Know Your Limit

Do you love working? I mean LOVE. IT. I do. I love new challenges, learning, creating, and producing - which makes me a perfect entrepreneur, but, lately, I've had to ask myself... do I know my working limit?

I am a mother and know that without my two sons, I absolutely would be a workaholic. I would be one of those people who sleep at the office and can’t think about anything outside of work.

But, lately, I have been struggling under the pressure of wanting and attempting to do it all. Furthermore, new experiences and the desire to learn have placed me in a situation where I find myself wondering – can I really pull this off? And if so, will I actually achieve what I want? Or disappoint me, my children and my clients? I had to ask myself, "Do I know my limits?"

I came across a client recently that I desperately wanted to work with. She holds a Ph.D. in her field, and I realized I could learn a ton from working with her. I jumped in, all hands on deck, and quickly found myself sinking…fast.

It’s not that I couldn’t do what she had asked of me, but rather the time I was spending with her was causing me to lose focus on the other clients I had. This started to snowball, and I started feeling like the walls were caving in, trying to complete all tasks and not executing the quality of work I typically accomplish.

I had to reassess. What was my overall priority? Who was this going to benefit? How could I regroup and refine my time management? It wasn’t that I didn’t feel I could rise to the challenge. It was that I needed to realize my own limitations (after all, contrary to what we wish, there really is only 24 hours in a day).

Upon further examination, I realized that if I pressed forward, I could actually disappoint all my clients and then, myself. I had to step back and realized that despite my desire to want to work with this person, I had to pull myself out of the project altogether because it ultimately wasn't benefiting anyone. It was hard. But, I had to realize my limitations.

How often have you found yourself taking on more and more tasks? Do you struggle with saying 'no'? Do you know your limits? Share your experiences and lessons learned by commenting below!