How to rekindle your business flame

February is behind us. Just because Valentine's Day chocolates are gone and the roses have faded doesn’t mean your love has expired. And just because you’re feeling exhausted, overworked, overwhelmed, with no spring break in sight, that doesn’t mean you’ve lost the love for your business.

Or does it?

Do you feel like you’re falling out of love with entrepreneurship? Are the demands and pressures wearing you down to the point that you’re wondering… Is it worth it? Is love really supposed to take this much work?

Good news. You can fall back in love with your business and stir up those first feelings of passion and promise without couples therapy.

Even the super-successful business owners I know will fall into patterns that make doing business hard and unhappy. While they’re able to hold up their big vision as inspiration year after year, it’s the relentless day-to-day activities that wear them down.

Here are 3 things to think about, if you feel like you’ve lost your love for the business. I’m not saying these are easy changes to make, but even small shifts will start to make a difference. You just need a small spark to light that flame again, baby!

Are you doing everything??

That’s the very first pitfall I see business owners make; they wonder if (and how) adding resources will show a return on investment. Most of us know what we don’t like doing. We can admit what’s outside our zone of genius. That’s just the start. Once you decide, yes, you need help, you need to dig into what level of help you need. Do you need someone to keep track of your financials, or set up new systems, or contribute at eye-level to big picture planning? Do you need a VA that’s comfortable with Canva, a professional graphic designer, or someone in-house who can manage the brand? Delegating a task doesn’t necessarily end your involvement or get rid of the worry. What would really give you relief? Not to do it? Or not even to think about it?

Are you touching everything? (not literally)

Having people in place to help you extract yourself from too many tasks will not make a difference if you insert yourself into every process. I get it, it’s hard to let go! But you can see, can’t you, how when you’re needed for every decision, involved in every step, and every task has to go by your desk… you’re going to feel more pressure, not less? You’ve got people to help get things rolling, but now you’ve become the person who holds things up instead of moving them forward. Now you have more to do, and the process is taking longer. That was not the goal when you put all these people and systems in place. I encourage you to play a little hide-and-seek: when an activity is not progressing as fast or smoothly as you want it to, find out where you are hiding in the process, and try to pull yourself out.

Are you piling on?

Great! You’ve found trustworthy people to whom you can delegate to lighten your load. What do you do now? Pile on more work? I tell you -- we can get addicted to a certain level of activity, productivity and production. If you manage to find a few extra hours in your week, are you sure you want to spend them joining a committee at your kid’s school? Maybe you do, and that’s great! Maybe joining that board, or taking that shift, or signing up for that panel makes your heart sing. Or maybe… you can say no.

If you can see how any of these might be straining your relationship with your own business, something needs to change. At its core, entrepreneurship is creatively, emotionally, and physically taxing. How can you keep up your reserves, and keep the flame burning, so you can bring your team members, clients, customers, followers, and friends along with you toward your big vision if you fall out of love??

I have an uplifting, easy (and also free!) way to help you start some little shifts to rekindle the flame. Want to give it a try?

The 5-Day Free Bottleneck to Breakthrough Challenge starts Monday, March 3.

It’s one call each day, a quick exercise, and lots of powerful insights and guidance. If you stay stuck, spinning your wheels, you’ll still be out of love with your business next Friday, for sure. But join me for this challenge , let me introduce you to some new ways of doing things, keeping it simple, and who knows? Maybe Friday will be Date Night, because you’re back in love with your biz.