You’re building a business to give yourself more freedom. So why do you keep putting your life on hold?
There’s always another client, another project, another revenue goal. And somehow, the time you’re working so hard to create never actually shows up.
After the recent loss of her mother, Lori is looking at time, business decisions, and the meaning of success through a different lens. She’s questioning which clients deserve her time, why entrepreneurs keep chasing more, and what happens when the business you once dreamed of no longer fits the life you want.
This isn’t about working less just for the sake of it. It’s about making intentional decisions so your business supports your life instead of consuming it.
What You’ll Learn
- Why waiting for your business to slow down is a strategy that rarely works
- How to define what “enough” looks like when it comes to income, clients, growth, and time
- Why protecting personal time on your calendar is a business decision, not a luxury
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0:00 Introduction
Losing My Mom and Thinking About Time
The Someday Trap
Why Entrepreneurs Are So Good at Postponing
Sacrifice vs. Putting Your Life on Hold
Becoming More Selective About Clients
Your Dream Business May Have Changed
What Does Enough Look Like?
Freedom in the Everyday
This Week’s Action: Block Your Calendar
Don’t Wait for Someday
Introduction
We always think we have time. Time to slow down, time to take that trip, time to spend time with the people we love, time to finally enjoy the life we’ve been working so hard to build. But what if things never slow down? And what if we don’t have as much time as we think? Let’s get started.
Welcome to the Midlife Business Academy. I’m Lori Lyons. If you’ve ever felt like your business is running your life instead of supporting it, you’re in the right place. Around here, I believe a dream business isn’t measured by its size. It’s measured by the freedom and life it makes possible.
Losing My Mom and Thinking About Time
So I want to share something personal with you today. If you’ve listened to this podcast for a while, you’ve heard me talk about my mother and how I wanted to spend more time with her. That was one of the things I was thinking about as I started reconsidering what I wanted my business and life to look like.
Well, my mom passed away recently. She was 93. She was funny, she loved people, and she was quite the social butterfly. I used to call her the social queen of the assisted living community where she lived. I had the privilege of giving her eulogy, and it was wonderful to share some of the stories that made her so special.
But today I want to talk about something her passing has made me think about. I’ve been working towards spending more time with her, but I hadn’t quite gotten there yet. And of course, I’ll always wish I had more time. But I don’t have regrets about that. We do the best we can with what we have, with the circumstances we’re in and the information we have at the time. I can’t change the past, and I don’t intend to spend my time second guessing it. What I can do is think about how I want to spend my time going forward. And that’s what today’s episode is all about.
The Someday Trap
So how many times have you said something like this? When I get through this next project, I’ll have more time. When I get a few more clients, I’ll be able to relax. When I get my systems in place, things will slow down. Or my personal favorite, next year, it’s going to be different.
And sometimes next year is different, but often we just replace one set of responsibilities with another. We finish a project and immediately start another one. We reach a net revenue goal and decide, you know, the next goal needs to be bigger. We finally get our systems running smoothly and then we discover three more things that we could improve, because there’s always something else we could be doing.
And I can tell you from experience that a business is never finished. There will always be another marketing strategy to try, another process to improve, another client to work with, and another opportunity that looks just too good to pass up. And if we’re waiting for the business to be finished before we start enjoying our lives, we’re gonna be waiting a very long time.
Now, I’m not suggesting that we ignore our responsibilities. We have bills to pay, clients who depend on us, and commitments that we’ve made. But I am suggesting that we stop treating our lives like something we’re going to get around to once we’ve completed our to-do lists. Because that list, it’s not going anywhere.
Why Entrepreneurs Are So Good at Postponing
And I think that we, as entrepreneurs, are particularly good at postponing things. We’re ambitious. We’re used to setting goals, working hard, and delaying gratification because we believe that the reward is coming. And sometimes that works beautifully. You put in the work today so you can build something better tomorrow.
