Identify The Non-Negotiables

When you’re in business, It’s so easy to get bogged down in the daily ‘fluff‘ without really clarifying what you want to get out of your business or what you want your business to do for you. Our businesses are so connected and integrated into our lives, that it can be difficult to see where the business ends and where you, the person, begins.

The trick is to be clear from the outset that your health and wellbeing are paramount to your life and business. Identifying your lifestyle, personal and professional non-negotiables means you’re prioritising what’s important to you. You can be running around being busy all day, but by the end of the day you don’t feel like you didn’t accomplished anything.

So to explain why this is, let me tell you a little story….

A philosophy professor once stood up in front of his class with a large empty glass jar. He filled the jar to the top with large rocks and asked his students if the jar was full. The students said the jar was full.

He then added small pebbles to the jar, and gave the jar a bit of a shake so the pebbles could trickle down among the larger rocks.

Then he asked again, “Is the jar full now?” The students agreed that the jar was full.

The professor then poured sand into the jar to fill up any remaining empty space, and gave it a good shake to disperse the sand. The students then agreed that the jar was completely full. Then the professor poured water into the jar and filled it to the top. The students agreed once again that the jar was completely full.

The Philosophy professor went on to explain that the jar represents everything that is in your life, from the big rocks to the water. The rocks in this story relate to the most important projects and things that happen in your life today. These are your lifestyle non negotiables and your personal non-negotiables.

Lifestyle Non-Negotiables are the things that’ll improve your quality of life such as better sleep, a healthier diet, regular exercise and, being more organised in your daily life etc.

Where do these non-negotiables fit into your life, how and when do you make time for them? Or do you sacrifice this precious time for yourself to work on a business project?

Your Personal Non-Negotiables are the things that’ll bring more joy into your life – time with family and friends, hobbies, having ‘me time’ for peace and quiet to stay grounded, and holiday planning etc.

How often do you see your family and friends, do you have a hobby that you need to get back to because you’ve let it slip for a while? Do you get time in the day just for you, to meditate, to read, to just ‘be’?

For me regular exercise keeps my mind sharp, and I would be completely lost without my weekly choir practice where I get to sing my heart out and have fun with my choir family. It’s priceless to me. These are two of my most important personal and lifestyle non-negotiables,

Without defining your personal and lifestyle non-negotiables first, you won’t have the energy or attention span for the final group of non-negotiables - your Professional Non-Negotiables. These are the rules of your business, the things that’ll bring more clients into your business, that will streamline your business, while creating boundaries around your personal and professional time too.

If you faff around with the gravel, sand and water and add them to the jar first (in other words the things that don’t really matter in your personal life or business), you won’t have space for the big rocks.

When you don’t identify your non-negotiables, everything goes out the window - you are not putting yourself first, which means other aspects of your personal life and business will suffer. You’ll have no boundaries on your time, and your family and your clients will think they can take up your time or contact you whenever and you’ll most likely answer them straight back!

If you haven’t identified the important things in your life, you’ll be more stressed and anxious and will be easily overwhelmed by both the big things and the little things that need your attention

The solution is to identify and clarify what’s really important in business, not the fluff or dramas on social media or the distractions of comparisonitis of others in similar businesses to yours When you do this: Your non-negotiables come first which means you’re scheduling your priorities in your personal and professional life in the diary first thing each week.

I remember a quote I heard many years ago which is ‘The Lion eats first’ - what it basically describes is that when a pride of lions makes a kill, the male lion eats first because he needs the most energy to protect the rest of the pride from predators.

This is how you should treat yourself in life and business - you come first! When you have boundaries in your business, you’re clear on when your clients can interact to you, and you’re not answering that client email at midnight!

You’ll be more focused on the more important things in your business first like the revenue generating activities, not the late night emails! You’re also less reactionary around personal and business issues as you’ve identified what’s important in your life and business and this will greatly help lessen anxiety and stress and help you develop better business habits as a result.

I didn’t identify the non-negotiables when I started out in business, I didn’t focus on the important revenue generating activities or the things that would make my business work better and I struggled.

It was only when I got really clear on my mission in business, on my message and how I could help other female entrepreneurs that I realised I needed to focus and remember my boundaries and ditch the drama and the distractions!

We’re all only human, but if we don’t look after ourselves first, how can we run our businesses? The non-negotiables added to our diaries before anything else will ensure that we are scheduling the priorities in our lives first and foremost. The sand, gravel and water (the distractions and the time wasters) will just have to fit around them!

ACTION STEP:

***Identify 2 lifestyle, personal and professional non-negotiables that would make a difference to your life and business from now on.***

Add these to your diary before anything else and see the difference a few weeks of this practice can make to your life and business.

I hope this advice was useful and remember ‘The Lion (or in our case The Lioness eats first’!

I love helping people find their uniqueness and mission in business, so get in touch!

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