“Team no sleep” and “While you sleep I work” blah blah blah. I’m sure you have heard some of these or similar phrases that disregard self-care uttered with a sense of accomplishment.
Entrepreneurs seem to wear neglecting one’s well-being as a token of honour (as if they are not earning their stripes if they dare take it easy, let alone dare take care of themselves).
I get it, you want to keep the ball rolling, but when you’re busy envisioning potentials (and managing the trillions of real world details of running an actual business) it can be easy to overlook things that are a little closer to home, things like your own mental and physical well-being. You’re busy! I get that. But at the end of the day, neither you nor your business will thrive if you neglect your health.
Entrepreneurs are people. You are a person and you deserve self-care even in the midst of working or running a business. Not only that, if you’re not feeling your best your work will suffer (trust me on this). And as an entrepreneur, if your work suffers, so does your business.
Self-care is defined as “choosing behaviours that balance the effects of emotional and physical stressors: exercising, eating healthy foods, getting enough sleep, practicing yoga or meditation or relaxation techniques.” Well, that sounds easy enough, but how does one actually implement a self-care practice with so many other priorities to juggle?
Make time for yourself
Schedule time for wellness. Make time in your calendar where taking care of you is your only commitment. Whether it’s making time in your calendar daily to work out or weekly to get a massage, self-care is one of the keys to survival.
Treat it just like any other appointment you have. You wouldn’t break a business meeting with a client or partner, so don’t break one with yourself! Your health is actually critical to running your business so give it the same consideration as your other business activities.
Once you have decided to make your health a priority and have scheduled the time to do it, you’ve taken the most important step. After that, you can determine what form self-care will take for you (as this defers for each person, taking time to just read a good novel works wonders for me for example).
Here’s to building sustainable businesses without depleting our most viable resource, ourselves.
