“All you do is talk about your work. When do you make time for YOU?”
Let me tell you a story of a client who shared with me on a recent call that she was pulled up by a friend while on holiday recently.
My intuition told me something was wrong the moment I met with her.
She was on a girls weekend in Vegas with a group of friends when one friend confronted her saying to her that all she ever does is talk about her work, and asked why is she is so obsessed with her work?
She had been working non stop the past 12 months that not only she was tired, but her friends were tired of hearing about her business all the time.
Her entire identity had been wrapped around her work and how she was living in her business.
She had lost herself while chasing ambition and now she felt boring (despite being in Vegas getting pampered).
The thing is, she loves her work.
But it did get her thinking:
“What’s actually interesting about me?”
I see this a lot in my work. And one of the first things we look at is how embodied are you in your values and where are you spending your energy.
If you are a woman who has endlessly been working towards a vision and realised that she has let go of who she is outside of her business, then I ask you to consider this:
- What do I love to do (outside of work)?
- What do I crave?
- How do I want to spend my time?
- What legacy do I want to leave?
It was at this moment that my client realised that she had strayed so far away from herself that she found it difficult to answer these questions without involving her business.
The danger of this, is when we equate our identity too much with what we do for our work, we lose the connection to the part of ourself that is fuelling our business. Because the business is a seperate entity to who we are. It is an extension of who we are, but it is not who we are.
So, I walked her through a process I take all my clients through where she could start reconnecting with herself in a way where she can start feeling more alive again.
Remember, you are not your business. You are leading your business.
The thing is, when you connect with the woman at the core of who you are, your business is built from a place of knowing.
You will know how you want to spend your time, doing creative projects and everything in between.
You will feel where you are betraying yourself and not making space for the things you very well desire.
You start making decisions where you honour your time, energy and space.
You become ever deeper connected to your work when you are connected to yourself.
While still working towards the mission deeply rooted within you.
When we are able to cultivate an identity outside of our business, we can start taking a birds eye view and be objective about the decisions we make. We longer feel our worth is tied to how our business or brand is performing, and we no longer externalise our wellness to how much we are producing inside our business.
Your business and life will never be the same again when you carve out space for creative and passion projects, create segments of time to work on legacy projects and make space dedicated to reconnecting to you and your mission.
If this resonates, reach out and we can explore the best way for you to get reconnected.
Explore the Podcast for more musings.