tiredness is starting to catch up

[Olaf]

Lately, I’ve been working very hard, and the tiredness is starting to catch up with me. When you work a 9-to-5, you clock in and clock out, that’s it. But when you’re running your own business, you have to motivate yourself every single day. Like, damn... every single DAY! Every single day you have to go out there and get it.

I think most people never talk about this. They talk about the results, but rarely about the hard work required to achieve those results or how little energy you have left at the end of it.

It’s not like you can just relax and do your work slowly. You have to grind, hustle, use your brain, analyze, and if your work involves talking to people, you have to bring good energy too etc. It all adds up. Sometimes I wonder if it’s too much. Maybe I should go back to a 9-to-5, but I hate the idea of a 9-to-5 so much. I definitely need to work on managing my energy because it’s catching up with me. Whenever I take a rest day, I realize just how much rest I’ve been missing.

Hopefully, this is just part of the process and things will become a bit more stable over time. Hard work is necessary, but at some point, it has to evolve into something sustainable for the long term. Otherwise, I honestly don’t know how long I can keep going.

Any entrepreneurs here? How do you deal with this?

Edited 4 hours ago by Olaf

[Jordan of the Shire]

Hey brother 

 

Top down:

How much money do you want to make for your ideal lifestyle?

How much time do you want to have each day, month, year, for rest, love, and self growth? 

How many hours do you have left each week after that? How much do you need to make per hour? 

How much money is "enough"?

What can you "live" with?

 

If you have what you need, then build from there. Diversify how you earn an income so that it's not all time for money. 

Also - what are you doing? Are you passionate about it? If the service is empowering and meaningful it will give you more energy. 

 

One thing I would also consider is taking up qi gong, functional patterns training, neigong, and meditation. By developing the fascia, integration of the tissues, energetic system, and managing the contents of mind, the qualities that arise in the mind which are draining, you'll find your energy start to increase dramatically. 

 

Endless ways to tackle energy. 

 

But sometimes you just need to invest a good amount of time into the cultivation of energy.

Sometimes you need a meaningful mission,

Sometimes you need to be ruthless with your non-negotiables. Ie. I am going to makes sure I have enough rest each week so i show up energized, even if it pisses off my clients.

 

In my own life - i prioritize energy rather than production. I was the opposite at one point.

When scheduling your projects - makes sure you have a buffer, a week in between every once in awhile - and do what do you want. 
Sometimes 2 weeks. 

You don't need to work all weeks of the year, and if you're charging 35-50%-70% gross profit, and getting leads which convert, you should have good money coming in that can afford that. But if your expenses are too high and it's keeping you chained to the kind of working lifestyle you currently have, then you'll need to reduce your expenses so you can work less.

If you are making a lot of conversions, then maybe increasing your prices is what you need to do. In my business I aim for a 50% gp on labor and 20-35% gp on materials. I only need to work 1-2 weeks a month. I intend to add more to this but for the last 6 months its been enough and has afforded me time to work on other things.
 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Jordan of the Shire