“This morning I sanded and painted that dining room table I have”.
My friend, the lass who visits every day for a few hours, while I help her start an interior design business.
“Why though, what’s the use? Aren’t you building a business – do you have time for that kind of thing?”
“It’s useful”, she says, “I’ll be able to make photo of it and use it on my website.”
I tell her: “If you’d have taken the same three hours, and gone out on the street with your camera like I suggested the other day, you’d have come home with 40 photos, each a topic for a new blog post”.
Obviously she had no argument there.
“But I really enjoyed it, you know?”
And that, right there, that’s why most entrepreneurs never make it out of the busywork rut.
“I deserve time of, I work hard.”
“Am I not allowed d to live a little?”
Yes, yes you are. Very much so.
And that’s why the worst thing you could do is plan your free time around your work.
This is psychology 101 folks.
Most of us, we go about it in reverse: Work is of prime importance, it’s the thing that we build our free time around.
The problem with that is that it causes our subconsciousness to be in constant revolt.
Your self, your deepest level of lizard-brain-taking-care-of-you, just won’t put up with that kind of behaviour.
And so, you’re in an endless struggle of discipline versus well-being.
And you’ll probably have experienced that the consequence is frustration, knotted brows, and endless procrastination.
You lizard brain wants you to be happy, and by gosh it’ll make you happy, whether you like it or not.
Discipline and busywork?
No way Jose.
And so you slide off, slip into another few hours on Facebook.
“Because I deserve to relax a bit, yeah?”
Except, you don’t actually relax: you’‘re secretly punishing yourself, knowing you ought be working,
Constantly telling yourself off for slacking off.
And when you do get back to work, it’s with resentment and a highly unproductive feeling of guilt.
Here’s what to do instead: Define specific blocks of no-work, you-time, several times a day.
Whatever fits in your schedule.
20 Minutes 3 times a day at a very minimum.
Plan that stuff, and stick to it.
Set a timer, and when it rings, you switch off your machine and go relax.
Properly.
Fully.
No thinking about work, and preferably no Facebook either.
When you get back to work, you’ll feel rested, revived, ready to get some serious stuff DONE.
And, you’ll find that you will get stuff done, far more than you expect.
When you treat yourself well, and please your lizard brain the way it deserves, it in turn will reward you with enormous zest and drive.
You plan your work around your free time, not the other way round.
Because if you get the order of importance wrong, there will never be enough time to do the work (obviously, because you won’t perform at top levels) and you’ll constantly be chipping away at what little time you have for yourself.
A hideous vicious circle, and I’ll bet you’ve experienced it for yourself.
Just one of the many MANY things about healthy mindset that are going into LEAP #6
Today’s the last day to get access to it.
If you get it, you don’t just get my ongoing help by email, you’ll. also learn a complete set of attitudes, mindset and behaviour that make you highly productive, and with a bit of luck, quite a bit happier in your work.
Go here to get it –> http://martinstellar.com/leap-to-more-sales/
See you on the inside…
Martin