It’s a balance many new business owners often overlook, but self-care while embarking on your journey may be one of the most essential keys to building a successful agency.
Imagine your mind as your greatest asset as well as the driving force behind your business, and your energy levels the fuel that powers it. Finding balance between your mind, body, spirit and business is the key to all round success.
Starting a business certainly takes hours of dedicated time and effort yet taking time out for yourself can do wonders for sustaining your input and avoiding any sign of a burn out. Managing a business can most certainly disrupt the normal flow of life, especially if you find yourself juggling family, staff, finances and clients. Naturally, personal time becomes limited, and it is easy to lose sight of ones-self, to the detriment of your business operations.
Here is why your self-care is so important for your success?
Stress is a major contributing factor in the deterioration of our physical and mental health, most notably, our short-term memory and cognitive ability. Our memory is an essential component when dealing with clients, presenting ideas and the overall efficiency of how we handle tasks. In a sense, our professionalism depends on how we manage our stress levels. Keep an eye on how much sleep you are getting, as this too weighs upon how efficiently we function during the day. If you are noticing that you’re becoming unusually forgetful it may be time for a good dose of self-care and a step back towards a healthier, happier you.
Tip: Schedule a ‘time-out’ during your day to simply be silent, stretch or meditate for a few minutes, this can be wonderfully rejuvenating, lower stress levels, and give you a fresh perspective on the job at hand.
Being aware of how you are feeling and performing week by week, day by day and every few hours is a great habit to adopt. By quieting the mind, we are able to separate the noise from the true self and reconnect to our belief and motivation in what we are doing. Knowing when to engage and when to disconnect are equally as important. Sacrificing too much of ourselves can deplete our capacity to give enough energy to everything that is happening in our work environment as well as our personal lives.
Vitality – “The power giving continuance of life, present in all living things.”
Throughout the day, our energy levels wax and wane and becoming overwhelmed and tired can lead to irritability, low focus and poor work performance. These are not ideal when building new professional relationships, handling staff matters or tackling administrative tasks. Our energy is the fuel that powers our every action and thought, so maintaining a healthy diet for better vitality is essential for the longevity of your focus, your body and your business.
Tip: Drink plenty of water. It cannot be expressed enough that drinking water comes with a myriad of benefits. Water improves our cognitive functioning by lowering stress levels, increasing concentration and improving decision making.
By prioritizing self-care, you optimize your productivity and perform from a place of rationality. Checking in with yourself improves the way you handle decision making and most importantly what to spend energy on and what not to spend energy on. As a business owner it is easy to be inundated by requests and stretched in all directions, but it is not simply about saying yes or no. It is about deliberately choosing what is essential and non-essential for the success of your business. Taking a step back and prioritizing what is most important, not only optimizes your productivity but also gives you a fresh perspective on the tasks at hand.
Tip: Make it a priority to prioritize. Write down what your tasks are and
categorize them by time and importance,
this way you will know when it is best to say yes
and when it’s best to say no, essentially optimizing your time and energy.
This takes us to the importance of setting boundaries as a form of self-care.
Setting boundaries as a new or established business owner is another important practice when it comes to maintaining balance, especially as a home care agency owner. Without boundaries it’s easy to overextend oneself or allow interference with your emotional state which can influence how you react to difficult situations. It’s okay to not answer that email at 2am if it means it will disrupt the following day’s productivity.
Business owners operating at their most optimal definitely know the importance of caring for themselves in order to manage their stress levels, effectively solve problems and communicate their needs. These are all integral when dealing with staff matters and upholding lasting client relations.
Remember that self-care can have a lasting and positive effect on how you run your home care agency, as well as the potential for business growth and operational fluidity.