One of my biggest struggles in life is saying no and giving everyone else my time. I’m a professional people pleaser. I like to make people happy and I want people to like me.
But what ultimately ends up happening is that when I put everyone else before myself (to fulfill that need to be liked, not because I’m some saint), then I get resentful. Because I have no time for myself, my projects, and the things that I love to do, the things that light me up.
One of those things both when I was side hustling and now that I’m self-employed is content creation. I love to write, I love to make these blog posts, I love to create courses. I love to sit in my quiet office and just get the words out, and then I love building my own websites.
But those things don’t directly make money. Sure, I have to do them in order to market myself and get the word out there, but they don’t directly result in money – and, hey, I’ve got bills to pay!
So I started this practice before I left my day job that I call “Mondays and Mornings are Mine.” and what that means is I don’t check emails, Facebook, or do any client work on Mondays or in the mornings before 11am.
And that carves out that time that I need for myself to do the things I LOVE to do in my business, the things that I must do in order to market my business and serve my audience and get the word out, but that don’t directly result in money when I do them.
Mondays are my writing day, so typically I’ll write a blog post – two if I’m feeling super creative – and I’ll write pep talks. Sometimes I’ll record videos on a Monday if I’m in the middle of course creation, but Monday is always a really creative, awesome day for me.
And you know what that does for me? It makes me LOVE Sundays!! When I had a day job, I used to dread Sundays. I never wanted to do anything on Sundays because I felt like I had to guard that last bit of time left on the weekend for myself. Sundays were the day to do laundry, go grocery shopping (with the whole rest of the world), and then be bummed out by Sunday evening because I had to get up early and go back to the real world on Monday.
Now that I’m self-employed, I’m all about Sunday Funday – because I actually look forward to Monday! A quiet day, where I get to be creative, when my clients don’t expect to hear from me, and I get to decide what to work on.
And I get to start every single day that way – putting the priorities of my own business first. Because I love helping my clients grow their businesses, but I still have to make time to plant my own seeds and water my own garden, right?
So my challenge to you today is how can you take back your Mondays and mornings?
Even if you still have a full-time job – what can you add to your Monday morning so that you look forward to it?
Can you work out a deal with your boss that you start work two hours later on a Monday and reserve that time for you? Can you take a Monday off a month? Can you make your work in the mornings the work that’s going to fill you up to help you get through the tough times?
Find this episode, number 57, on Instagram @shannonlmattern and leave me a comment to tell me how you’re taking back your Mondays and Mornings with #peptalksforsidehustlers
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