One of the most valuable and irredeemable possessions in life is time. Time is what you exchange for anything you want in this life. Time is life, without time, there’s no life.
Our lives are expressed within and in the context of time. We are here for a season and a duration, when our time is up, our life ends. The quality of your life however, is determined by how well you’ve put your time to use. If you’re committed to an effective use of your time, your life would most likely turn out well, if however you waste your time on frivolities and things that don’t matter, you may suffer for it subsequently.
This is the reality check that motivates a lot of people in paid employment to desire the transition to self-employment. Any employment that would reward you handsomely these days will demand for a lot of your time and freedom especially in Nigeria.
Most highly rewarding employments today will require you to sacrifice quality time with perhaps friends and family, basic leisure, study and personal development and even needed rest. Many people want to quit paid employment because they want to eventually be in charge of their time, hence, do what they please when they please and as they please.
It’s a noble ambition to desire enough time to invest in worthwhile and commendable ventures in life. Investing time with your family is good. Having enough rest is good, leisure and vacations are good as well however, self-employment is definitely not that option of career style that will avail you time for all these wonderful things. Self-employment as a matter of fact may even demand more of your time than your season in paid employment.
Building a business is serious business. It will require so much in terms of energy, effort, thinking, strategy, alertness, responsiveness and time. If you don’t want to build a business that will eventually collapse, you will give it enough time. Enough time however, is relative.
You see, a business is a separate and independent entity totally different from you. You are you and your business should have a life of its own if it would grow. The perspective is to see your business as a venture that you’ll nurture, make grow and in turn, it will reward you bountifully.
This being the case, it simply means your personal goals must be different from the goals you’ve set for your business.
As an individual you must have personal goals. These may include your personal time for rest, your financial goals, your assets goals, your personal development goals, marital goals and other great things you want to do, own and become in future.
Your business also should have goals too. Your business should have a vision, a mission, a growth plan, revenue plan, expansion plan, and profitability goals as well. Unfortunately, these separation of goals is not practiced by most business owners. They can’t just separate themselves from the business. They have made the business their goal in life. As the business grows, they assume they are growing as well. This unfortunately is a dangerous delusion. That’s why consequently, successful business people fail in marriage, fail in friendship, fail in parenting, fail in personal health; fail in personal growth and with time are full of regrets.
They lack personal goals protecting them from the consuming tendencies of their businesses and they eventually get swallowed up by the same business they set up to prosper them.
Dear friend, it is time you set your personal goals and separate these goals clearly from the goals of your business. You should have time dedicated to your business and have time dedicated to the pursuit of your personal goals as well.
Who are you? What is your nature, what are you passionate about, what makes you happy, what would you want to become in life, who would you want to help, what excites you? Listen, If you have all the money you need in life right now, what will you wake up to do tomorrow morning?
Many times our unbridled pursuit of money completely derails us from a life of meaning. We sadly begin to assume if we have money, we have everything including joy, peace and happiness, but may I say to you this morning that with or without money you can still have your joy, peace and happiness? It’s about your personal goals.
Setting personal goals separate from business goals enables you prioritise the important things in life. Your dream and vision for your marriage, your dream and vision for your children, your dream and vision for yourself, the things you desire and love to do will become feasible if you set them as goals.
When your business also has goals set, the business will grow, you wouldn’t divert proceeds meant for business growth to financing personal luxurious items you don’t really need. Company profit will not become personal profit. Company income will not become personal income, and company assets will not become personal assets.
Many business owners today are tugged between their office and their homes. They are not really happy. They are frustrated and experience frequent regrets. They miss out on very important stages and moments in their lives. They’re hardly there to nurture their children, they’re hardly there to celebrate with their families and they hardly have enough rest and medical attention to avoid early breakdown of their systems and bodily functions.
Dear friend, you deserve good success in life and deserve good success in business. Don’t sacrifice one for another. Set independent goals for yourself and set independent goals for your business. By so doing, control is put in place, restrain is put in place and order is put in place. You’ll become calmer, happier and more satisfied with your life. Dear friend, reconcile the contradictions.