How To Unshackle Yourself from Your Business

I’m having an identity crisis since I left teaching. At least, I think that’s what it was. 

When I was a teacher, my entire identity was wrapped up in teaching. There wasn’t much room for anything else, so identities like mom, wife, and daughter weren’t prioritized. 

Leaving education has allowed me to reform my identity, but I’m struggling. Nothing is quite cut and dried anymore, especially because I’ve chosen Virtual Assistance as my next chapter. 

I thought a career move to Virtual Assistance would give me the flexibility I crave, coupled with the challenge I need: the challenge of learning new ideas and ways of doing things, but in my time frame.

As I’m building my business, I’m finding it difficult to separate myself from my business. I sneak peeks at my emails when I can, I whip out my phone when I see a new and independent business I can follow on social media, and Sundays–at least part of those days–is for planning my week and doing just “one more thing.” 

Am I my business? 

I’m pouring all my energy and effort into establishing myself, which I think many new (and veteran) business owners do. 

And it makes sense. We hustle, and work and work, and hustle for new clients/customers, for recognition, for money to pay our bills that we easily lose ourselves in our business. 

We believe we ARE our businesses.  We say, “That’s my name attached to this business.” 

Maybe we use our business email address for personal reasons. Or we take calls after hours, on weekends, and even on vacations. 

Maybe we identify so closely with our business that there is no separation between our business life and our personal life. 

That isn’t healthy.

Our stress levels are affected when we’re hyper-focused on our business and take little time to relax.  And most of us need to relax, to take breaks from our work, to see ourselves separately from what we do. The physical and emotional costs are too great.

If I’ve described you, or if any of this resonates with you, you might want to ask yourself these questions: 

Do I feel guilty when I’m not busy?

Do I define my worth by how much I can handle?

Do I believe that delegating makes me “less essential?”

Answering yes to any of these questions as a small business owner means that it might be time for you to learn to delegate. To hire someone you can delegate to. 

Delegating doesn’t make you “less essential” to your business. Reframing this belief into knowing that you’re actually becoming more essential can help you with hiring help. Instead of being the person who gets everything done, and I mean everything, you could delegate those tasks to someone else, like a virtual assistant, which will free up some of your time. 

You could become the person who ensures everything gets done. 

The bonus is that you could have some time to relax. To focus on the personal elements of your life, rather than solely on your business. 

Separating myself from my business is hard, I’m not going to lie. But it can be done. I know you can do it too. 

Maybe you’ve paused and thought that you don’t have to figure it all out alone, that delegating even a few tasks could be your first step toward reclaiming your time and yourself. If you’re curious what it might look like to hand off some of the behind-the-scenes work, I’d love to chat.

Contact me today: https://bit.ly/4siiEVp for a free consultation.