As an entrepreneur, your instinctive way of being is to continually grow and expand your business as well as yourself. You love the freedom and creativity of being an entrepreneur, and you have an inspiring vision for where you’re headed that fuels you (even if you’re making it up as you go along!).

While you have likely set targets for your business for this year and beyond, I’d like to invite to consider another measure for where you’re headed than the usual. What if you measured your daily experience of your business more along the lines of: “How Good Can You Stand It?”

Really, how good CAN you stand it? Beyond the income goal you may have, or the other usual ways you’d like to see your business grow and make a difference for your clients, there are countless ways you could make a significant difference in how fun and fulfilling your business is for YOU (which, in turn, translates to your client satisfaction, and your bottom line).

I’ll give you some examples of what I mean with some questions:

Who is your favorite client? Why? How can you bring more of these kinds of clients into your business? Who is your least favorite client? Why? Decide that you are choosing to let go of these kinds of clients in favor of bringing in ones like your favorite. Notice where you’re tolerating things like “I have to put up SOME challenging clients!” Uh…no, you don’t. That’s a limiting belief, and you can choose exactly who you want to work with.

How do you start your day? What do you do for yourself first thing that makes you feel happy, healthy, cared for, focused, confident? If you’re hopping online to check email before you’re even out of your pj’s, what could you do differently that would positively influence your entire day and make you feel your best? A walk in nature? Some exercise? A delicious smoothie instead of coffee? Some consideration of what makes you feel grateful?

What time is your first appointment of the day? Are you starting at 8am when you really could be starting at 10am and using the time before that take care of yourself? When is your low energy point of the day (mine is 3:30pm)? Do you pause for a break at that time, or do you ‘push through’? I pause, take a walk or go to yoga, and come back able to complete what I need to do in half the time, and with a much higher quality result. Where are there hidden enjoyments that are actually efficiencies and quality improvements for you, if you changed things up a bit?

What are your most enjoyable things to do, and what are your least enjoyable things to do, in your business? How can you do more of the former and less of the latter? Who could you bring on to help you? If you think you don’t have the funds to bring in help, how could you exchange services, bring in an intern, or find some other creative solution? Seriously consider the possibility that you’re actually limiting your income by doing things that you don’t like and aren’t best at yourself.

When and how are you making time for creative projects, visioning or strategic planning for your business? Once you’re in the “doing” and execution activities of the day, it’s much harder to tap into those bigger picture aspects of the business. Consider making an appointment with yourself to do those first thing (you’ll feel inspired for the rest of the day!), and once in a while, get away somewhere fun and inspiring for a day or two to stimulate bigger thinking and new ideas.

You get the picture… the possibilities are endless for how you can make shifts in what you’re doing in ways that feel super delicious and ‘just right’ for you. Consider this your permission to go for letting things get crazy good for you and the people around you!

Now, having read this, what’s one thing that you know could shift that could contribute to shifting the daily running of your business into the “How Good Can You Stand It” zone?

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June 2013 Issue