Have we all got it so wrong?

A few weeks ago, I had to cancel a trip to the US that was for both business and pleasure. Mainly business, but a few days pleasure that I was seriously looking forward to. There were real reasons, which I cannot disclose here, but nevertheless, business was somewhat involved.

Then my beautiful girlfriend married the man of her dreams in South Africa, and I had to cancel going there too. More than $1000 down the drain, because South African Airlines don't reimburse you for cancelled flights nor do they give you a credit. Yet again, work got in the way.

Then this weekend, it's Easter and my two nephews are looking forward to spending the special occasion with their Aunt Mellissah. I have work to do and I was about to book a flight to fly to Queensland on Friday and back Sunday until...

My 10 year old nephew let me know that he wasn't too pleased.

His comments, "we came to Melbourne for a week and you are only coming here for 2 days. That's not fair."

Well... what do you say to that? Is business sucking the life out of you?

If you read my blogs, you would realise that I work really hard, but I do take time out for holidays too. Of late, for personal reasons and for business reasons, it has been a 7 day week job to run Marketing Eye and put everything in place to build the business off-shore. I haven't had time for coffee with girlfriends and have had only one night out in the last 2 weeks with friends. I am challenged to find time, let alone energy to do anything more than take myself to work in the morning and home in the evening, eat dinner, bath and head to bed.

Being an entrepreneur can be exhausting. It can take every ounce of energy if you let it. They say exercise helps moderate this feeling, but hey, I am doing my bit in that department too.

Does any entrepreneur really have balance. I am not talking about business owner, but an entrepreneur - someone looking to do something really great with their business? What's your thoughts?

What sucks the life out of entrepreneurs;

1.  When you start a business

It's a given that if you don't put in the hard yards early - you never will and your business will suffer accordingly. Just like any relationship. If a man doesn't 'woo' you at the start, he isn't going to do it at any stage and if that is your expectation, then your relationship will fail. When I started my business, I worked around the clock putting everything in place, coming up with ideas, doing work and putting things in place for the future.

2.  When things go wrong

When your accounts get out of control and people are not paying their bills. It causes stress and then everything else starts to spiral out of control. Or when a big account goes wrong, or when you don't have the right procedures in place to ensure that quality control is working as it should.

3.  You have vision

Sometimes I just want to click a button and turn off my brain. For some reason, this works when I am skiing - but I can't ski 12 months a year - so I need to find another solution. When you continually come up with great ideas and have the ambition to drive your business to new heights, its hard to separate work from pleasure. I don't know about you, but I lay awake in the middle of the night thinking about my ideas and all of a sudden, I realise that I have been awake for a couple of hours and really need to sleep in order to function.

4.  You are a control freak

This is not me!! Thank goodness!!! But I see it all the time. People that are control freaks often believe that no-one can do things quite like them, so they do it all themselves. Thus, they spend way too many hours working and not enough time for themselves.

5.  Yoga, Meditation and other forms of relaxation haven't hit your inbox

Only in the last 10 years have I found Yoga, and as for the rest, I am probably still searching. If you are a 'full on' entrepreneur, which I can be sometimes, finding Yoga or meditation particularly, can help you understand the world better and improve your work/life/balance.