When you run a business, more often than not, a business is actually running you. That is something that has hit home time and time again. However, I read a tweet or quote or some such this week, I can’t remember where exactly or what context but the basis of it was about business owners so it was something like “Business Owners – working 100 hour weeks so that they don’t have to work 40 for someone else.” Pretty good right? As much as business ownership is a struggle, as much as it is a strain, physically and mentally, I still go back to those core principles of why I got here to this web design work in the first place and that point or quote summed it up pretty well I thought. I am beyond stubborn but sometimes even I am pushed to the limit and in turn start to question whether the path I chose was the right one. It is however, a simple yet effective quote like that, shimmering through the bleary tea steam on a Monday morning, a beacon on the screen that guides this rickety ship to safe shore. I am stubborn, quietly determined and I want to live life my way, for me, not for some other Joe Soap in a big office somewhere. To do so effectively however requires some form of work life balance.
Yes I work long hours at times, not just physically at a desk, but emotionally and mentally too. I work when I’m buying some shopping. I work when I’m walking. I work when I’m shaving this tired face on a random Tuesday evening. The typing and phone calls and meetings have stopped but the wheels inside have not. The wheels demand your attention; they want you to think about the quote that you haven’t yet typed up, the meeting next Monday morning, that clever marketing campaign that you still haven’t got to. The wheels are well oiled, they never stop turning, but alas, you have to close the door on them at some stage. Life outside demands your attention for they will still be turning tomorrow. When the evening creeps in, I close the door as best I can and focus my attention on other things and people that I love and for a while the industrial reverberations inside my head quieten and I experience life away from the computer screen.
It’s important of course that we do that, gain perspective, close the door, attain that work life balance. You know that of course. You wouldn’t be reading this far if you didn’t. So in essence this really isn’t a guide on how to unwind or separate social life from work life for that is something that I just about muddle through myself. Ultimately this is merely a notice board, with one of those bubbly and slightly annoying quotes of the day, you know the ones, with the kitten or some other animal doing something cute, reminding you basically how important it is to get perspective etc. You can think of your own quote if you like that best sums up work life balance. I’ve done enough writing for today, or maybe not enough? Who knows?
For more ramblings check out this and this.
