Welcome to Your Success Frequency Podcast
Sept. 29, 2021

One Question Can Change Your Life

One Question Can Change Your Life

Why did you originally decide to become an entrepreneur?   If you’re like me and most of the other entrepreneurs I know, you took the leap for a bunch of different reasons that all had one common denominator: freedom.    Location...

Why did you originally decide to become an entrepreneur?

 

If you’re like me and most of the other entrepreneurs I know, you took the leap for a bunch of different reasons that all had one common denominator: freedom. 

 

Location freedom. Financial freedom. Time freedom. 

 

Let me ask you this: Does it feel like you’ve achieved it yet? If not, why do you think that is?

 

This week’s episode on the Breakthrough Babe Podcast may just be one of the most important shows yet. I'm of the belief that this one question - if you're able to ask it of yourself, answer it honestly, and then use it to learn and grow from - could literally change your life. 

 

In fact, one sentence can change your life.

Think about this: what have you read or heard - one line - that has impacted you forever?

 

My husband and I were hosting a Book Writers Weekend this past week.  During those weekends, my husband and I host three to five people that are by application only. It's very intimate, personal, fun, collaborative, and focused on the book that they're writing. 

 

During this past weekend, we had a realization: one sentence can change someone’s life. As a content creator, you have the ability to say one thing or write one thing, that can have a significant impact on someone else’s life. 

 

To take it a step further, one question you ask yourself can change your life. Assuming you ask a powerful question, answer it honestly, and use your answer to learn and grow from.

 

The question for today's episode is:

Are you building a life to support your business? 

Or, are you building your business to support your life? 

 

It’s a simple ‘yes or no’ question. But, what will you choose?  If the answer is, “Well, Jen, you just called me out. I've built my life to support my business rather than the other way around,” then you have to answer these follow-up questions: Is that what you want? Do you want a business that runs your life? Do you want to feel guilty when you take time off? 

 

As an entrepreneur, you get into this game of entrepreneurship to create time freedom, location freedom, money freedom. But what I see happen so often is entrepreneurs strive to create a business that brings in enough money and in order to bring in enough money, you feel like you need to work harder. It feels like you need to work more. You need to work all the time. And then it becomes the hustle of the year. You need to ask yourself, what do you want your tombstone to say? Do you want your tombstone to say, “great hustler, worked her ass off, yep, 150 hours a week!”? So proud she was working all the time. No, no one does. 

 

What kind of “dash” are you creating?

I used to do seminars for a company that purchased 90% of the mom and pop funeral homes across the country and one of the big concepts was ‘the dash’. You and I are creating our own dash every single day. You know the dash. Born in 1983 dash whenever. You get to create the dash - and write your story of what happens during that time.

 

What do you want your dash to look like? Because if you're creating a business that only runs if you're running, that's not really a business, that's a crappy business. I hate to say it, but that's a bad business and it's a bad position to be in. 

 

It’s time to build a business that supports the life that you want to live, to design a business that supports your lifestyle rather than putting yourself last or putting yourself on your to-do list and then saying, “Well, that's (I’m) not so important today. I will do that thing that's going to feel good for me later after I get all this work done.”

 

Defining Your Non-Negotiables

You may be thinking, “Jen just called me out. This episode feels triggering because I'm living this in my day-to-day - my business is running my life...” Don't worry, I'm going to help you solve that. 

The first step is to create a list of non-negotiables. I help my clients do this all the time, because they often come to me feeling totally burnt out, totally overwhelmed, totally stressed and working all the time. What they find is when they create a list of non-negotiables and then they hold them as non-negotiables, they end up performing even better in their business. 

 

It's this really wild thing where our brains tend to think the more you work, the more you’re going to make, the more you’re going to be able to help more people. And that's logical. It makes sense. You and I have been raised to think that, but the truth, is the more you neglect yourself and put yourself last, the more you continue to build a business built on sticks and straws, a business that will easily collapse whenever you hit that point of burnout. 

 

Make your list of non-negotiables. What are the things that matter most to you? What are the things that when you design the business of your dreams would be included? Not someday, not one day, but today. Huge distinction there. 

 

One of my non-negotiables, for example, is that I play tennis from eight to nine in the morning. Every morning, if I'm at the beach, I play tennis. And on Tuesdays we have a match. That match can run up to 4 hours. I'm not responding to emails during that time. I'm not on customer calls at that time. The world doesn't end. I'm taking off, playing tennis. Sometimes it's an away game and we go to lunch after the game! That's right. So sometimes half of my Tuesday, in terms of work, is shot. But I return to work refreshed, more creative and in a better place to serve my customers...literally.

 

When you create a list of non-negotiables and you stick to them, you will fill your cup in a way that allows you to pour into your business, be more creative and achieve even greater things. 

 

I hope by asking you this question, you'll take some time to really think about what kind of business you are creating. One that runs your life or one that allows you to support your life and your dreams.  And I hope this will inspire you to do something today for yourself. 

 

Fill up your cup, take care of yourself, invest in you because when you do that, it will have a great return.