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Are you staying up late at night unable to peel yourself away from the computer because you’re addicted to your business?
I would be lying to you if I’m not slightly addicted to my business. I’m just not as addicted I was, and I now have the awareness to notice when I’m sabotaging myself.
It’s important to get away from your laptop so you return to your business stronger.
Time away from your work so you’re not completely fixated on business allows creativity to flow, new ideas to happen, and allows you to reenergize.
An addiction is something you can’t stop. It’s something that takes control of you rather than you being in control of it, just like social media or something else, but your business can be an addiction.
When I ask people what they do outside of their business they can find it hard to tell me about their hobbies and the people they’re connecting with.
Are You Subconsciously Disconnecting?
A reason why you get addicted to our business is that sometimes you don’t want to connect with other people. When I was at school, the main reason why I started my video games magazine, was because I was bullied. I found safety in being with a group of my friends and spending time creating the fanzine.
We sold Megabyte in small newsagent shops – that was where my entrepreneurial journey began.
I was very young and I was spending a lot of time creating a magazine to avoid being bullied. The more time I spent in front of my computer the more numb I became and blocked out my feelings.
I was isolating myself in my fanzine because I was shut out by other people or I was choosing to shut myself out because of what I thought other people thought of me. If you don’t connect well, or you consider yourself as an introvert, you’re going to do things to make yourself feel safe.
The more you do that, the more you get hooked in. It’s just like smoking or taking drugs for the first time. You like the feeling, and then you want more of it. It’s easy to distract yourself in front of the computer screen, starting new things, writing and being creative but if the things you’re doing aren’t productive then you’re wasting time.
Entrepreneurs often fall into the loop of creating but not completing, and you can spend a lot of time doing things, but not getting results. An OCD loop happens; you open the computer, you check your email, you look at documents.
You can just work and work, but you’re just chipping away at yourself.
Are You Paying The Psychological Price Of Entrepreneurship?
You wear down your own confidence when you don’t allow yourself to enjoy the gifts around you. You can’t enjoying deep connection with other people or allow creativity to flow.
You become more and more isolated, more lonely, and you begin to feel disconnected from yourself.
You feel confused because your computer and work create a reality that’s not real. You think you’re leading your life, but you’re not living your life.
I believe you should be building your business, you should be creating impact and you should be working. Have an honest conversation with yourself you ask if it’s worth you losing your health and mind?
Stop Procrastinating
You may feel like you’re progressing with your business, but when you’re addicted to your business, you’re not progressing; you’re filling time. You need to have a brutal, honest checklist with all the things that you’re doing and ask yourself if they are bringing you a return?
Let go of the idle time you’re wasting on your computer. It’s not benefiting you or your business.
Is it really benefiting your business to continue doing it or a way for you to avoid real life? Is it a way for you to avoid real, difficult conversations, that you need to have? Is it a complete distraction from you accessing your truest self and connecting with a part of you that you’re afraid to connect with?
Tough Love
One of the things you need when you’re addicted to your business is clarity.
Before I started working with my mentors I was just doing things in my business but I wasn’t getting results. I needed to get clarity on what I truly wanted to do as my best work, but I couldn’t see what I needed to see.
I needed to hear the truth and receive tough love.
Those conversations got me moving. They shifted me into a direction that was more efficient and results-based. That meant I improved my income and changed my life instead of going around in circles.
When you’re addicted to your business, you go around in circles and you get more and more frustrated.
It’s like buying lots of courses because you think they’ll bring you more revenue, but you avoid doing the things you need to because things like having conversations, enrolling clients, and taking action steps outside your comfort zone can be difficult.
When you’re addicted to your business and you’re continuously working and not getting any results, you’re avoiding the very things on your to-do list that are going to be difficult and activate fear.
Take Time Out
If this is resonating with you because you’re addicted to your business – you’re inefficient and procrastinating by doing things that don’t work and you’re disconnecting yourself from everyone, the first thing you have to do is peel yourself away.
If you want to have an efficient business you need to take some time out.
Time away from your business allows you to become aware of what you’re doing and your habits.
Think about what you’re doing and how you’re wasting time. You’ll become clearer about the things that are working and how you can get better at those and stop doing the things which are not efficient.
You will sense when you need to take a break because your body will be trying to tell you. If you ignore those signals because you’re addicted to your business you won’t take the breaks you need. The stress you feel in the shoulders or the neck, and your sore back is your body screaming at you to go out and connect with yourself and in nature.
If you’re constantly in front of your computer you’ll get more confused and disconnected from yourself and you’ll become disconnected from your intuition.
Your intuition is there to guide and give you golden moments of insight, which can lead you on the path you’re destined for.
Listen to your body and take the breaks you need. Go for the walk, or take the holiday. I used to create an excuse that I couldn’t go on holiday because I needed to make more money. What I needed was the holiday, so I could make more money.
In that space that you create and in the relaxation and the calm of you slowing down, clarity and insight can come. When you go back to your business, you can be efficient because you’re well-rested and you feel calm.
Instead of destroying yourself commit to working in a healthy way.
When you’re addicted to your business and you can become robotic and disconnected. Then you start to wonder why your relationships are falling apart, why your partner has lost interest and why don’t people call or connect with you.
Be hyper-aware of the rush to return back when you do take a break. It’s common to feel impatient and want to rush what you’re doing, but that pull stops you from relaxing and disconnecting.
When you become emotionally and energetically intelligent you can train yourself not to feel like that.
Don’t Forget Who You Are
You also want to be aware of only talking about business. Is that a default for you when you’re meeting with people? Is it just passion or is that the only place that you can go to?
Do you need to start to diversify, start to become playful, start to get a hobby, start to play that guitar again? Start to do the thing that you did when you were young and playful!
Maybe you’ve lost that innocent, goofy side of you and you know it’s there, but you’ve disconnected from it.
It’s easy to create a story and say you don’t have the time, or you’ll do it next week. How many times have you liked the idea of something, but put it off? The playful thing you do could create new connections that land you a big business deal – if you’re finding yourself in a place of no results, doing what you’re doing, it would be crazy to continue doing the same thing.
What would be sensible is to live your life, to take some time away, and to see what is created from you being in a place of joy and happiness.
If I took your business away from you, how would you feel about yourself? What’s the longest time you’ve been away from your business?
If you feel like you’re overworking yourself, you’re not in flow, you’re not feeing calm confidence, and the things you’re manifesting aren’t flowing to you, then something needs to change. What is that action going to be?
Book the thing you want to do. The one thing you’ve been putting off can help you connect you back to you. You’re going to come back to your business with a fresh set of eyes. The work you put will be better, it will be more powerful and more potent to those receiving it.
I can assure you that the true next level in your business will also come so much faster. I’m all for putting the effort in, but I don’t believe in hard work.
I believe in energy fueled work that’s efficient. That can be quick, but not the energy of hard and not the energy of force. It has to be power, and power happens when you remove yourself and come back. What are you going to do?
If you”re ready to lose your addiction to your business head to www.simonlovell.com/shp
