This article covers 10 of the 30 tips and tricks to plan, prepare and mesh your home and business from the ebook Build Your Home Business Mindset. Follow the link to get inspired and encouraged by the complete ebook that guides you to build a home business and keep family first.
Working from home affords you the luxury of taking longer breaks, creating a unique home life and fulfilling your desires related to every part of your life while running a successful business. Your life goal should be to have a prosperous life, prosperity in all areas of your life that will result in an increased enthusiasm for your business.
Strive for balance and create harmony between work and life. The following tips focus on creating balance in your life that will directly influence your business.
10 Ways to Balance the Blend of Work & Home
- Always Be Learning and Growing
Always have a personal or professional growth book on the go. Reading is a vital component to self-development, which you should be making time for on a regular basis. This is to enrich both your personal development and your professional development.
Making time to fit 15 minutes of reading in, a couple times a day, will benefit you greatly in all areas of your life, which will provide you with more success in your business and in your relationships. This is also an excellent way to nurture your complete self, every part of your mind, body and spirit.
- Don’t Aim to Please Everyone
Be clear on what your motives and intentions are and don’t let someone else’s opinion sway your informed decision. This relates to people in your personal life and in your business.
There may be customers or clients that want more time from you or quicker responses or a spouse that feels your online pursuits are taking up too much time and doesn’t understand your passion. Don’t let the opinions of others change your business objective when you know that’s what you want. Don’t be completely close-minded either. Hear people out and consider their opinion, then stand up for what you feel is right.
- Share Your Work Schedule with Your Family
Post a print-out of your weekly schedule on the fridge, office door or other visible area to let your family members know when you have planned to work and even what kind of work you’ll be doing.
This helps to avoid someone in your house planning something that requires or requests your involvement during your work hours and allows you to share a bit of your business life with your family.
- Discuss Your Business Challenges and Accomplishments with Family and Friends
Have one or two people that you can regularly talk to about what’s happening with your business. When you’re first starting out, it can be discouraging to feel like you don’t have anyone to share the achievements and the frustrations with.
Even though you can connect with many other people online in the same situation as you (which you should do too!), you may find it more effective to get to talk things out in person and share with someone you already have an established relationship with.
- Take Breaks in the Great Outdoors
Are you already aware of the refreshing nature of…nature?
Getting outside to renew your mind and body just may give you the boost you need to get back to home and business with a fresh perspective. Go out for a walk, take the kids to a park or just sit outside your home and take in the fresh air.
I’ve discovered that when I shift my focus for even a half an hour and create a day that has some type of outside exposure, I gain a greater feeling of satisfaction with my day.
And when I get that overwhelmed or frustrated feeling and make the time to get outside (usually just on my property) and enjoy some time with my kids and a brisk walk through the forest, I feel better able to tackle a challenge and get creative in my work.
- Be Nutritionally Conscience
Eating right is essential on so many levels, but you will find you are so much more motivated and productive if you’re feeding your body the right kind of fuel. Get educated on what the best diet is for you and eat a variety of foods that are providing your body with the appropriate nutrients that it needs to function at an optimum level.
Choose your foods with the belief that eating is to properly nourish your body and not just to satisfy your taste buds. Moderation is the key and having little treats now and then is acceptable but make the majority of meals and snacks about providing your body with high-quality fuel.
- Engage in Fun and Rejuvenating Physical Activity
Physical activity is a great energizer and provides your whole body with an overall feeling of satisfaction. Although any type of exercise is beneficial, it is an added bonus when you can get some exercise while having fun and spending some quality time with family or friends.
A few examples of this type of invigorating exercise is biking, brisk walking, playing sports, skipping, jumping on a trampoline and rock climbing - just to name a few of your options.
Even if you just take a regular trip to the gym and give your body a workout, you’ll reap the rewards of physical activity. The overall point here is that exercise can and should be integrated into your life, and it doesn’t have to be some rigorous workout in the gym. There’s a whole world of possibilities.
- Nourish Your Spiritual Side
You are a human with a mind, body and spirit. Are you connecting with God every day, talking and listening repeatedly? We can often minimize the importance of nourishing our spiritual side, but just as we need to nourish our bodies with food and exercise and nourish our minds with learning and activity, we need to nourish our spirit by connecting with God. No religion needed – be still in your mind and take time to read His Word and meditate on His ways.
- Make the Time to Nurture the Most Important Relationships
Just being around your spouse or your children, or any other significant people in your life, isn’t an effective way to truly value that relationship. You have to spend quality time with the people you love, and this is easily left out if you’re not aware of the lack of connection you may have.
If you find you’re not connecting with those special people in your life on a personal level, then schedule in a weekly ‘date’ where you spend time with one another and get a chance to openly talk or do an activity together.
- Be an Ongoing Source of Inspiration for Others
Be an encouragement for other people to go for their great aspirations. Share your experiences and goals and be a regular source of uplifting conversation for someone to be positively influenced by.
Not only is this a great help to someone else, but it will also create a greater sense of ownership in all you are planning to achieve in your business and personal life.
Keep the momentum by reaching out to other people that you know personally and that you connect with online. When you are constantly inspiring others, you will be building a habit of determination and success that will lead you to living your life to its fullest potential.
Stephanie Morrison 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. She works for The Old Schoolhouse® on the Canadian team and also coaches entrepreneurs to start and grow their business from home. She and her family are all comfortably nestled in the trees in Central Ontario. She loves being a home-body and building up her permaculture property. Learn more about Steph at www.creatingworkandplay.com.
"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).