One of the most radical things I’ve learned and embraced over the past couple of years is to build my business around myself. Around my desires, my needs, my life. It’s something I come back to again and again with my mentoring clientsand in my programmes and courses like Grow.
In this post I will share more about making space for yourself in business, and help you to go deeper on this in a workshop.
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What being human means
Whenever I help my clients make plans for their business, I always ask them how these plans feel for them. Are they sustainable? Are they doable alongside other needs, desires and responsibilities—next to their non-negotiables?
In other words, do these plans and the business as you’re running it, allow you to be human?
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What being human means for you might be different from what it means to me. Allowing yourself to be human might look like making time for your weekly swimming class. It might be setting a timer so you get up more regularly from your desk. Or to take a nap before the kids come home. It might be satisfying your need for creativity, whether within or outside your business. For many of us, allowing space for our humanness has to do with taking space and time for ourselves—to rest, to move, to read, to be.
In general, our humanness is the thing that traditional business advice tends to ignore. Or even explicitly repress, when we’re advised to hustle, to push through, the keep going.
Our humanness is what traditional business advice asks us to repress and ignore.
For me, tending to my humanness means working at a pace that is sustainable and flexible. It means not working 8 hours a day. It means planning my days around time for reading in the mornings, a midday nap and movement in the afternoon. It means not having more than 2 to 3 calls a week. It means starting my days with creative work, such as writing or creating resources.
I am very much aware of my needs and my desires. They are what inspired me to start this business—and I am also forced to reckon with them regularly.
But a few weeks ago I realised I had let my boundaries slip. I was ever so slightly pushing my humanness into the corners. I saw the signs—the increased fatigue, afternoon headaches, feelings of overwhelm—and tried to push through them.
Making space for my humanness
Recentering my humanness starts by pushing back against myself. Deep down I am still a recovering productivity ninja, and sometimes I slip back into old thoughts.
Practical ways in which I made space for my humanness:
- Recognise the voice that tells me I need to work more, and recognise it for a voice that doesn’t serve me;
- Deliberately make time for my humanness: I collected a big stack of library books, and made a list of joyful things to do in the garden;
- Shore up my boundaries around email and call availability—not even necessarily for my clients, but for me. Boundaries are as much, perhaps even more so, for me—reminding me when I do and do not want to work or be available.
- Ask myself whether whatever’s on my to-do list is really, really, really necessary right now. Yes, it would be lovely to update my Substack for small business course sooner rather than later. But I don’t have the capacity to do this in one big swoop—it’ll have to go slowly and incrementally.
- Be gentle with myself.
Most of all, centring and recentring the human in our business is about recognising that this is both necessary and hard—we live in capitalist societies that don’t want us to centre our own needs. But we can do it anyway: in big ways if we’re able (and privileged to), but in smaller ways too.
I’d love to know what resonates with you from this post.
Please feel free to share this post it with business friends, in your newsletter or elsewhere. 💛
I’d love to support you in all phases of your business. Providing clarity, focus and next steps is something that my clients tell me I’m really good at. If you’re curious about how we can work together through 1:1 mentoring, check out what I offer or send me an email–no strings attached. I have payment plans available, and flexible options for mentoring calls.
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