And here’s where I think we get into trouble. We start treating everything in our lives like a future reward. We’ll travel when the business is more profitable. We’ll take Fridays off when we have more employees. We’ll spend more time with our family when things aren’t so busy. And before you know it, we’re building a business that’s supposed to give us freedom while postponing every opportunity to actually experience that freedom. And that’s a pretty lousy deal if you ask me.
Sacrifice vs. Putting Your Life on Hold
So there’s a difference between making sacrifices for something important and continually putting your life on hold. Sacrifice has a purpose. You’re giving something up temporarily because there’s something meaningful on the other side. It’s when temporary becomes permanent that it’s time to question what we’re doing.
For years, I focused on building and growing my business, and I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished. I love the work I do, and I enjoy the people I work with. But I’ve also reached a point where I don’t want my business to keep demanding more of me simply because it can. I want it to support the life I want to live. And I don’t want to keep putting that life off until some imaginary future date when everything is finally perfect.
Becoming More Selective About Clients
I’m becoming much more choosy. And here’s one way that it’s showing up in my business. I’m becoming more selective about the clients I work with.
There was a time when, if somebody wanted to hire me and I knew I could do the work, that was usually enough. They had a problem, I had the expertise, and we could work together. But I’m looking at that differently now. Because when I say yes to a client, I’m not just adding another project or another source of revenue. I’m giving up some of my time to work with that person. And that’s time that I could be spending with my husband, my family, my friends, and my garden, or doing any number of other things that I enjoy.
So I’m asking different questions. Do I genuinely enjoy this person? Do I believe in what they’re doing? Is this a project that interests me? Will we work well together? And just as important, does working with this client fit the business and life I’m trying to create?
And I’ll be honest, I’ve spent the last few months changing the direction of some of my projects and working differently with some clients because it was just taking too much of my time. And quite frankly, it wasn’t profitable. Let’s boil it down to that. Because being able to do the work doesn’t mean I have to take the work.
Now, don’t misunderstand this. I’m not saying I don’t want to work, because I love what I do. I enjoy the strategy, the creativity, and seeing clients succeed. But I want to be more intentional about who gets that part of my life.
And there’s something very freeing about recognizing that not every opportunity is an opportunity I need to accept. Sometimes the best business decision is saying no. Not because the client is difficult or the project isn’t worthwhile, but because it’s not the right fit for me anymore. And that’s okay.
Your Dream Business May Have Changed
Because your dream business may have changed. We’ve talked about this quite a bit on the podcast recently. The business you dreamed about building 10 or 15 years ago may not be the business you want today.
Maybe you once wanted a big team, a seven figure business, and your name on the door of a beautiful office. Maybe you wanted to speak on stages around the world or build an organization that could operate without you. And those are really good goals if that’s what you still want.
But what if today your dream is a business that provides a comfortable income, lets you work with people you really enjoy, and gives you the flexibility to spend an afternoon with someone you love? Is that somehow less successful? I don’t think so.
And here’s something else I want you to consider. You don’t owe your younger self the business she dreamed about building. I’ve talked about this before. The younger version of you made decisions based on what she knew, what she wanted, and what her life looked like at the time. But you’ve lived a lot of life since then. Your priorities may have changed. Your responsibilities may have changed. You may have discovered interests you never knew you had. And your business needs to be able to change with you. Otherwise, you’re going to be spending your life trying to fulfill a dream that may not even belong to you anymore.
What Does Enough Look Like?
So what does enough look like? Here’s a question I think every business owner should ask. What does enough look like for you?
Not what somebody in your mastermind thinks you should earn. Not what the latest business guru says is possible. Not what you see somebody celebrating on social media. What is enough for the life you want? Enough income, enough clients, enough work, enough growth, and equally important, enough time.
Because we spend a lot of energy figuring out how to make more money. But how often do we stop and figure out how much time we actually want to spend working? Maybe you love working 40 hours a week. Great. Maybe you want to work three days a week and spend the other two doing something completely different. Also great. There’s no universal answer and there’s no right answer.
