I belong to a book club in my neighborhood and several months ago, we read Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel, by Jeannette Walls.
I loved the book and as I was reading it, I couldn’t help but think about some of the advice that I give my clients. Lily, the main character, had a very simple (and also very hard at times) life. When she went to live on the ranch with her husband, there was always more to be done than there was time to do it. So she had to make choices. And she decides that she simply doesn’t have time for two things: cleaning the house and doing laundry.
So her family wears their shirts over and over again and when they get dirty, they turn them inside-out and wear them a little more. Finally, when they are really dirty, she takes them into town and pays to wash them by the pound. As for jeans, she says: “Levi’s we didn’t wash at all. . . . We wore them and wore them until they were shiny with mud, manure, tallow, cattle slobber, bacon fat, axle grease, and hoof oil — and then we wore them some more. . . . When [they] reached that degree of conditioning, they were sort of like smoke-cured ham or aged bourbon, and you couldn’t pay a cowboy to let you wash his.”
Now I am clearly NOT suggesting that you stop cleaning your house and doing laundry. But what are some things that you can eliminate from your list? What are some things that you can think about delegating? Life is short, and you are busy, and you should focus on what you do best. Maybe it’s mowing your lawn, or getting a dry cleaning service that delivers, or paying someone to do your bookkeeping.
One of the things that I have decided to outsource this year is a portion of my social media marketing. I love being social and connecting with people all over the country, but as a solopreneur and mother of 3, it is sometimes impossible to stay connected to both, the cyberworld and the real world at the same time. By using someone who I trust and who knows me, my business and my “voice” I can stray connected and ensure that my business stays top-of-mind.
What have you eliminated from your list this year? I would love to hear your comments!
