Key Turning Point for Business Owners

The Key Turning Point in a Business Owner's Life -
I learned [the hard way] to set a path towards the business not being so dependent on me as an individual.
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The recognition was the important first step for me. I accepted that I didn’t want to keep going along this way and needed to create a path toward change.

Immersed in being a workaholic is fun, most of the time. Until you reach ‘that point’ where things start to break. And when they do, it’s not pretty.

The symptoms aren’t always easy to spot. For me, it started with being unable to pick up heavy objects in my hands. That led to a 5-month journey of doctors, invasive tests, and ultimately the diagnosis of a very rare and progressive auto-immune disorder.

As much as it messed with my body, it messed with my head. I required regular treatment, which disrupted my intensive work week, but beyond that, I needed to start taking it easy. 60-hour work weeks were simply no longer an option – that was the official advice from professionals.

If regular thoughts and worry about the future of my business weren’t enough, I was now imagining where this condition would take me physically in 10, 20 or 30 years. It wasn’t something I could just push out of my mind and keep working. It sat there all the time.

If the voice of my customer asking “what happens if you get run over by a bus?” wasn’t enough, this voice and these thoughts rammed home that I needed to make some serious adjustments to my lifestyle. The days of burning the candle at both ends were over.

In my very structured way, I started to put the necessary break times into my weekly diary to ensure I was looking after myself enough. Despite being a needle-phobic, I started regular acupuncture, which helped me far more than any western medicine.

More importantly, I learnt to breathe. It’s something we all do, but so few of us do it consciously. Anyone who has practiced meditation or yoga will understand.

The other thing I learnt was how to listen to my own body. It started telling me that if I stay too late at work, I won’t be productive the next day, or the next few days. So taking these rests, breaks, or whatever they were actually became an essential part of work. I needed them to be effective in my role running the business.

I realized my body was actually telling me this for a long time; just that I wasn’t listening. This was a key turning point in my life.

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