I have spent the last couple of weeks in Fiji, which was a lot of fun. But I find that everyone goes bonkers when they are on holiday. Let me explain.
You see I have always believed that the human race is bound in shackles by the money system. We wake up every day spend hours travelling to go to work or our business, to earn money to pay for the car that gets us to work and pay for the house that we do not use most of the time (because we are working) and then we tend to live a sensible life and make sure we fit in with everyone else. The problem is we are all sick to death doing this.
And then we go on holiday. I don’t know about you but when I am in Australia I make sure that my kids have their helmets on when they ride a bike. I make sure that I can see them at all times no matter where we go. There is no way they go anywhere near the swimming pool unless totally supervised. But last week in Fiji I was happy for them to spend hours in the pool while I was at best occationally ‘watching’ them. I was happy for them to be at a kids club where they were taken to the beach with no footwear when it was full of crabs. I was happy for them to go on a banana boat with a life jacket which I was convinced had absolutely no chance of floating. And with someone who for all I know could have been a child snatcher. How can this be? These are my children. I love them.
Maybe it was because Aunt Mildred wasn’t around to tell me to be sensible and behave. We are conditioned to believe everything is dangerous. You don’t go anywhere near your fuse box in Australia because everyone tells you that you will explode. But in the UK I did it all the time and never ended up like a burnt toast.
But I would like to think it is because holidays bring out the human insticts in us all. You see I do not believe that the universe created man to work all their lives for money. Humans created money. What we really want to be is adventurous. See the world. Climb mountains. Fly like a bird. But the money system does not allow us to do this. But on holiday the shackles are off so we live the way we want.
Let’s be honest. If money was no object would you prefer work your butt off or be in Fiji? The thing is that most business owners think these are mutually exclusive. They are not.
Most business owners work all hours of the day and week in the hope that one day they will have it all and do all that they want. Only by then it’s a bit late because your knees no longer work and wearing a swimming costume is impossible because you’re wearing a nappy as you cannot control your bladder. It gets worse. Walking on the beach with a zimmerframe is a no no and trying to eat shellfish with false teeth really can’t be fun.
So how should it be done? Well for starters accept that hard work is not ‘normal’. Tell yourself that hard work means you will soon die. Very soon. Speak to any doctor and they will tell you this. Then work out what you would like to do in your life. For me it is taking many holidays in a year, driving fast cars and only working three days a week.
Once you have worked this out, then ask what you need to do in your business to allow you the freedom to do what you want.
What you want to do is design a business that gives you the life you want so you can enjoy it – now. Do something different and you are classed as radical. When people find out I work three days a week, I know what they are thinking. Lazy B***er. Which to be quite honest is a bit true.
The best way to get your life back is do a detailed timesheet for everything that you do during a two week period. Then put is away for about a week and go about your usual business.
A week later give it to someone to analyse it. And I mean really analyse it. Get them to look at it and tell them to assume that everything in the timesheet can be done by someone else and you have to convince them why it is only you that can do it. What you will find is amazing.
You will try to argue why only you can do it and they will argue why someone else can do it. You will compromise and the result be that 50% of what you do can be done by someone else. All of a sudden you have less work and more time. Then you start to wonder what you should do in your spare time and find that flights to Fiji are not as expensive as you thought.
