“Blessed are the flexible, for they can tie themselves into knots.” ~Anonymous
Running your own business gives you flexibility in amazingly positive ways. You can choose who you work with and what you do. You can choose your hours, your location and your business phone number. You can choose to have ice cream with your kids, take a nap in the afternoon and wear yoga pants while you work.
Ahhh…yes. This kind of flexibility is a big piece of why you started your business. This is what you were thinking of (mostly) when you said…”I want to be my own boss.”
That flexibility (unfortunately) comes with a whole new set of dilemmas, conundrums and sticky decisions.
It can help you tie yourself in knots with all the choices and options. When you worked for someone else, they made the rules. The flexibility was more limited – even if it was great (like it was at my Fortune 50 senior manager job).
These days, the only flexibility negotiating you do is with yourself – but on behalf of your clients, your friends, your family, your deadlines, your business goals. It is damn near the hardest negotiating to be done. It is damn near the easiest to slip and slide around on – to the point that your flexibility can stretch you into one too many “do it laters” or “I’ll just move the deadline” thoughts and actions.
The Big Question:: Are you letting flexibility get the best (or worst) of you? Is it taking advantage of your natural ability to get things done and manage several balls at once – and resulting in less done and more dropped balls?
Too much flexibility gives you too many choices. Too many choices increase the odds that you will make a bad one (it’s the law of averages working at its finest). Too many bad business choices – no matter how seemingly small – mean…well, you know what they mean.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
“flexibility can stretch you into one too many “do it laters” or “I’ll just move the deadline” thoughts and actions.” This is so true! at least for me. Who knew flexibility could be a dilemma? You need discipline and time management in order to get through this flexibility dilemma.
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Andrea –
Thank you so much for stopping by! Isn’t it funny how the one thing that most (women) entrepreneurs crave is flexibility – and then find that we need structure (whether it is time management or sheer discipline) even more to make it really work!
xo
Jen
The older I get, the more I WANT flexibility in my schedule, but the more I NEED to have specific time blocks to get stuff done. I guess working for myself, I get to choose when I want to be focused and when I want to be more flexible. You’re right, it’s a double-edged sword!
I have been working for myself for 30 years. You pose some really good thoughts in this blog. Entrepreneurship is the most rewarding thing in the world (besides having children)…but it is like having children, we have to set our own guidelines and they are sometimes more stringent than the ones set upon by employers. Great blog!