Sunday I was talking with a fellow business owner, and we were chatting about working out. I said that it’s easy, as an entrepreneur, feel like you are cheating on your company when you do other stuff. Like work out.
This is a hazardous mentality that I brought from the first days of my job search.
When I started looking for a job I was very, very hungry.
I didn’t want to rely on my family for help with bills and food.
I didn’t want to rely on my church for help with bills and food.
I didn’t want to rely on the government for help with bills and food.
All three were there, and ready to help. And they did help, and it was hard to take their help, but that’s for another post.
I was hungry. I wanted to be on my own two feet. I wanted to be independent.
I worked very hard on my job search (not necessarily smart).
I didn’t do anything else. I let my marriage go on the back burner, I let my physical fitness go on the back burner.
If I had a shred of energy or mental bandwidth, it was dedicated to my job search.
I thought this was going to be a short-term thing, and then I could let life get back to normal.
It wasn’t short-term.
And letting those things go was a mistake.
What I’ve learned in the last 18 months is that I need to take time, and pay attention to my wife, and my kids, and my home, and my lawn, and my body, and my finances, and my spirituality, and my _________ (whatever else I was neglecting).
Today I am going on my 3.2 mile walk. In the time it takes to do that I might be able to do a LinkedIn profile critique. I might be able to write 3 blog posts. I might be able to do a number of billable things.
But I can’t. Because what I’ve really learned is that I’ve been cheating myself by letting this one grand thing (my business… for you it might be your job search) get in the way of having the life I really want, and the health I really need.
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