0 items
No products in the cart.
Return to ShopHAPPY FALL: Get 10% of your order with the code "HAPPYFALL".
Procrastination: the enemy of mum entrepreneurs
Being a mother and running a business: two challenges that many think do not seem to go together. So many people ask me how I do to marry career, children and entrepreneurship. I’m far from being perfect in this area and finding a balance between family life, take care of myself and manage a startup is a real challenge.
So how to achieve it?
From my little experience, I would say that the best way to fail in being a parent and being an entrepreneur is to cultivate procrastination. For those who do not know the definition of procrastination:
This is the tendency to systematically postpone actions (whether limited to a specific area of daily life or not). The “chronic retarder”, called the procrastinator, can not get to work, especially when it does not give him immediate satisfaction.
Source: Wikipedia
As a mother, we can very easily find many many excuses not to progress on a startup project: “my baby is teething”, “my baby does not sleep”, “I’m exhausted”, … To that we can add the fact that when we have children with us at home, guilt comes very quickly if we do not spend “enough” time with them, to do activities to develop their creativity and development.
I have too – like you – like a lot – gone through (and I still do) there. The problem is that we will always find excuses, reasons not to do something. And as time passes, we lose opportunities, and above all we lose the desire … The desire, because often what nourishes a passion or a dream is progressing and achieve small targets. When nothing progress, we just feel sorry for ourselves, and we forget the ambitions and dreams that we had set for ourselves.
For all these reasons, procrastination is the number one enemy of entrepreneurship, especially when you’re a mother.
I have too – like you – like a lot – gone through (and I still do) there. The problem is that we will always find excuses, reasons not to do something. And as time passes, we lose opportunities, and above all we lose the desire … The desire, because often what nourishes a passion or a dream is progressing and achieve small targets. When nothing progress, we just feel sorry for ourselves, and we forget the ambitions and dreams that we had set for ourselves.
For all these reasons, procrastination is the number one enemy of entrepreneurship, especially when you’re a mother.
How to get out of this situation?
The most difficult step is to accept that the achievement of your goals will undoubtedly pass through some sacrifices, and that your dreams will require changes in your daily life.
The sacrifices go through:
– a few hours sleep less;
– work at decelerated hours;
– having to free yourself some time by finding a baby sitter or a child minder for your children a few hours to move forward in your tasks;
– have less holidays, ….
The goal is of course not to spend NO time with husband and children, but rather to organize your time to effectively progress your entrepreneurial project. Find the balance!
As for the changes, they are mainly of an organizational nature. There are many tools today (free and paid) to help you be more productive (I’ll talk about it in a future article). You have to learn to delegate, and do not be afraid to ask for help from those around you. You will be surprised to see that real friends will not hesitate to take a few minutes of their time to help you, even in the smallest tasks.
But the most important secret is to love what you do. If your adventure fascinates you, the hours of sleep missed will be quickly forgotten. In those moments where you feel drown, you will still find a bit of energy to finish an important task.
Equip yourself with tools that motivate you. A nice bullet journal, a good computer, a smartphone that takes beautiful pictures, nice apps, a good camera, … tools that will motivate you and help you to achieve your ambitions.
And remember: the first barrier of entrepreneurship is not financial. It is yourself.
If you have entrepreneurial ideas in mind, dreams and ambitions that fascinate you, then TODAY is the day to move them forward.
If you have entrepreneurial ideas in mind, dreams and ambitions that fascinate you, then TODAY is the day to move them forward.
