Reconciling The Entrepreneurial Hustle With Your Need For Self-Care

Photo by Colton Sturgeon on Unsplash

I will be the first to admit that I don’t always practice enough self-care. The drive to be successful and make a positive impact is strong, and it’s something that is pervasive among entrepreneurs. It’s gotten to the point of being a kind of toxic gospel, in which business gurus encourage young or up-and-coming entrepreneurs to abandon everything else in their lives in order to grow their business. Not only is this demonstrably bad advice from a business perspective, but it’s also extremely bad for your overall health and well-being.

On the other hand, building your own business from scratch requires hard work, long days and plenty of sacrifices. You can’t always “have it all” with the perfect amount of sleep, family time, social life and business success. In short, the entrepreneurial hustle is very real. So, how can you work hard while also taking care of yourself?

I cannot speak for every entrepreneur out there, but in my case, hyper-defining my goals has been the greatest way to keep my businesses running without neglecting my basic needs. Many entrepreneurs assume that they should keep their personal and professional lives completely separate. In doing so, they should be able to find ways to schedule both “work time” and “self-care time.” I’m not saying that this is a bad approach, but it does not…