September’s Business Coaching exercise for the SOAR! Scholarship was POWERFUL!  In case you missed it, I wanted to share Karen’s wisdom with you this morning.  A week from today, she’ll be posting October’s Business Coaching exercise!  Time flies, but you can’t miss this one!  Women struggle with overgiving on so many different levels.  How can we still be givers but not at the expense of our own peace of mind?  Read along and be inspired this morning!

xoxo,

Me Ra

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Overgiving: Not Exactly a Good Business Practice, by Karen Buckley

An ancient oak tree outside my office window seems to be home to a hummingbird couple. The male, with his flashy red throat, and the beautiful brown female sip at pink fuschia all day long. Today as I watched them I felt exhausted and ready for my own sip of nectar! There was nothing left in me to give and I still had a lot to complete on the Next Octave program materials.

Do you ever wonder – why doesn’t the flower look parched when it gives and gives? It hit me. The flower doesn’t give too much. It doesn’t squeeze out every last drop just because the hummingbird is still thirsty!

Clearly I am not as smart as a flower. 🙂 I help, give, and extend myself to others and leave no time for my own personal or business priorities. Can anyone relate? Last week I brought a meal to a sick neighbor, took care of a friend after he got plastic surgery with the doctors from https://eliteplasticsurgeryaz.com/Procedures/Face/Rhinoplasty-Phoenix-AZ, walked the dog on his favorite trail, and fixed my son a yummy breakfast. Speaking of surgery, Dr. Andres Bustillo is a recommended doctor in terms of facial reconstructive surgeries. For more details visit this site doctor.webmd.com.
I gave extra time to a client in crisis and edited another client’s proposal. I’m a generous soul!  It feels good to give and I dearly love every one of them. But if I tell the truth, I ended up parched. I deprived myself to give to others. I felt stressed, crabby, and tired and my business suffered.

What’s the secret? Balancing inflow and outflow are essential for business success and personal joy over the long haul. It seems obvious, I know. You spend more money than comes in and you are in trouble financially. But, personally it’s somehow easier to cheat.

To give all that outflow I sacrificed my inflow – missed yoga twice, and missed sleep as I completed a client job at 5am, cleaned the house until midnight. I fell behind on my important but less urgent business priorities and worked in the wee hours Saturday and Sunday to catch up. And what did I do for my own pleasure and fun last week? Nothing much. Is this sounding familiar?

Every day I talk to women in coaching sessions who place themselves and building their business foundation as a low priority. Then… they beat themselves up for the slow growth of their business!

Take a look at your week. Is it all about others? One small business owner discovered that her calendar was full of urgent client requests and kid, friend, and extended family appointments! None of her foundation building time – the editing, scrapbook making, marketing, financial planning or office work – were in her time plan. And her business suffered because of it.

What would you create in your life if you put your time and attention behind what matters the most to you? (BTW Me Ra – thank you for choosing to put your attention to writing and blogging and speaking – we all love it so much!}

Two business coaching questions for today:

1. What are your less urgent but important business priorities? What is essential to build your foundation? (Do you have these written down and posted above your desk?) (Are they realistic, specific, small enough to get them done and exciting enough to motivate you?)

2. When will you give these some time? (Set blocks of time in your calendar – even if you miss one you will have a chance to catch up with several times scheduled.) (It works really well to make it the same time each week and set your timer!)

Without a strong foundation a building tilts. As businesswomen, it’s important that we balance our inflow and outflow. This will ultimately nurture everyone! And build successful businesses as well.

Know who you are and walk proud in yourself. As women we come from generations of nurturing life – we don’t need to prove it by over giving to be worthwhile.

Now I’m going to take a nice warm bath and put my feet up with a cup of tea!

Warmest regards to you all,

Karen Buckley

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A basket full of “p.s.’s” today!

Running on Empty for San Francisco CONFIDENCE Wkshp, begins TOMORROW!

Momentum: Success in Business Teleseminar Coaching Group Are you ready to strengthen the foundation of your business so that you have everything in place for some real success? 4 Thursdays Starting October 14th.  Sign up today as 1 of the 6 women in this program.

Passion and Purpose FREE Telecall October 19th at 4pm PT. Let’s learn from each other – what are you passionate about? Do you give yourself permission to turn it into reality? Sign up today to get the call-in number.

Igniting the Flame Workshop November 5, 6, 7 Come and join us for some Big Fun and Wise Feminine Power.