Tired? Busy? Overworked?
I’m the first to admit it, I am a master at making myself stupidly busy. I did it to myself when I lived in London, and I realised recently that I’ve been doing it to myself again – after promising myself I wouldn’t.
In London, I didn’t really mind being uber busy, because the lifestyle I had in London was all about work hard, play hard.
But since moving to sunny Western Australia, I swore I would have an actual lifestyle.
I got a CRF250R dirtbike, am learning to ride MX bikes and roadbikes, learning how to fish, go for sunset walks on the beach, and spend quality time with my little family. Yes I still work hard – I work full time and am growing a part time business, and my mind is always thinking about new ideas and ventures, as well as finding new things to learn.
But my priorities have changed massively since leaving London. And the thing that has changed it the most is being part of my own family. My priority isn’t work anymore, it’s them.
I am so lucky to love all the work I do – I get to make a real difference in peoples lives every day and watch people grow and develop into their potential. I work really hard to make a difference, and to grow my business. BUT the end result for me now is putting in heaps of hard work so that someday soon the outcome for me is working smarter, not harder – so that I can work when I want, and choose to have as much time off as I want. Ultimately for me, this means freedom for both me and my family – more time together, more travel, more time following our passions.
Recently I found myself with a million and one things to do, my head feeling like it was about to pop, a messy house and a thousand ideas in my head for things I want to do in my business. I spent 3 hours cleaning the house one Sunday, thinking about how much more work I could have achieved in that time on my business instead of wasting time doing something that I could easily outsource. That same week I’d also spent a whole week trying to figure out some technical stuff on my website. I was stubborn on this thinking that I’d at least like to learn how to do these things before outsourcing to anyone.
But now I’ve decided to hand a few things over. I’ve broken my promise to myself – I swore I wouldn’t make myself this busy again after leaving London, especially not now with the lifestyle and family I have.
So – time to outsource! I put the word out to get a cleaner, and hired someone through odesk.com to get my techie stuff done on my website – way quicker and with a lot less stress than I could have done it 🙂
I’m going to write a list of anything else that I can outsource – and get it done.
So, do you feel the same way? Are you so busy you feel your head is about to explode? Would you like to be spending more quality time with your family than you do now?
Make a list of all the jobs you could outsource, with a list of people to contact to help you get started. Initially, I used the excuse that by not outsourcing I was saving money. However, my reasoning was that if I pay a cleaner to do 2 hours a week in the house, and spend those 2 hours working on my business, I can potentially earn a lot more than it costs me. And initially I wanted to learn all about building a new website, but it’s wasting so much of my time, by getting someone else to do it for me I can now focus on building my list and attracting more potential customers.
Something to ponder on: what 3 things could you outsource?
Once you have your list, write a list of your “excuses” – what reasons do you tell yourself for why you can’t outsource those things? Then next to that list of excuses, write a list of why you should outsource, with a list of inspired actions to achieve that outsourcing. Also write down what outsourcing will bring you – e.g. more time, more money.
Then kick back, and enjoy while everyone else does the work for you!
Happy outsourcing peeps 🙂
Much love n hugs
