The Productive Solopreneur

empreender

• Publisher: Bibliomundi
• Year: 2021
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526041456
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

'Finally! Discover How To Get More Done as a Solopreneur Without Burning Out!'In this course, you'll learn the skills, techniques, and strategies to becoming a highly productive solopreneur!A solopreneur is someone who runs their own business. Usually from home. Usually online.That might not sound like anything new to you. Isn't that just a freelancer? Or an entrepreneur?The difference is that the solopreneur is someone who runs a more ambitious online business than most people who work solo.That is to say, that although you're just one person, you're taking on the work of many more people and running an entire business.

Build The Lifestyle That Will Make You Happiest

We've looked at many different strategies that you can use to restore balance to your lifestyle as a solopreneur. We've seen how to improve sleep, how to get more done with nootropics and nutrition, and how to switch off from work when all is said and done.

But we need to end on another note. Because what is all this for, if you are only going to continuously increase the amount of work you pile on?

What is the goal that you are striving for by taking on a hundred different roles in your one-person business?

It's time to reflect on work/life balance a little deeper and to focus on improving this MORE in order to achieve lasting happiness, contentment, and health.

What is Success to You?

Many of us have a certain idea of what makes someone successful. We consider successful people to wear suits, for instance, and we probably expect them to stand gazing out of the windows of high-rise buildings onto the streets below.

Of course, these people are highly paid – that's how they afford such nice suits and such high up offices. And of course, we know that with this financial success comes a lot of responsibility. Our picture of someone who is conventionally successful will also be of someone who is constantly on the phone, constantly sending emails and likewise often running board meetings.

But while this might be what we picture when we consider success, it's important that we separate this notion from what success means to us.

Otherwise, you can end up highly stressed, highly overworked and potentially making yourself ill.

Traditional Notions of Success Vs What You Actually Want

The reason many of us picture success the same way is that this is the 'cultural norm' and this is what we have been brought up to think of as success. There are a few different versions of course, which include being a doctor, or perhaps a lawyer. Either way, these are high-stress, highpressure jobs that come with high salaries and status, and that would make your Grandma proud.

And this is the kind of work that many of us will end up falling into. We leave college or University, and we find that jobs aren't being offered up on a plate in quite the way we perhaps thought they might be. As such, we find ourselves lacking any stable form of income and probably wanting to get out of parents' basements ASAP.

After looking around for work that inspires us and giving up, we start looking for work that will provide a stopgap. Work that will put food on the table while we wait for something even more exciting to come along.

Maybe we work in logistics. Maybe sales. Maybe we work in a high street store.

And then opportunities come along, and we take them. That might mean training to become a team leader, which leads to manager. Which leads to area manager. Which leads to the suit and the high-rise office. Maybe a flashy car to go home in.

And while it's not anything we were ever particularly passionate about, it is enough to make us feel accomplished, and it's enough to make Grandma proud. And if you were to follow your dreams of becoming a painter, an actor or an entrepreneur at this point, then that would mean giving up everything and starting again from scratch.

This also becomes harder and harder op even think about once you are supporting a family. Once you are thinking of buying a house with your wife/husband. Once you have bills coming in that you need to pay and a credit card loan because you bought that car. And the massive widescreen TV.

This is only one way it comes about. The other way is that you decide young that you like the looks of being a doctor, or a lawyer, or a CEO. You think it looks glamorous, and your parents really like the sounds of it too, and so together you push to get you into the right school, the right college and the right apprenticeship early on. You grow and develop yourself and climb the ranks.

You realize it's soul-destroying, sure. But now it's kind of a bit late, isn't it?

This is the exact same thing that happens to the solopreneur who views the "end goal" as being to build as large an empire as possible. To earn huge amounts of money while hiring more members of staff and taking on more and more responsibility.

Knowing What You Want

The problem comes from the fact that very few of us know what we really want. Worse, we don't know what we really need in order to be truly happy and inspired. We think that we should push ourselves to go after the traditional signifiers of success and accomplishment, and we think that we should stick to wanting the things we always used to want when we were younger.

