The struggle to balance business and family responsibilities is an ironic challenge for those entrepreneurs who decided to go into business so they would, in fact, have more time to spend with their children.  For this group of entrepreneurs, becoming a business owner meant missing the morning commute, taking time off to attend school activities with children or simply having an extra few hours with them in the morning and evening.  Yet venturing out on your own comes with new and even more demanding challenges unforeseen until you breathed life into business through hundreds of hours of planning and thousands of dollars of debt. 

All of the sudden, that morning commute doesn’t seem so unbearable as you find yourself working unpaid overtime and injecting caffeine while attempting to stay awake at 12:00am to finish a deadline that can make or break your business by 6:00am.  And that’s just the beginning of a dizzying amount of the work ahead – deadlines, projects and bookkeeping and how will you find your next client?  At once, leisurely trips to the park, home made dinners and taking extra time with the kids becomes a distant dream and real frustration sets in.  The kids react to your stress by reverting to the behavior of primates and the house gives birth to dust bunnies that multiply as quickly as real bunnies, only not so cute.

That’s not quite it yet.  The long hours, stress and lack of exercise takes its toll on you too.  You may find yourself doing the work of three while functioning on less sleep, take out food and little or no self care. 

If this scenario sounds familiar, congratulations!  You are a risk taker willing to trust yourself to build a better life for you and your family.  With a healthy dose of value and goal clarification coupled with dedicated follow through, you will be back on track towards creating the life you intended to have!

Clarifying your Values
In order to feel a sense of balance one must be aligned with their intrinsic set of values. If not, one begins to feel strained, stressed and exhausted. Remaining aligned with your values will keep you motivated and fulfilled even when things get challenging.

Values represent who you are right now. They are principles that you hold to be of worth your life. People often confuse values with morals. Values are not chosen. They are intrinsic to you.  For example – courage, freedom, trust, success, risk taking, relationships or security.

Write out your top 5 values in order of importance and rate, on a scale of 1 – 10, how closely you are aligned with them in your life today. 


1.                       

2.                       

3.                       

4.                       

5.                       


Clarifying your Goals
Always match your goals to your values.  Living by what you truly value in life will help keep you focused on the goals you set forth instead of jumping at every opportunity that comes your way.  You have chosen to be in charge of you life & your business so hold tight to those reigns as you make life decisions.

Having listed your top 5 Values, make a list of all of your goals for 2007.  Do not limit yourself to the amount of goals.  The object here is to clarify which goals you truly would like to move towards as reflective of your values.


1.                       

2.                       

3.                       

4.                       

5.                         etc.

Once you have made your full list of goals.  Read each one carefully and ask yourself:  Does this goal fit with my top five values?  Next, cancel the goals you feel are no longer appropriate according to your values.  Finally, prioritize your top goals according to what matches your values the closest.  By the end of this exercise, you should have gained some clarity for the year ahead.  As you take action throughout the year, remember your goals, if they change, ask yourself why and make sure the new goals are in line with the life you are trying to build!

What are some actions you could immediately take that would begin moving you towards your goals that are more closely aligned with your values?

1.                                               

2.                                               

3.                                               

4.                                               

5.                                               


"When our life is oriented around our true values that is when we live a life of passion and fulfillment; when we live a life aligned with our values we truly live the life we desire."    ~ Teresia LaRocque, MCC