It’s Valentine’s Day. A day for the celebration of love.
Instead of talking about typical romance, we wanted to share the importance of self-love on this day, and how loving yourself will bring about more business success.
What is self-love?
Self-love is the act of finding contentment in your present self. It’s about making time to enjoy who you are, how you got there, and focus on how you feel.
It’s important to disregard any notion that appreciating yourself is selfish, narcissistic, or conceited in any way. The total opposite is true - by being happy with who we are, we can in turn be better people, and make better decisions.
Acts of self-love can be as simple as meditating for 15 minutes each morning, going for long, destination-less walks, or treating yourself to your favourite meal.
How does self-love support the success of entrepreneurs?
You may be wondering how non-work related activities support business endeavours. For business owners, freelancers, and solo workers, it can be easy to only recognise hard work as a factor for success.
Downtime is an investment in productivity
In our experience, these groups of people tend to push themselves far harder than they would if they were managing someone else.
Not appreciating your efforts, spending too much time working, and subsequently experiencing burnout is common.
Would you instruct another person to work the hours you do? Wouldn’t you want them to enjoy themselves alongside their work?
Most crucially, wouldn’t you appreciate a more enthusiastic, more productive team member for set business hours than a less productive, worn out team member doing twice the hours?
Self-love for entrepreneurs is quite simply, recognising your efforts, and giving yourself the downtime to rest, recuperate, and feel more centred in your life and work.
Better awareness leads to more opportunities
Alongside better productivity during working hours, having set periods to focus on work and on downtime will also lead to better awareness of different opportunities around you.
These could be new business opportunities; spotting a gap in the market, connecting two acquaintances together, or being open to making improvements to your existing business.
And in your downtime, you may also enjoy spotting opportunities for random acts of kindness - bringing about a smile to the face of someone you care about, or even a total stranger!
How can I improve my relationship with myself?
The first step of practicing self-love is to recognise that you are worthy of love. This is a personal affirmation, and one you can work on as often as you need.
Identifying your bad habits with work is also key. If you want to learn how to manage your time effectively, find your feet as an entrepreneur, and build your personal resilience, our Digital Wellbeing Training course may be right for you.
If you suffer with burnout, take our free 10-week e-course, The Reignite Project.
And understanding how you can improve your self-care in your personal time is equally important. Sleeping eight hours per night, eating healthy foods, and getting some exercise will all boost your energy, mood, and resilience.