Service & Self Care First, Clients Second
March 23, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
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I know the saying is usually the customer comes first. But I have to take issue with that. Just like the oxygen masks from the ceiling, put your mask on first before you can help others.
If we serve and take care of ourselves first, taking care of our health, wealth and vitality, then it will resonate with others who are feeling the same way. If we are feeling burned out, rusted out and about to give out; what kind of clients do you think will resonate with that? If we are starving and struggling, how can we be feeding and leading? We must serve ourselves first in order to be strong, healthy and vital before we can show others the way.
Do we want to attract the low vibrational folk? Maybe we do, if our service is to help them raise their vibration. But the deal is, it’s not just clients you attract when you’re at a certain vibration, it’s everybody and everything.
We may have learned early on that taking care of ourselves first is selfish. I shout from the rooftops that we need to take care of ourselves and guard our energy fiercely, or else we won’t have any to give away. You can’t give what you don’t have. So we must have our vitality and energy first, then give it away to others and help them find their own.
For instance, creating is like breathing for me – it’s so reflexive. If I can’t be creating something, anything (articles, sewing, cooking, decorating, art, programs), I get antsy. That is why it’s critical for me to guard my morning time as fiercely as I guard a meeting with a VIP, by the way, that’s ANYBODY.
I know if I don’t get ‘me time’ to create, I’m cranky and I can’t rebuild my energy stores. I know my body rhythms and I’m the most creative in the morning and brain dead
Balance & Boundaries for Energized Entrepreneurs
March 19, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
We do it to ourselves. We are our own task masters and sometimes work ourselves harder than any boss would ever dare to do. It begins with our out-dated thought process that we have to get all our work done before we can play. Here’s the first clue – we will never get all our work done. There will always be more.
It starts with a DECSION. A decision that we set boundaries on our time, boundaries for when others can contact us, boundaries on when we start and stop work each day and how we want to live our daily life.
I live in the Pacific time zone and used to be at the computer by 6am because the East coast was up and working and I didn’t want to miss a sale. The problem was I also worked until 6pm for the West coast folks. I didn’t have time for myself and didn’t have balance because I didn’t have boundaries.
Once I DECIDED to not allow others into my life before 10am, or Monday mornings and Friday afternoons; I found more balance with more boundaries. Instead of me moving my schedule around to meet other people’s schedules, I just stated my schedule and allowed them to meet my criteria for connecting. I now have Me Mondays – I can do anything I darn well please that morning so I can ease into my week. It can be personal or professional development or a pedicure.
Often it’s when I create my content, create and send greeting cards to connect with others via mail (it puts me in a good mood to send positive energy to others), dream my big dreams and visualize what I want to do with my work to serve others better. My mornings are my creative time and I need to honor my own bio-rhythms to capture that most important time of the day. Otherwise I’m too brain-dead in the evening to be creative and the dreaming and creating won’t get done. What works best for you? When are you most creative and when are you brain dead – work around those boundaries for more balance.
Fun Fridays are currently just the afternoon, but it will be moving into a full-blown day to reconnect and socialize with friends or just have fun and be creative, explore, discover and meet new people and try new things to expand my world. We cannot be Energized Entrepreneurs, if our energy tank is on E. We must fill up our tanks before we can have it to give out.
Guard your energy as fiercely as you would an appointment with anybody else. You can’t give what you don’t have. You need to take care of you so you can give out the best you possible and serve your clients to the best of your ability. You can’t do that if you’re tired, cranky, feel overwhelmed, stressed out and burnt out. Decide how you want to live your life and work your business and then do it. You are your own boss.
For our readers, I’m offering a free Special Report on Energizing Your Work, Wealth, Workplace & Well-being. Send me an email toGail@GailHahn.comand put Special Report in your subject. Grab other free articles atwww.Funcilitators.com.