Are you fulfilled in your life and business or are you drained and tired?
Have you found yourself feeling unmotivated, defeated or drained more often than when you feel fulfilled and excited to wake up every morning to start your day?
It is time to perform an audit on your life and business.
I am not talking about a tax audit, I am talking about becoming self aware of how you spend your time and who you spend it with inside your personal and professional life. If this is an entirely new concept or you need a refresher, I will help set you on a path towards fulfillment and positivity in your future.
Where are you choosing to invest your time in life and business?
It can be so easy to fall into negative routines or habits that are not contributing positive or meaningful experiences moving forward. Taking time to track and audit how you spend your time throughout the day is a straight forward method to help identify negative use of time and implement positive changes.
Start keeping track of where you are spending your time for a full week starting when you wake up to the moment you fall asleep. How long are you spending on social media each day, try tracking it down to the minutes of screen time each day and right it down. When you close out of your online scrolling, take notice of how you feel and jot down a quick note next to your time tracking that day.
Try asking yourself what activities contribute in positive manor versus bringing you down in a negative way. You may realize Facebook time makes you feel meh and that you should try limiting screen time or what you choose to follow online.
Are you spending time going out and doing stuff that doesn’t make you feel happy or excited? Keep track of how you spend every minute of your day, then go through and analyze the results. By asking yourself how an activity made you feel, you are able to take a zoomed out look at what may need to change.
Do you spend your time on things that contribute to your life in a positive or negative way?
Are you finding that you finish your day feeling refreshed or drained?
Look at your daily tracking and take note of how each piece makes you feel. You can set boundaries around how you spend your time to prevent draining activities, sometime you can remove it entirely, or maybe it’s time to turn something over to some ones else.
Take a week to track your what you spend your time on, how it makes you feel and what you might be able to do to make a change.
What people are you choosing to surround yourself with?
After you finish your time audit it is time to take a look at the people surrounding your personal and professional life.
I absolutely love this idea and believe it is a very powerful skill to have.
Try to consider if there are people who may not be contributing to your life in positive meaningful way and ask yourself if they really need to be in your life.
Performing a people audit means everyone is on the list whether it’s a friend, family member or maybe a significant other. I suggest making a list of the people you spend your time with socially or professionally and ask yourself if they leave you feeling drained by the end of the day.
Once you have started to establish which people are causing negative feelings in your life it is time to set boundaries. Boundaries do not mean you have to completely cut someone off, it means you communicate limitations to what you allow into your bubble in order to protect yourself. It can be difficult when you realize that the people who only call when they want to complain about their life may not be contributing to you in a positive way elsewhere. Ask yourself if there is anything meaningful coming back to you in those relationships.
Believe it or not, you can spend more time to those bringing positive energy and create boundaries with those who are negative. You grow with positive people who are also growing. If you want to feel driven and successful throughout your day, try surrounding yourself with the people actively working towards positive growth.
Start taking note of how you feel when you spend time with different people in your life and allow yourself to set healthy boundaries in order to avoid a negative or downward routine.
What things in your business are making you happy or excited and what is not?
Once you have a solid understanding on how you are choosing to spend your time and who you spend that time with, it is time to audit your business.
Start by listing out all the things you currently do within your business: this means random tasks, day-to-day activities, and what your time is spent on. Think about whether or not you truly love performing a certain task or do you find that you hate it? If you dread or dislike certain tasks, try asking yourself if that task is necessary in your business and whether not that task brings you money, clients, or a simpler life. Removing the unneeded tasks and deciding which things you enjoy and which you do not enjoy are going to make all the difference in how you perceive and treat your business long-term.
It may be time to start outsourcing the tasks you don’t love in order to feel fulfilled and present in your professional life. Don’t force yourself to commit time towards activities or tasks in your business just because you feel like you have to deal with it, as the owner of a portrait business you need to be the mastermind of your business through your strategies, ideas and marketing plans as well as talking to your clients through phone calls, sessions and reveals. You can however outsource tasks like blogging, editing, culling, or scheduling if it is not bringing joy to your life.
Finally, think about your clients from the past, present, and future. Write down a list and mark down which clients leave you feeling great and who may have left you feeling drained. Once you have those clients in categories, start asking yourself what it was about working with them that made you feel that way. Client audits offer incredible insight into how your current marketing strategies are working and gaining perspective on where to find your idea clients and how to avoid those who are not a good fit.
Set time aside in your day to start your client audit and be honest with yourself in order to make positive changes in your business’ future.
Now let me ask this question again. Are you fulfilled in your life and business or are you drained and tired?
It is time to surround yourself with positive people, stay aware of the impact and ripples certain activities or people make in your personal life or business. Allow yourself to set healthy boundaries with the negative and draining aspects of your business or life.
Focus on what you love and what brings you joy even if it isn’t necessarily what the rest of the world tells you that you should be doing. If your life or business isn’t brining you joy and fulfillment, what are you honestly bringing to the table for those around you?
Have you started to perform an audit on your life and business? Now is a great time to take a deeper look into how you can make positive changes moving forward.
If you liked what you read today, make sure you check out our podcast for photographers where new episodes are released every Monday to help educate photographers on building profitable and sustainable portrait businesses!
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