Our prospective clients are usually in pain by the time they come to us, exhibiting a variety of symptoms. For many of us, we don’t go to the doctor until something is really a problem. We try to handle it on our own, or press on and hope the symptoms go away. Then finally when it gets bad enough, we drag ourselves to the doctor.
A recent patient (a.k.a. potential client) said, “What I really want are my weekends back. My weekends often get used for ‘getting caught up’ or finishing a project that is due soon. And it would be really great to just get my weekends back as weekends. Can one of your executive assistants help me have that?”
Certainly. Having a high-caliber, part-time, virtual executive assistant can definitely help you get your evenings and weekends back. But would you like a home remedy to go along with that prescription? Listen to Bob Newhart: “Stop it! Just stop it!”
Stop it? Stop what? Stop jamming yourself. What if you just stop working on the weekends? What if working on the weekend was no longer an option? What would have to shift or change to make that possible, without burdening yourself more during the week?
Many business owners, entrepreneurs and executives are in control of the deadlines they are up against. Clients may ask us, as entrepreneurs, “When can you have that done?” Right there, in that moment, we get to choose how it’s going to go. Are we going to say something to sound impressive and look good that will ultimately end up jamming us? Or are we going to say something that works, that gives us the space to BOTH do exceptional work for our client AND leave us with the lifestyle and a life-schedule that nurtures us?
We are usually the author of our own madness. Let’s just stop it.
