In the past couple of weeks, I’ve talked with several business owners, and I’ve noticed a subtle trend.
They’re feeling behind or feeling like they should be further ahead of where they are.
The side effect of this is feeling like they need to do more or be more NOW.
They’ve come for help on how to get more done faster to get to where they feel like they should already be.
There generally are things everyone (including me) can do to be more efficient with our time and efforts.
The thing about feeling like you’re behind or should be further along is you can make improvements, but you’re probably still going to feel like you’re behind.
The problem isn’t that you’re not already doing enough. My guess is you are doing a lot.
The problem is you don’t recognize how much you’re doing and how far you’ve already come!
In one conversation, in particular, I listed back some of the things she mentioned she’d already accomplished and pointed out that those things were a lot of work.
Once she could take a step back and see it, she laughed and agreed. She had been accomplishing a lot!
She was so focused on her incomplete tasks and where she felt she should be, that she didn’t notice how much progress she had made.
That progress needs to be noticed and celebrated!
When you focus on where you think you should be and feeling like you’re not doing enough work fast enough to get there, you can end up beating yourself up and running yourself into the ground. And you start sacrificing time with family, with friends, and for self-care in an effort to do more.
Instead, take a step back and notice how much progress you’ve made!
And give yourself space to breathe.