The life of an entrepreneur is demanding. It requires your full attention, dedication, and passion to start and grow your venture successfully. However, even with these demands, it’s possible for entrepreneurs to live intentionally. With thoughtful consideration between your personal needs and goals, balanced with the needs and goals of your business, you can build an intentional life. This can be true for any job, entrepreneur or not. But the entrepreneurship grind is an entirely different level of commitment and stress, which is why it’s so important to incorporate intentionality into your life. Inserting intentionality into your life as an entrepreneur isn’t just for fun; it’s about balancing your needs and dedication with that of your physical, emotional, and mental health.
We face daily fears and stressors outside of a typical job, namely the inconsistency in our income. It’s because of all of these added stressors that it’s so important for us to insert intentionality into our lives. There is a myth in the entrepreneurial conversation that you have to give up your life to be successful, but this is completely false. Entrepreneurs can live intentionally while running a successful business. It takes a lot of dancing around to find the balance between job and life. That line becomes so blurred because typically, for entrepreneurs, their job is their life. Being so passionate about something blurs that line so much, making it difficult to see where your job ends and where your life begins.
Debunking the Myth: Entrepreneurs Can Live Intentionally
The key to success in achieving an intentional life as an entrepreneur is awareness. You have to be aware of your goal to live intentionally. It’s something you have to remind yourself of daily so that you’re constantly reminding yourself of this goal and it’s involved in all of your decisions. As you build this awareness, you’re going to be implementing two very important pieces of intentionality into your life: balance and boundaries. The balance will come as you implement boundaries into your life.
Boundaries
There are a few key places to actively think about and acknowledge where and why you’re setting boundaries. Your boundaries will act as a barrier for you to make ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decisions. And you’ll form these boundaries based on your non-negotiables. What habits, routines, and activities will you implement into your personal life that you’re not willing to give up? Things like your morning routine, physical activity, a class you take once a week, Friday happy hour with your friends? What parts of your personal life need to remain the same? Because here’s the reality of entrepreneurship; there will ALWAYS be something you need to get done. So you can either choose to have no boundaries and work till the wee hours of the night, or you can have your non-negotiables.
You can give yourself a break, go out and see your friends, go to your HIIT workout class, go to therapy, or even sit on your couch and watch a movie. All of these activities put you in a decompress mode. And while you’re decompressing, your subconscious mind is sifting through all of your thoughts for the day or organizing them for you. So even if you want to put in a few more hours of work at the end of the day, you’re in a much calmer, rested, and relaxed state of mind than you would be burning yourself out working from 8 AM to 8 PM. We set these boundaries to protect our mental and emotional health. Without them, we’ll quickly reach burnout.
Balance
By creating and implementing these boundaries, we’ll establish a healthy balance between life and entrepreneurship. This balance will provide us with the necessary fuel and endorphins we need to keep working hard at building our business. Without balance, we’ll continuously reach burnout (listen to episode 93 of the podcast on my Health Journey), and eventually reach a phase in which we’re resenting the business we’re building. You’ll reach a mindset where it feels like your business is consuming you. Despite what hustle culture may tell you, it’s not healthy to live and breathe your job. And while even I say my business is my life, I still have found ways to implement boundaries. My job is not my only identity. By creating this balance and these boundaries, I’ve been able to establish an identity outside of my business.
This is the person I am in my relationships and in my friendships. I have an identity in which I live intentionally in my personal life. I have an identity in my hobbies and in my passions. Balance is a necessity when it comes to living an intentional business and an intentional life. And although I’ve struggled with balance and setting boundaries, I’ve seen the invaluable benefits they’ve had on my mental health. Even though sometimes I struggle with feeling like I’m not doing enough to make my business a ‘success’, that success should not be a trade for my mental health.
you can have it all
The phrase ‘you can have it all’ often feels like a lie. But, in fact, that’s what the La.Rue brand is built upon believing. We can have it all as entrepreneurs. It’s possible to be a wild success while also living a beautiful, fulfilled, and intentional life. And while it may take a while, years even, to perfect this balancing act between life and business, as long as you stay the course, keep awareness, and implement balance and boundaries, you’ll get there.
