Six Steps to Make Every Day Easier for Women Entrepreneurs
We as women entrepreneurs have so much to do! Beyond taking care of our businesses we are often in charge of our households—kids, pets, home, self care—it’s a lot!
So what’s a woman to do when it comes to creating more time? To slowing things down so she can get a breather. To relax.
Introducing the Intentional Living Method (ILM). It’s a method I’ve been teaching in my programs for years and it’s one that I live by. Beyond me being uber productive and in the flow with my work—it has allowed me to enjoy time. To not feel like each day is whizzing by me. It’s helped me to slow down time. To savor and enjoy it. And at the end of each year, I have a chronicle of my successes, my disappointments and the journey I took. It has helped me to grow into a better human being. I know it will do the same for you, as it has worked wonders for the women entrepreneurs that I work with.
It’s a daily and weekly process of review, assessment and tracking your personal success. And it’s a process that starts over every 90 days. I love the fact that every 90 days gives you a fresh start—creating an integrated release and reset with each period. Here’s how it works:
Every Morning:
- Gratitudes: Write down 3 specific things that you are grateful for—specific means that you don’t just write down, “My husband.” You write, “My husband because he made a delicious dinner last night.” By challenging your mind to think of specifics, you’ll avoid falling into the trap of writing the same three things each day, which numbs the mind after a while.
- Daily Focus: Write down 3-4 tasks that you want to focus on that day.
- 90-Day Goals: Write down 3 goals for this 90 day period—it’s easiest if these goals align with the quarters of the year—but you are welcome to start at any time. Yes, you want to write these out every day—the same goals. This keeps you focused and clear. It also keeps you from doing tasks that aren’t moving your quarterly goals forward.
Every Evening:
- Check on Your Daily Focus: How did the tasks go? Did they get done? Great—add them to your achievements. If they didn’t get done—how can you problem solve and try again tomorrow? Were there distractions that need to be eliminated? Fear that you need to move through? Would it be better to try it at a different time of day? Remember, don’t judge! Just problem solve. You are not aiming for perfection—you are aiming for relentless improvement every single day.
- Lessons: What did today teach you, both good and bad?
- 3 Achievements: What are you proud of achieving today? Celebrate, even if it wasn’t on your task list.
- Gratitudes: Write down 3 specific things that you are grateful for—specific means that you don’t just write down, “My husband.” You write, “My husband because he was so good with helping Sarah with her homework today.” By challenging your mind to think of specifics, you’ll avoid falling into the trap of writing the same three things each day, which over time can cause the brain to stop noticing new things to be grateful for.
I know this sounds simplistic. If you’re like most of the women entrepreneurs I know, you are used to complicating things—living in overwhelm. But this process gets easier over time. You’ll learn how to use it to calm yourself down and get focused on what’s most important.
There is one place of self-sabotage that will for sure throw you off—judgement. Judging yourself for not checking things off your list each day or getting distracted, or falling off the intentionality wagon all together. Judging your own personal success. A huge part of this process is letting go of the judgement each evening.
The easiest way to do that is to let go of black and white thinking—perfectionist thinking. Instead of looking at everything as winning or losing. Think of it all as a process. And part of every process is problem solving. Every night you turn into a major problem solver—looking at your day and deciphering how you could have spent your time better or what you could have done differently. And you do it from a spirit of love and curiosity—not condemnation.
There’s no perfection place to get to—you’ll be tweaking and improving your life every day forever. You’re an infinite learner. That’s not a bad thing. It’s what successful women and men entrepreneurs do every day. They are always looking for ways to improve without making themselves wrong in the process. And they celebrate each achievement along the way.
Experiment with the Intentional Living Method this week—and let me know how it goes. Leave me a comment below—I’d be so appreciative!
Photo: flickr, girlfridayflickr
