How To Make Life Easier
I just want to go play golf on a Wednesday afternoon.
This was from a dude who owns a small, local brick & mortar business. He’s makes a nice living from his company and has a good team of people to help him.
But he can’t take any time off without his staff giving him a hard time.
A similar thing happened in my first business - the fitness studio: an employee told me she “was lonely” when I wasn’t there.
She said she took the job because she liked the owners so much.
And now she was alone all the time doing the work I used to do.
OMG. I almost lost my mind. Between the guilt and the frustration, I had no idea how to respond to that.
Isn’t that why we hire people? Isn’t that why we delegate? So that we can HAVE some freedom - either to breathe or to do work that’s more appropriate for us?
Do we need to feel guilty when we HIRE people to do the work we don’t have time to do?
To do the work that isn’t the BEST or smartest for us to do?
Are we worthy of allowing someone else to do a job that we COULD do, but maybe SHOULD NOT BE DOING - or don't WANT to do?
I notice I sometimes struggle with this at home, too.
My husband will be emptying the dishwasher, and I'm watching TV. FEELING GUILTY.
Or Jack will be doing his chores & folding laundry, and I’m reading. FEELING GUILTY.
Do I need to be there, in the room? Just to be there? Just to witness the work?
Am I a terrible person because I believe it’s OK to have people do their jobs without feeling guilty that I’m not sitting next to them, clapping & giving the thumbs up?
We are allowed to take time off. WITHOUT GUILT.
We are allowed to NOT BE IN THE ROOM when someone is doing their job.
We do NOT have to be all things to all the people.
I mean, you can still FEEL the guilt, but I promise you - your feeling of guilt does not change the other person’s experience.
I felt guilty when I took time away from the fitness studio. It ate me up alive. Made me doubt myself.
But me feeling guilt DID NOT CHANGE the fact that my employee still felt lonely.
GUILT DOESN’T HELP YOU. Nor does it help other people.
Omg. Of course it’s hard to take time off when guilt is present!
Easier said than done, though!
I had a client who DESPERATELY needed to stop working IN her business - she was doing was administrative stuff, which was a freaking waste of time!
She needed to get out in the world, developing relationships!
To be the one SELLING her service, not administrating it!
This was a mistake I made in my first business, so it’s one of the foundational things I teach my clients.
Turning her around on this was hard because she felt so guilty! She had this deep-seated belief that she should’ve been sitting next to her assistant in the office, making phone calls & following up with paperwork.
OH HELL NO!
What a waste of her genius!
It didn’t help that her assistant made snarky, passive-aggressive comments about where my client was all day long when she wasn’t in the office.
It made my client feel guilty AND burned her up inside!
We had a LOT of work to do around this.
- Strategizing how she could spend her time more effectively.
- Managing her mindset about guilt & old stories.
- Building systems for procedures & communication models to change employee expectations & behavior!
PS: she fired that assistant, far later than I wanted her to. But hallelujah!
I’m not saying to ignore those working WITH you! Good leaders notice, validate, & offer insights to their staff.
I AM SAYING you can do all of that, and you don't need to be there every second!
You find freedom when you hire good people and let them do their job.
How can you make life a little easier for yourself?
First: Well-run businesses (and homes, actually) have policies & procedures to help the business WORK. Without these systems, there IS no freedom for you.
- Do your people (including your business manager, VA, employees, staff, spouse, kids) know WHAT they’re supposed to be doing?
- Do they know HOW to do it?
Second: Change your mindset around what it takes to implement systems. If you tell yourself that “It’s just easier for me to do it” or “I do it better”, then you’re never going to move out of the cycle of pain you’re currently in.
- YES there is setup on the front end. Teaching others HOW to do the work in a way that meets your expectations is time consuming.
- YES there is an element of tracking & managing. How WELL are the tasks being done? Is it meeting your expectations?
If you never change your mindset on letting people just do their job, a year will go by & you’ll still be doing those terrible tasks you hate.
Think about that: if the task takes you two hours a week, and you tell yourself “It’s easier to do it myself”, in a year, you’ll have spent 104 hours doing that task. Vs. the maybe 5 - 10 hours it would take to train & track someone else to do it.
Be nice to your future self.
Ultimately, you deserve time to yourself without constantly explaining yourself.
Make life easier on you. I promise, everyone around you (employees/staff/colleagues/partners/spouses/children) are HAPPIER when YOU’RE HAPPIER.
If you’re ready to learn how to implement these changes & create a strategy that will truly GROW your business, let’s get on the phone.
I have two spaces for private clients starting in October - is one of them yours?