But if you haven’t defined what enough looks like, it’s awfully easy to keep chasing more, and more isn’t always better. Sometimes more just means more responsibility, more decisions, and more things competing for your attention.
Freedom in the Everyday
And I think that’s where we have to be careful. We spend so much time planning for the life we want that we forget to make room for the life we already have.
Freedom doesn’t mean taking a month long vacation or retiring from your business. Sometimes freedom is having lunch with a friend, spending an afternoon in the garden, or sitting outside with a cup of coffee without feeling guilty because you’re not working.
I don’t need every hour to be productive. I don’t need every interest to turn into a revenue stream. And I don’t need to justify taking an afternoon off because there’s something else I’d rather be doing. I want to enjoy the business I’ve built, but I also want to enjoy the life outside of it. And I don’t want one to continually come at the expense of the other.
This Week’s Action: Block Your Calendar
So here’s your action step. Last week, I gave you a little assignment. I asked you to think of something you’d been curious about, something you wanted to try simply because it sounded like fun, and I wanted you to take one small step toward doing it. No business plan, no monetization strategy, just something because you wanted to.
Well, this week we’re going to build on that and take it one step further. Because finding something you enjoy is one thing. Actually making time is another.
So here’s your assignment. Get out your calendar and block off time for something that has absolutely nothing to do with business. And I mean actually block it off. If you have a Calendly or an Acuity, go in and physically block off the afternoon.
And don’t tell yourself, well, if I have time on Tuesday afternoon, I’ll work on that. Because you know what happens to Tuesday afternoon? A client needs something. Somebody schedules a meeting, or you discover 17 things that suddenly need your attention. And there goes Tuesday.
I discovered this in my own business. I’d gotten away from blocking my calendar and scheduling my client work into specific blocks of time. And before I knew it, my weeks had gotten wonky again. A meeting here, a client project there, a little work squeezed into every available time. I was busy all week, but somehow I couldn’t find the time for the things I actually wanted to do, like visit with my mom.
So I went back to blocking my calendar. I schedule time for client work instead of letting it spread across my entire week, and I block off time for the things that I want to do outside of my business, because I’ve learned if I don’t protect that time, somebody else will claim it.
Now, maybe your activity isn’t the thing you tried last week. Maybe it’s lunch with a friend, spending an afternoon in the garden, or simply taking a few hours to sit in the recliner, read, and pet your cats. It doesn’t matter what it is. Put it on your calendar, treat it like an appointment, and keep it.
Then take a look at the business commitments surrounding it. Is there something you can delegate, eliminate, or just say no to? And if you find yourself thinking you can’t possibly block off a couple of hours for yourself, maybe that’s telling you something about the business you’re running. Because the whole point of building a business that fits your life is that your life actually gets space on your calendar, not just whatever time is left over.
Don’t Wait for Someday
Losing my mom has certainly changed the way I’m thinking about time. I don’t regret the choices I’ve made. I did the best I could with the circumstances I had, just as we all do. But I’ll always wish I had more time with her. And that wish has made me think more seriously about how I want to spend the time ahead of me. I can’t change yesterday, but I can make the choices about tomorrow, and so can you.
We’ve talked a lot about building the business of your dreams, and I still believe that’s possible no matter how long you’ve been in business or how much your dreams have changed. But I want to add something to that conversation. Don’t spend so much of your time building the business of your dreams that you miss the life you’re building it for.
And don’t wait until someday to start making the changes you already know you want to make. Because someday isn’t a date on the calendar. It’s just a promise we keep making to ourselves. And sometimes we don’t get as much time as we thought we would.
If you’ve been thinking that your business needs to change so it can better support the life you want, let’s talk. Head to talkwithlori.com and schedule a call. We can look at what you’ve built, what you want now, and what might need to change. And I’ll warn you, there’s very limited time available for these types of calls.
And next week, I want to share something that the pastor said at my mom’s service. Until then, I’m Lori Lyons. And remember, it’s never too late to build the business of your dreams. We’ll see you next week.