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Is Your Plate Full?

I agree it’s entirely my fault; I made you wait for long.
I simply disappeared & I know it’s bad.
No, I am not going to give you any silly excuses like
‘I was not well’ or “Had some family priorities’ or “there was an earthquake here” blah la blah :-)

In fact, today I am going to confess something.
I did a mistake & I am going to share it with you.
And something very important, I am going to share my ‘Back to Game Strategy’ so you can use it if you are trapped in similar situation.
Here you go!

As I started growing my business, many new friends joined.
Or let me correct that, many newly joined people became friends.

I started working on their businesses, personal consulting, on call support & a lot more.
Every possible opportunity I said ‘Yes’.
Sometimes for monetary reasons or sometimes just because I don’t want to hurt anyone by saying ‘NO’. So I end up in saying ‘Yes’ for many things which I never planned.
And the inevitable happened.

























I ended up having a big list of commitment without knowing how I am going to complete them.
I started losing focus, less sleep, enlarged waste line, bad health and the worst ‘less time with my family’.
I was very conscious from beginning to avoid this kind of situation.
But somehow I got trapped.

The only good thing, I realized it fast.
If it would have been continued for some more time, I would be broke. Financially, physically & emotionally. So I decided to correct it.
Here is what I did. I call it ‘Back on Game’ strategy.

Step 1: Schedule it & make it happen fast!
I made a big list of all personal trainings & other ‘Help’ sort of commitments.
Assigned them fixed time slot & date within a months time.
Followed the schedule & hurray it was done :-) !
I declared ‘Politely’ at end of every appointment that my schedule is full & no more Personal Training.
‘No’ for ‘call anytime’ sort of support! Hey, I never committed that to anyone. But that is what I was doing.

Step 2: Social Media Diet
Till then I had strongly believed that I am not a social media type of a person.
But here is what happened.
I quit from all ‘Find Inspiration/Motivation forwards’ or ‘Just for TP’ or similar sort of ‘WhatsApp‘ groups. And suddenly I started getting significant amount of time.

Same is applicable for Facebook. Removed the Facebook App from my mobile.
See, I use Facebook only for business purpose & for me all business is handled through my laptop & not on phone. So obviously it was a time spoiler for sure.

Step 3: Unsubscribed
When I like some service or a speaker, I opt in for his/her newsletter.
To my disbelief I was getting more than 40 such mails every week.
These are extra mails apart from your awesome reply mails
Clearing my mailbox was a major time consuming activity.
Replying your mails is ‘Must’ but these additional mails were eating away loads of time.
I simply unsubscribed the extra ones!

Step 4: Start living the real life
I thought about ‘the one’ thing which makes me happy.
That thing is spending time with my daughter.
I started taking her to gardens, her favourite food joints, toy shops, hobby classes & new flavoured ice-creams every day (Gosh! It is 42 degrees outside).
Every night when she says ‘Thank you mom, it was the best day today!”
Bingo! All stress & tiredness disappears in a flash.
It was a pure sense of satisfaction & achievement.

Step 5: Do what you love!
Now here is one thing I did totally wrong.
Stopped sending my regular newsletter.
I am a creative person.
Every small piece of content I publish every week, satisfies my creative hunger.
I connect with awesome people. That is what I love the most!
I decided to correct it fast.

But to avoid such a situation I learnt this mantra,
You must say ‘No’ when the plate is already full.
Both meanings hold true.

Now I am back with a Clear Focus & selected commitments.
That’s my way of ‘business & life’ which I love!

That’s all at my end.
I would like to know about you.
Have you ever faced a similar situation? What is your ‘back to game’ strategy?
What’s your definition of ‘business & life’?
Hit reply & let me know.

Did you like this article? If so, share it with your friends.

Thank you so much for reading!
I will catch you next time.

Stay Tuned.
Take Care
Sheetal Mulay






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