Tips to Help You Stay Balanced and Motivated

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Before celebrating your future success, you have to establish a routine to stay balanced and motivated without getting burned out.

You’ve found your passion and you’re working on building it into your empire. Congratulations! While most people are simply punching the clock and wishing for a better life, you’ve found the secret sauce to upgrade your life.

But, not so fast! Before celebrating your future success, let’s get real for a few minutes. To get there, you have to establish a routine to stay motivated and not get burned out.

Starting a business is hard work and takes a lot of time. If you’re like most, you can’t simply walk away from your current job to throw yourself into your new business full time.

That means, for a while, you’re juggling both; throw in everything else going on in your life, and you have a lot of balls to keep in the air.

There are several challenges when you are trying to stay on top so many things.  Your motivation stalls, your inspiration flounders, and your engagement in your job (and life!) take a hit.

You are the textbook definition of “burning the candle at both ends.”  In this environment, something is bound to fall through the cracks.

While this may seem like the norm for an entrepreneur, it doesn’t have to be that way. It is possible to balance your job, business, and life without pushing yourself to these limits.

Tips to Help You Stay Balanced and Motivated

When you are multitasking so many things, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and only react to whatever crosses your path. Being in constant “reaction mode” prevents you from staying in control and that plays a significant part in feeling like you don’t have it all together.

When you master how you spend your time, you can build in systems to balance everything more efficiently, which gives you the opportunity to tap into your creativity to stay motivated and inspired.

These tips will help you find more breathing room and tackle what’s important in your life, job, and business.

 1. Use your Peak Times to Your Advantage

I’m a morning person.  It’s not that I love to get up early, but that’s when I’m the most focused and creative.

Mornings are my peak time, so I get up early enough before work to spend at least an hour on my business every day. I don’t answer emails or do ‘busy’ work during this time; it’s my “create” time.

Some people, like me, are more creative in the mornings, whereas others are more so in the evening.  To get the most done in a limited time, maximize these peak times and use them to your advantage.

2. Create a Schedule and Stick to It

The hardest thing about juggling a side business with a full-time job is finding the time to do it all. As entrepreneurs, your to-do list is endless, so it’s impossible to “do it all.”

To stay on top of everything, you have to organize your time. Establish a schedule that works for you and stick to it.

If you have 20 hours a week to dedicate to your business faithfully, assess how you need to break this down and then write it on your calendar.

3. Remind Yourself Why You’re Building Your Business

As you go through the process to take your business to the next level, it’s easy to lose sight of why you started in the first place.

Instead, you start focusing on the success you envision. That’s not a bad thing. You have to see where you are going to illuminate the path.

But when you are struggling to stay motivated, and you start to feel overwhelmed, reconnecting with your why helps to re-frame your perspective and dig a little deeper. This can help you re-engage with yourself to find that much-needed push.

  4. Start Saying NO!

Women tend to say ‘yes’ way too often, and it gets them in trouble.  You take on more than you can handle at the expense of what needs to be done.

Agreeing to things you don’t want to do, or don’t have time to do, wastes time and energy.

To make the most of your time, you have to learn to choose your time more wisely. That means saying ‘no’ more often – not only to others but to yourself (every great idea that you think of doesn’t have to be explored immediately).

5. Don’t Resent Your Day Job

When all you want to do is grow your empire, it can feel like you’re wasting your time at your day job. Resentment sets in and it’s hard to stay focused.

This negative energy not only discolors your experience at your regular job; it flows into the rest of your life.

It pays to remember that your day job, while not your dream job, is allowing you to follow your dream. It’s funding your passion and providing the means to get there.

When you feel appreciation instead of resentment, it fosters a more positive environment in which to grow your business (and not for nothing, it makes life a lot more enjoyable!).

6. Schedule Down Time

This may sound counter-intuitive when you have a million things on your to-do list, but downtime is the secret weapon to your success.

Scheduling time away from your job, your business and other adulting tasks is the best thing you can do for yourself and your business.

While it’s okay to push to your limits, you don’t want this to be your standard mode of operation because it will inevitably lead to burnout and exhaustion.

When you are at the point of exhaustion—mental and physical—you prevent yourself from doing your best work. Your body needs a break, but more importantly, your mind needs a break.

7. Take Care of Yourself

Basic self-care is the key to staying healthy and feeling your best. When time is precious, and something inevitably has to slip, self-care is usually the victim.

Putting yourself last is a natural choice. But, when you take the time to care for yourself, it allows you to flourish.

Make the time to get in some daily movement (even if it’s just a walk during lunch), avoid junk food, and get more sleep.

Yes, these are hard with a packed schedule, but making yourself a priority will ensure you have the energy to maintain that busy schedule.

Also, when you’re taking care of your body, your mind will also benefit, so coming up with that next great idea, will get even easier.

The Take-Away

Growing your business while working full time is hard, but it doesn’t require you to lose your mind and push to the point of exhaustion.

By being more intentional with how you spend your time, working on your mindset, and treating your business as a business, you will sustain your motivation, fire up your inspiration, and maintain your sanity.

 

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