Three Questions That Keep My Life and Business Honest
There is a reality check you can't prepare for when you're sitting bedside while someone you love takes their last breath.
Most of us live with a kind of daily amnesia. We know, somewhere in the back of our minds, that one day it will be us. But we don't really believe it. There's always more time. Next year. After this launch. Once things calm down.
In that room, the denial comes crashing down. You're faced with your own mortality, and the questions arrive whether you're ready for them or not.
Did I do what I came here to do? Did I live a good life? Did my people know, in their bones, that they were loved? Was I present? Or did I take it all for granted?
These are the questions we all face when our time comes. The only choice we get is whether we start asking them now, while we can still do something about the answers.
The Three Questions I Ask Myself
For years, I've asked myself three questions that cut through all the noise:
Am I truly living?
Am I fully loving?
Am I making a difference?
When my time comes, I want all three to be a resounding yes.
I don't wait for a big life moment to check in on them. I come back to them when I'm making a decision, when something feels off, or when I notice I've been running on autopilot for a while.
And if at any point the answer is no, I know exactly where to course correct. That's what makes them useful. A vague sense that something isn't right is hard to act on. A clear no to one specific question tells you where to look.
They Anchor My Work, Too
These questions started as anchors for my life. Over time, they've become anchors for my work as well, no matter how it evolves.
Because for most business owners, work isn't separate from life. It takes up most of our waking hours. It shapes how much energy we have left for the people we love. It decides whether we have room to be present, or whether we're half there, thinking about the inbox.
So it's worth asking the same questions of your business.
Does your business let you truly live? Does it leave you room to fully love the people who matter most? Is it making the difference you started it to make?
When Your Business Costs You These Freedoms
Most of us started our businesses for freedom. Freedom with our time, and freedom to do work that matters to us.
But it's easy for a business to slowly take those freedoms back. The hours creep up. The business can't run without you. Family dinners get interrupted by "quick" messages. Holidays get planned around launches, if they happen at all.
If your business doesn't currently give you these freedoms, or worse, if it costs you these freedoms, the cost is too high.
It's time to get radically honest with yourself about where your time and energy are going.
Questions to Sit With
Take ten minutes with these. Write the answers down rather than thinking them through, because it's much harder to gloss over something once it's on paper.
Looking at last week, where did most of your time go? Is that where you want it to go?
What are you doing in your business that someone else could do, if the process were written down?
When did you last take a full week off without checking in?
Who in your life is getting the leftover version of you?
Is your business making the difference you started it to make, or has the admin crowded it out?
If nothing changed for the next five years, would you be happy with that?
There are no wrong answers here. The point is to see clearly where you are, so you know what to change.
What Your Business Should Give You
Your true mission should amplify all three questions, and never compete with them:
A life well lived.
Presence with the people who matter most.
Work that makes a difference.
A business built well gives you all of that. It runs on clear systems, so you aren't holding every detail in your head. It has a team who know what they own, so you can step away. And it delivers a great client experience whether you're at your desk or at the beach with your family.
That's where my work comes in. I build the operational backbone of your business, the systems and structure that let you have it all, personally and professionally. My work is the bridge between your values and the way your business runs day to day.
Never Lose Sight of What It's For
Revenue goals, launches and growth plans all matter. But they're meant to serve something bigger.
Without the freedom to truly live, fully love and make a difference, what is it all for?
That's something to never lose sight of.
If you answered those questions honestly and didn't love what you saw, you don't have to fix it alone. Start with The Client Journey Audit. We'll look at how your business runs today and find where it's taking more of your time and energy than it should, so you can start taking those freedoms back.
