You Can’t Grow If You’re Too Busy

For the last nine weeks or so, I have been participating in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program. Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program is a program that helps small business owners grow and increase the job-creation potential of their businesses. The curriculum is great, featuring opportunities to learn about finances, lending, marketing, leadership, operations, and so much more. The homework is… a lot… but completely worth it.

To prepare for this program, I prepped the AK Lean team for what it would mean. It would mean that I’ll be balancing essentially a full homework load and running a business, and that I would be delegating out process support work to my team. By the time I was halfway through the program, I had minimal client work myself.

This felt very odd at first. For the days that I was caught up on my homework, I didn’t really know what to do. It didn’t feel right to take the work back from my employees - they were enjoying learning the new tasks and working on different things. The way the program is set up, I couldn’t work ahead. For the first time since starting AK Lean Virtual Assistance, LLC, I was BORED.

You know what boredom brought?

Ideas.

Because I had delegated out the process support work that I could, I suddenly had the brain space to think about other things, bigger things, growth things.

I had room to grow. AK Lean had room to grow. WOAH!

The ideas started flying out of my head and I kept a running list of improvements and strategic steps I wanted us to take. (Right now, the list is at 28 items… and counting!)

As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to be busy. The world glorifies entrepreneurs when they work an insane number of hours in a week.

• It’s “dedication” when you choose work over self-care.

• It’s “determination” when you pull an all-nighter to get a project out the door.

• It’s “passion” when you are jeopardizing your relationships around you because of the workaholic tendencies you’ve picked up.

I’m Calling Bullshit.

Not only are you suffering, and your relationships are suffering, but your creativity and spark to grow is also suffering. If you are in the weeds of your business, day in and day out, your brain isn’t refreshed to look at problems in a new light. You’re maintaining status quo rather than challenging how things are and innovating to make things better.

If you want to keep growing, if you want to take that next step in your business, you HAVE to give yourself room to breathe.

• Take a hot bath!

• Get a massage!

• Go for a run!

Do something, ANYTHING but work!

Just take a moment and let your brain wonder - and you’ll be amazed at what can happen.

Be bored - it’s good for you!