But the first separation you need to make is between the status and the idea of a particular job and then the reality.

Because a lot of people go after jobs that they really like the idea of. They love the sounds of being 'in charge', and they think it would be great to work for a really big company. Maybe they love law programs, or maybe they love technology.

But working as a manager in a big tech company has little to do with tech. And wearing a suit doesn't feel glamorous even the third time you do it. If your day to day involves making lots of phone calls, taking on more and more work and generally piling more and more stress on yourself, then perhaps you should reconsider it as a job. Being a doctor is great for some people, but for others, it means working ridiculous hours, with a huge amount of pressure, in an environment that can be seen as fairly unpleasant. And don't expect the respect that once came with the title!

Likewise, if you are already in a job that you don't love, you need to really think about whether taking a managerial role is right for you. It ultimately will amount to the exact same thing but with a lot more stress and pressure – which could be enough to drive you a little out of your mind!

On the other hand, you also need to consider whether the end result is something that drives you. Because if you love the work you do on a daily basis but don't feel you're contributing to society or building something you care about, it will ultimately be hollow.

For the solopreneur, the goal should be to maximize income while minimizing the amount of work and stress. By doing that, you can worry a little less about perfectly optimizing your sleep and diet: because your lifestyle isn't crushing you under the weight of your work!

Either that or you find a way to turn what you LOVE into your job. That's the true power of the solopreneur lifestyle, and it's one that can address MANY issues with taking on too much responsibility and work.

Lifestyle Design

It is very convenient for the economy if you keep killing yourself to take on more responsibility, but it's not so good for your health. If you are stressed and bored on a daily basis, working long hours with no time to exercise or spend with the people you love, then you will burn out slowly. You will sleep less, you will eat worse, and you will push your loved ones away.

Wearing a suit to work does not objectively make you more successful. If you would be happier working as a garbage collector so you could spend the whole evening with your family, then that is just as 'successful'. Successful means doing things that matter to you and living a life you think is fulfilling.

I'm not going to tell you not to go after your dreams and not to go after that highly paid job, or to pursue that medical degree. You might get huge reward from this work.

What I'm telling you instead, is that you should:

a) Really think about whether this is a job you really want. Really ask yourself whether you will be happy in that career at the highest levels. Speak to the

b) Think about what is important to you and what sacrifices that level of

c) 'success' will bring. When you have a young child, will you really want

d) to be working 12-hour days? Will you be upset at the thought of not having time to exercise? To spend pursuing hobbies? Are the sacrifices ones that you are willing to make?

e) Ultimately, make sure that the job you go after is something that YOU are truly passionate about. Don't do it because it is what you think you're 'supposed to do'. Don't do it because your Grandma will be proud. Do it because it is intrinsically rewarding.

I say all this as a cautionary tale. Two people, I know recently chased career paths that they had simply landed in and that paid well, and both of them ended up burned out and depressed.

On the other hand, I know someone who works 12-hour days every day. He just called me from America at 1 am his time to discuss work. But he loves what he does, and that's why it's not a nightmare for him.

If you're going to reach the top levels of success, it means sacrificing a lot of your energy, your relationships and your spare time. This only ever makes sense if you absolutely LOVE what you are doing: the day to day of it, the end result and the industry.

For the rest of us, there is actually a point where we reach diminishing returns and where we could be just as happier earning a little less but having a lot more time to spend with our families or to spend painting…

Don't define your success by your salary or by your responsibility. Define your success by your happiness. As a result, you'll be MUCH healthier as well.

As a solopreneur, you are in a unique position of being able to define precisely the work/life balance you wish to design.

Table of contents

• Why Solopreneurs Struggle With Burnout
• Nootropics and Nutrition
• Better Sleep For Optimal Performance
• Creating an Optimal Work Environment
• Work/Life Balance for The Solopreneur: Getting it Tight!
• Why Meditation is The Solopreneur's Secret Weapon
• Delegation, Outsourcing, and Automation: How to Earn More and Work Less
• Build The Lifestyle That Will Make You Happiest