Tell me if this story feels familiar….
Your alarm goes off. It’s 6 or 7 am, and you’ve woken up from rest that you don’t want to leave because you haven’t had enough. You hit snooze a couple of times.
You gather the strength to get out of bed, get ready for the day, get your coffee, send the kids to school and go to work. Your morning feels rushed, and you arrive at work feeling wired but somehow still tired and unenthusiastic about the work ahead of you.
You touch a little pocket of grief when you remember why you started this business in the first place, and then you remember all of the small, annoying, time consuming tasks standing between you and your mission. Your vision is taken up completely by the machine you’ve built with all of its little cogs and pieces, and your ultimate goal feels very far away.
By the end of the day, you know you will have put out a fire or two, more will have started, and if you’re lucky you will have had some time to build towards your ultimate goal.
Three o’clock drags by, and you wonder what progress has been made. Five o’clock rolls around, and you’re exhausted. It’s time to leave the office, drive home, eat dinner with the family and go to sleep. Hopefully tonight you’ll get more rest so you can do it all again tomorrow.
Is this the reality you expected when you started your business?
I don’t think so.
I think you started your business to provide for your family, to change someone’s life, to solve a problem or serve a greater purpose.
Everyone says that starting a business is hard, and they’re right. But what if there was no unnecessary difficulty and you had capacity for the unavoidable difficulty?
Imagine what you could do with an extra hour every day.
Rest?
Come home early?
Re-invest in your employees’ and business’ growth?
Spend more time with the Lord?
Imagine if you came home and still had gas in the tank.
Cook a nice meal?
Work out?
Nurture your spouse?
Play with your kids?
Maybe you’d have the strength and patience for the trials you’re faced with every day. Maybe you’d even be able to handle your trials like Christ, because you have a little more space to breathe.
As Christians, we’re called to be a light to the world. People should see our love and peace and think to themselves, where did they get that? I need that.
Can the people around you feel your love and peace? Or do they feel the stress you’re carrying?
God never promised us that the Christian walk would be an easy one; in fact, he promised we’d face difficulty, trials and persecution. So maybe that means you just need to keep your head down and tough it out.
Or…
What if we could stop making this harder than it has to be, and then we can truly shoulder the difficulty we’re promised, with strength and joy?
So where is your business unnecessarily difficult?
Managing your online presence and projecting a brand image you’re proud of?
Sinking lots of time and money into your marketing with little results?
Waiting on deals to close before they go cold?
Fighting with technology that’s supposed to make your life easier?
Chasing down delinquent payments?
Training your team and answering the same questions over and over again?
Would you like some help solving these issues?