The key to business success is building a life you love
Does your work/life balance keep you up at night? Are you aware of time slipping away wishing you could spend more of it with the people and pursuits you love? Does business success have to come at the expense of everything else? Are you hanging on for retirement?
David Braithwaite is back on the Sparks by Ignium podcast with Phil Rose to share some of his insights on how to make work work for you. In particular, how business owners get back in control of their lives without putting a damper on progress.
A Strategic Coach and multiple business owner, David also gives us a different view on retirement and why it doesn’t have to be the finishing line.
Here are four striking takeaways from the conversation.
The phone is there for the caller’s convenience
Do you get dragged into the urgent things rather than the important ones? It’s easy to confuse the two when running your own business, but if you’ve made a date to watch your child’s sports day are you on the field or fielding calls?
Of course talking to customers, clients and team members is important but why not be honest about where you are and why you’re not available? ‘My world is important and if it’s not important to them, they’re probably not the right person to deal with’ David says. ‘No one is going to say how dare you pick up your child from school.’
Whether it’s family, fitness or any other interests that fill out a life it comes down to putting those rocks in the glass first. What will it cost your physical and mental health long-term if you don’t?
Write your goals into life
With a fitness tracker, we can set targets and chart our progress – it keeps us accountable and motivated. In the same way, KPIs keep us on the path but it goes further than that.
David talks about the wider advantages of regularly coming back to lifetime, yearly and quarterly goals.
‘Life leaves clues and when you see an opportunity, you’re more likely to go and grab it because you’ve been thinking about it.’ Your body, your brain, the universe, whatever you want to call it conspires to make it happen.
But only because you already know where to look.
Tweak the rudder
Writing your goals is only part of the story – it’s your actions that will get you there.
This is when the composite view of all aspects of your life will help you achieve your business objectives. Gentle shifts in everything you do to improve your personal life and health will have a positive effect. The tiny things add up by ‘stacking things in our favour’. David says.
A one per cent shift doesn’t sound like much though, does it? When you’re sailing, just a gentle tweak of the rudder can send you in an entirely different direction. The winds and tide may threaten to take you off course but those little adjustments make a difference.
Don’t retire
‘If you’re doing enough of the right stuff, why would you want to retire?’ David says. Having been in the financial industry for years, and now heading his own consultancy company, he knows what he’s talking about.
It’s not so much about what we’re retiring from as what we’re retiring to. From the volunteer pond man who lifts the mood of patients and family outside an oncology ward to the retirement coach who jets around the world (himself in his 70s) David relates how if you love what you do, retirement isn’t the finishing line.
It may be a chance to go do something new but it doesn’t have to be the place where we put down tools and stop moving.
We’re more likely to get there if we’ve taken good care of our health and nurtured our relationships.
Listen to the podcast
It’s out now so catch up with the conversation by searching Sparks by Ignium on your favourite platform, or click here. There are so many other episodes to explore, so have a browse and download a few for later. Get in touch let’s talk.