The Time of Your Life

You're here because you have already achieved success as a Busy CEO Mum who runs a business.

It is now making money but you probably thought running a successful business would feel very different to the current reality.

Life is chaos and the business is running your life. The guilt you feel for missing out on so much of the kids is REAL.?As much as you love what you've created, you've unleashed a monster ??— and it's hungry. Hungry for more of YOUR time, more of YOUR energy, and more of YOU.?

And no matter where you are, at home or work, you feel like you should be elsewhere, getting something productive done.

Perhaps you dream of a short break away, a longer vacation ??or even an extended break. But the business cannot survive without you at the helm.

The talents and skills and tools that have got you to this point will not necessarily take you further. The business is running you. You need new or upgraded power tools to make sure you can move to the next level and run the business you set out to run.

The Read for Busy CEO Mums newsletter introduces these tools, so that you can level up. It draws on areas of research, tried and tested tips and notes on running a sustainable, robust business.

The Time of Your Life. Have you used yours up?

I’ll start with a personal story.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chat with a friend that opened up my eyes to a completely new way of thinking.

We were talking about how often my friend would see her parents because they had recently retired from their jobs at 65 and moved to Spain. She recognised that things would be different after having them living closely to her for 15 years since she had left home. Whilst they were having a great retirement?and she loved to see them enjoying life, a sobering realisation hit her as we spoke.

She calculated that she thought she would realistically see them about once a year with annual leave restrictions in her job. It dawned on her that she would see them 25 times more in her life.

Gut punch.

It sounds insensitive—but it is real. If life expectancy is 90 years, her parents are in their mid-60s, and if she sees them once per year, she will see them 25 more times before they are gone.

Our time together is finite, but we fail to recognise it until it's too late.

I came across a sobering image that put everything in perspective: it’s an illustration with a box for every week of a person’s life. Here’s that image. The window of opportunity to create the life you want is brief.?Especially when you work out how much of this chart you have already used up. And then how much is left.

If we work from age 20 to age 65, this is what that looks like. Thats a whole block of black!

Let that sink in.

I want to be clear, I’m not sharing this as a downer—I’m sharing this as a wake-up call.

We don’t have unlimited time—we need to make the most of every moment. Whether it’s spending time with loved ones or trying to achieve major milestones in our health, careers, finances, or any other area that matters to us.

I often hear my clients say "I'll be happy when I get that car etc (insert something future focussed)"

How often does the 'when' thing actually happen and all that happiness you had been promising yourself floods to you? Life isn't like that is it?

When we’re young, we view life as infinite and then we spend the rest of our lives playing a game.

Everything we do is in anticipation of the future. When that future arrives, we simply reset to think about what's next...

“I can’t wait until I’m 16 so I can drive.”

“I can’t wait until I’m 18 so I can leave home and go to college.”

“I can’t wait until I’m 25 so I can have my own place.”

“I can’t wait until I’m 35 so I can coach my kid’s team.”

“I can’t wait until I’m 45 so I can run the company.”

It’s natural, but it’s a dangerous game—one that we will lose, eventually.

Time is our most precious asset and the present is all that’s guaranteed. Spend it wisely, with those you love, in ways you’ll never regret. What do you REALLY want?

Time can be cruel. You’ll love it with all of your being, you may even long for more of it, but the reality is that time doesn’t care about you.

Your relationship with time is absolutely an unrequited love.

Dedicated to my friend Clair Howan who died aged 41. She didn't have enough time.

What I'm Loving This Week

Ditch your phone and live more in the moment

A few weeks ago I passed a mum and her daughter on their way to the park. The mum stopped suddenly. Patting her pockets frantically, she turned to her daughter and said, "Darling, we have to go back to the car. I forgot my phone."?

Her daughter, who was already aiming toward the swings, turned to her mum and said, "Why?"

My ears immediately perked up. The mum explained that she wanted to keep an eye on the time, and while her daughter couldn't understand why that was more important than being next in line for the swings, she reluctantly followed her back to their car.

This encounter immediately made me reflect on how I was spending my own time and using my phone during family time. I knew I was more distracted by it than I wanted to be but seeing this interaction showed me how little people don't care about you and your phone. They just want to play with you. They want to be in the moment.

So in the last couple of weeks I have implemented a variety of things to put some 'rules' around my Smartphone use. These are the three that are working for me, so you might want to give them a try:?

1. I noticed friends and family posting things online, and then us not having much to talk about when we would visit each other. I'd already seen their holiday photos. So I went cold turkey and got rid of all social media apps. I experienced some serious FOMO at first, but now I don't even notice the difference. It's an opportunity to reach out more personally to family and friends to see what's new in their life.
2. I make a point of putting my phone in the other room when my son comes home from nursery so I can play with him without distractions. I also do this at meal times. It's a game changer when you can be fully there and not down the phone rabbit hole.
3. I'm starting to keep a list of random things that come to mind throughout the day that make me want to immediately google the answer. So rather than running to the computer each time the thought pops up and getting distracted from what I'm doing, I save it for one session. Usually when I get to the session, the things I put on the list seem so unimportant - I don't need to search for them.

??????What could you do more of today to spend your time more wisely?

If you like what you've read, do subscribe and share!

I’m Sara Biddle, the coach for Busy CEO Mums who Run 7 Figure Businesses. I’ve been a high-performance coach for over 8 years and a mum for 3 years.

Join me on my workshop, where I walk you through The 9 Step Roadmap to Stop Your Life Feeling So Chaotic by reclaiming 13.5 hours per week in 3 weeks.?Book Your Spot Now

I've created my?9 Step Plan?To Regain Control Of Your Life, Design Systems to Free You From the Daily Grind, & finally have a Business & Life You Love (& truly deserve to have)

Want to fast-track and have a 121 chat about your current business challenges, book a quick 15-minute call here:?Book a call

Sara?x