Struggles

I have plenty of struggles as a small business owner, much like the rest of the small business world.

I’m not special in that way (and neither are you, fellow business owner or commission based employee reading this). We all have struggles that we’re trying to figure out, and nobody’s struggle is greater or more important than another’s.

After all, nobody forced you to go into business or to take that “kill what you eat” job. That was your decision.

Same could be said for any career path that we see. Nobody forced you to take that high power attorney position. Nobody forced you to be an accountant. Nobody is forcing you to do anything. We’re all living lives based on the decisions that we’ve made… and with those decisions come struggles.

Anyway, back to my struggles.

Here’s the biggest one for me.

????????Finding the right harmony between my personal life and fulfilling the needs of the businesses and other roles I have in my day to day existence.????????

The struggle to find this harmony comes from the ambiguity of the day to day needs while simultaneously knowing that if I do more each day, the business will grow and prosper faster… but ALSO knowing that I need to spend more time with my family, and more time doing some self-care.

Do more work!
Spend more time with your family!
Post more content!!
MORE SELF-CARE!
Be better with customer service!
TREAT YO-SELF!
BUT DON’T TREAT YO-SELF TOO MUCH BECAUSE YOU SHOULD BE GRINDING AND HUSTLING!

Confusing. Frustrating. Overwhelming.

You’ve got all of these Facebook and Instagram “gurus” out there telling you to do MORE and MORE each day. They’re constantly shouting to lion or a shark, or some other apex predator for motivation (Why can’t I be human, again? What’s wrong with that?).

But what they fail to say is that life isn’t sustainable. You can only work 5AM – 9PM for so long.

Then you’ve got the other side that’s care free. Nothing is a struggle for them because they haven’t had to build a career or a business. These are your “good vibes only” folks that get $10K in spending money thrown into their account every month (from some institute that their parents set up for them) who then proceed to make the ultimate highlight reel of their life on social media.

Cool. You’re not relatable in the slightest.

I end up getting stuck between a rock and a hard place wanting to do more and more to advance the businesses, but also wanting to spend more time off with Rachel, my family, my friends, our dogs, me time, etc etc.

I know I’m not the only one with that struggle, and if you’ve ever felt like you’re the only one with that struggle, you’re not alone here.

We’re all trying to spend more time with the people we love.
We’re all trying to progress in our careers.
We’re all trying to get everything done.

We’re all trying to find that harmony.

and you know what? It’s totally cool if you haven’t found it yet.

I’m still experimenting with new schedules, routines, checklists, and systems each week to try and figure out how I best operate. It’s going to take some time, some more experimenting, some more up and down days.

But I’ll figure it out.

So will you.

You might have to make some tough decisions along the way, but those tough decisions are usually worth it.

As for me, I’m trying to schedule my work hours and put an equal amount of personal hours in the week. Turning my phone off at night, not opening the computer past a certain time, etc etc.

While I know I could spend that time doing more work, I need to give myself the permission to do a little less sometimes. After all, work is important, but it’s not more important than my life.

So far, doing less in those hours has only meant I spend better time with my wife and giving myself some much needed rest. The businesses have yet to crumble because I didn’t answer an email at 8PM on a Friday. Very unlikely yours would either.

TL;DR – We all have struggles that we’re trying to figure out, and we don’t have to pretend we don’t. It’s cool. We’ll figure it out. 

-Clark Hibbs

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