Dont Forget Why You Do This Stuff.

It’s natural to work your butt off if the results are worth the time spent on the task. We all do it, whether it is working from home, running your own business, or working for someone else. We all work hard to get an end result, and that’s cool.

So, if I think back to why it is that we create businesses, and/or the ability to be able to work from somewhere of our own choosing, be it our home, the local cafe, or our own office building… does it not defeat the purpose of going our own way in the world if we do nothing but work 18 hour days, only to sleep for 6, get up rinse and repeat 7 days of the week?

I’m a huge believer in balance. Yin and Yang if you like to call it that. Good and bad, hard and easy. Everything one side requires and equal amount of what sits on the other side to make it happen.

For example: If I want more freedom, then I must work hard on my business in order to produce enough profit, so that I can support additions to my business that enable me to be present just as much as I need to be. For example – outsourcing and out tasking. I then need time to rejuvenate in order to be able to perform at my peak, without burning myself out.

I started out as an Internet Marketer because I wanted to be free. I’m not wired to work for big corporations that do nothing for me, I much prefer to be doing the things that I want to be doing. Mountain biking, hiking, cooking, playing PS3, and as guilty as I might feel when I turn on my PS3 some days at two o’clock in the afternoon, I make no excuses for it, because the life that I want is one in which I can set when I do the things that I want to do, rather than work on a roster set by a company.

I may not be being 100% clear here, but I know that you understand exactly what it is that I am saying.

Although… I know that many of us get caught up in the exact opposite. Work hard, get results, start again and sooner or later, you are stuck in the same vicious cycle of working with little or no reward.

This is not to say that working hard is not the key to everything, I’m just talking about balance. Remember why it is that you chose to do what you do.

I was always taught as a child that you must work hard in order to get ahead in life, but what exactly does it mean to “get ahead“? Is it to earn tons of money working hard for someone else so that you can eventually retire on what little superannuation that you have, or is it creating something that allows you to enjoy freedom, that may involve some work, but is scalable, and can evolve to a point that requires you to be involved just enough so that you still have time to enjoy your freedom.

That’s not to say that hard work doesn’t pay off of course, it’s just to say that in order to achieve balance, it’s best to get some of the good stuff too, just like you promised you would when you first decided to take the leap. I see it all too much.

You are doing this because you want to be free. You want more time to do (insert task here), and you want to be able to (insert task here) more often.

My day to day is structured in a way where I have time to work, I have time to develop ideas and bring them to fruition, and most importantly, I have time every day to do the things that I want to do.

In fact, after writing the first draft of this post, I’m going to go and jump on my bike for a bit, because I want to do it, and because I have created a lifestyle that allows me to.

How am I able to do this? I worked on one task at a time, got ideas and tasks to fruition, and prioritized those tasks that turned a profit, and developed a strategy for the ongoing maintenance of those tasks that requires me to do less of the “technicians” work.

That’s freedom for you, and as much as you may have forgotten about it, it’s the very reason why most of you do what you do. Don’t lose sight of it.