Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business

When invoked, burn-it-all-down mode (BIADM) means we have reached a point of weariness, burnout, frustration, or dread in our business, and we wonder (fantasize!) whether instead of pressing ahead in our chosen field we should just burn it all down and pivot into real estate.

No matter when it strikes, the impulse to burn it all down is a signal flare. When you are stranded on burnout island, your body and your business start sending distress signals. These torching fantasies are a sign you are not working sustainably. Something is off, whether your schedule, your projects, your margins, your clients, your day-to-day work, your team, your delegation, or a mix of all of the above. These moments are also ripe for our biggest business breakthroughs.

many of the stresses of running a small business can be attributed to broken—or nonexistent—business systems.

When you run your own company, “hard” work no longer has a direct correlation to the profit you generate. In the entrepreneurial realm, time is decoupled from money. There is no guarantee that pouring more time into your business will yield positive results. In a small business, there is no place to hide. Hard work itself is meaningless. The work must work—it must be strategic and revenue-generating, or you will quickly go out of business,

money, fame, power, and control, what I call the Four Horsemen of the Business Ambition Apocalypse.

It is time to ditch yesterday’s business menu. Instead of growth at the expense of your health and peace of mind, listen to the urges to simplify, streamline, and de-stress.

You can be thoughtful about who you seek to serve, and the impact you are making. You can work with integrity, honoring the health and humanity of all involved. I call this operating mode Heart-Based Business.

Heart-Based Business means engaging with an ongoing inquiry (feel free to create your own version with wording that resonates): How can we earn twice as much in half the time, with ease and joy, while serving the highest good?

Consider: does your business give you energy, or does it take energy?

Life-giving businesses energize everyone who participates in them, from the owner to team members to clients and community.