There are numerous reasons to run a home business and build a better life for your whole family. For most, the hard part isn’t having the right business skills, but organizing your life so that you can do both effectively from home. Learn how to manage your time and your efforts by focusing on the opportunities available to you. This is one of the work-from-home tips that will help you in every area of your life.
I once thought that I needed to find a balance between my home life and business life. I struggled to determine the right schedule that would fit all the parts of my life and what hours I would devote to learning new skills, marketing, client work and admin tasks and then all the different roles in my personal and home life.
The biggest struggle was actually following the schedule that I would so meticulously create.
Have you been there, too? Feeling so overwhelmed with all the roles in your life that it stops you from being who you are truly meant to be? You want to do more – be more – but you can’t even seem to get through the day without feeling guilty that this didn’t get done or that still needs doing.
I’ve spent way too much time in that mindset. The organizer in me thought that I just needed to plan and follow that plan. The free spirit in me wanted to nix routines and go with the flow.
Tip the Scale to Balance Your Work-From-Home Life
These two opposing forces have been the leading cause of my overwhelm and I can’t say I’ve ever ‘balanced’ my business and home life in the 10+ years I’ve been working from home.
Looking back, I realize that my biggest issue was my guilty, confused perceptions.
I let the guilty, confused thoughts take hold and only focused on the challenges. When I changed my focus to the opportunities I was much better at being an overcomer towards those challenges, which are inevitable.
I felt like I should be spending more time on my business when I was in my mom/wife/homemaker role. And I felt like I should be spending more time on home stuff when I was in my entrepreneur role.
Then, to add even more salt to the wound, I followed this frustrated, overwhelmed and under-confident feeling too long. I’d get depressed, feeling like I wasn’t accomplishing much of anything in every area of my life. So, naturally I wasn’t achieving much in any area because I let the negative mind chatter get the best of me.
I was focused on what wasn’t working and regularly forgot about the adventure side of entrepreneurship, and the blessings of having a family.
I have better control of my thoughts now. I say better control, because I didn’t get rid of them. Those same thoughts still come up, but I don’t let them settle now.
My focus on the difficulties of building a business while in the throes of home life was taking me down. Since I’ve made the vital paradigm shift to focus on the opportunities that a home-based business brings me, I’ve gotten off the crazy cycle of overwhelm. I still feel overwhelmed from time to time – so is life…I handle it with calm and some change in my routine.
I pour out my gratitude daily for being able to have the opportunity to nurture my business side and keep the lifestyle I desire for me and my family.
Your field of focus determines what you find in life.
- focus on opportunities and that’s what you’ll find
- focus on obstacles and that’s what you’ll find
These words are always close in my mind.
They are the foundation of my home business philosophy. Problems, challenges and obstacles are guaranteed. There is no avoiding them completely.
Success, growth and opportunities are guaranteed too. However, I’ve found that I can actually avoid them when I let the obstacles get the better of me. All the tips and tricks for working from home don’t matter one bit if you’re not thinking on things that benefit you.
Write Down Your Opportunities
Since the way your head thinks is a learned activity, you may need to retrain your brain to focus on that stuff that helps you. Use the Wheel of Life Assessment to identify how you think you’re doing in the main life areas. This ‘wheel’ can help you determine where you want to prioritize your time in making changes. You don’t necessarily have to work on the area with the lowest number but instead focus on what opportunities you can see in each area to move those numbers up.
Creating a life of your dreams is not only possible, but is what you’re meant to do! God has put desires inside of you to show you what you have been designed to do in life. In all areas of your life. When you can work from home you have a life where you can put your career around your family life and be fulfilled in both areas.
Written by Steph Morrison
Steph has been building businesses, mostly from home, for over 10 years, motivated by her strong determination that her two youngest boys would be educated at home. Pursuing her calling to help parents enjoy the responsibility of educating their children, she works in the marketing department of The Old Schoolhouse®, and coaches and trains entrepreneurs to start and grow their business from home. Her and her family are perfectly placed in the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada. She loves being a homebody and building up her permaculture property. Learn more about Steph at the About Steph page.
