime.

    You are not your biz. If your biz died tomorrow, you’d live on without it.

    However, your biz IS an extension and expression of you and its livelihood is completely dependent upon you. If you go down tomorrow after having worked yourself half to death…your biz will go down with you.

    It’s so important to remember to take time for yourself and your family and your LIFE.

    I’m passionate about this subject because I’ve experienced it myself and I’ve seen it over and over again in my clients…this misguided idea that to have a successful biz you have to work yourself into an early grave.

    And it makes me want to shout from the rooftops, “It’s not so! Don’t believe it!”

    Hmmm…I might have to blog about this…I feel a rant coming on. ; )

    Keep reminding your peeps, Nicole, to live and play NOW. It’s such an important reminder.

    • Nicole Mangina on March 16, 2011 at 9:38 am

      Amen Sister! You go Lisa and rant away! I always love your insights!

      It doesn’t matter how good you are AT your business, if you don’t take time for yourself and what is important to you, you will never be good IN your business.

      Oddly enough, the more things I get excited about outside of my business, the better my business is. I’m more focused when I am working (because I have other things to do) so I get it done faster and I stop stressing on every little detail which makes it easier for things to flow in. Counter intuitive for some, but definitely the way things play out for me.

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