One of my colleagues and mastermind buddies wrote a newsletter the other day about how she worked on her holiday and this got me thinking…

It’s time to stop the blame game: why working during holidays is actually a good sign…

You know that raging war you have within, the one where you feel you’re working too much, that you don’t have that balance (or whatever you want to call it) between your work-life and your life-life, the one that has you looking at how others seem (or don’t seem) to be living via Facebook, the one that is a hot topic for freedom seeking coaches…?

Working and the amount you do/don’t work alternates between being an inspiring and a dirty topic.

Six figures the lazy way?

As you know, it’s a big part of my marketing that I’ve built a successful – to the tune of 6 figures, so yes, it’s totally do-able – business working just 3 days a week. I’m willing to take it slower whilst getting ‘there’ (‘there’ being my personal milestones, not the magical 6 figures). Slow, simple living is my motto. And ironically, it meant that I reached that particular milestone in only 10 months without working into the wee hours of the night and without missing out on family time.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m lazy for wanting so much time off. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because I’m an introvert who loves solo time at home, sometimes I wonder if I’m afraid of hard work…then I remember I’m a business owner and laugh that last one right out of Sydney Harbour and into the big wide ocean. Ha! right? There’s no such thing as easy overnight success.

But that’s just me.

There are others.

Others who like to work around the clock. And that’s ok. Because the world needs both/and. It’s really a personal choice and this is part of the reason why there is space for everyone in the online world. Like attracts like.

The point is not really how much you work, but whether or not the way you work, works for you. How it feels.

You know the famous Seth Godin quote “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from”...well when you’re doing work you love and live your ideal average day every day, you don’t need to have ‘holidays’ in the way the 9-5ers think of holidays. 

What makes a lifestyle business?

If you want to work a lot then that’s fine, we don’t all have to get caught up in the whole lifestyle business trip just because it sounds good. I interviewed a coach a while back who produces content at a speed of knots and says that she lives to work, not the other way around, a lifestyle business in not her goal. The most influential, heart centered people on the planet work a lot, Mother Theresa, Dalai Lama and many more people don’t take holidays. They do important work out in the world and ‘work a lot’. They are doing purposeful work that makes a difference, it’s about something bigger than them.

In the online coaching world we hear talk of coaches never taking real holidays and a lot of tut-tutting goes with it.

The thing is, we all need breaks, we need to know and honour our boundaries so that we can be our best self and be of highest service. Living your ideal average day every day means that you’re spacing out your down time (aka balance) evenly over the weeks without the crash and burn syndrome. I don’t know about you but that’s one of the things that I love most about choosing my own hours. 

That’s the whole point of a lifestyle business and truly living it. One thing is making money so that you can do what you want, the other is living a lifestyle before you even make that money that offers you freedom of time to enjoy things other than work. 

What works best for your personality? (I’m guessing you’re in for the lifestyle if you’re signed up and reading this, is it to work a ton or is it to have more slow time). What works best for you and your family?