I’ve never met a coach who believes in ‘work-life balance’.
Being a founder means working incredibly hard to get stuff established and running smoothly, dedicating huge amounts of energy to make an idea into a tangible thing and spending long hours on detail. Fuelled by passion and a deep belief and informed by values.
I think in my journey of setting up and running businesses, of parenting and of home making, balance has been the biggest challenge of all. Knowing when to push through and when to rest, when to say ‘hell yes’ and when to say ‘not for me today’.
Balance requires boundaries. As someone once pointed out to me, ‘a boundary is an action not a word’
Being balanced in life, making time and space for the important stuff, creating down-time, allowing time for hobbies and interests and just plain ‘switching off’ are as important as all the productivity hacks, accountability groups and training. Sometimes this is lying on a yoga mat in a crystal bowl sound bath, sometimes it’s taking a long hike through the hills.
This is something I’m always playing with; How I balance my life, what my priorities are, my nutrition and hydration, exercise, time to chill and time to dance, be at gigs and socialise.
My main life balance hack is to stop caring about what other people think and to do what I like when I like, wear what I like and be who I like, regardless of trends, opinions and expectations.
Not trying to fit in, just getting on with being me in the best way I can. And doing stuff that makes my heart sing. This, I find, is where real freedom lies.
Clare Honeyfield is a high-performance coach and yoga teacher working with change makers, creators and rule breakers for a better world. Clare is the founder of Stroud Farmers’ Market and The Made in Stroud Shop and author of ‘Artisan Stroud’.
