Does this sound familiar?

You have been working very hard. Every day you get up, you start 
working on your project list to accomplish all the things you 
know you MUST do to be successful. Marketing your products and 
services. Meeting with prospects. Taking care of your clients. 
Managing your teams (or for some people, wishing they had one!) 
One day you wake up, exhausted, depleted, frustrated and 
overwhelmed. You think to yourself, "Why does it have to be so 
hard?"

It doesn't.

You see many of us build a business for all the wrong reasons. To 
replace employment. To make a difference. Because we love what we 
do and want to make money at it.

I hate to break it to you but none of these are really the best 
reason for starting a business. And what I have found in over 
five years of working with entrepreneurs is that starting a 
business for the wrong reasons is the fast-track to failure.

We get really busy doing every thing that we think has to be done 
and we end up creating a job for ourselves where we work more, 
make less and have more stress than ever before.

And worse yet, many of you will build a business that you hate. 
That's right. I call it "climbing some else's mountain." You lose 
that "lovin' feeling" and want to go back to the saner world of 
employment.

So how can you turn this situation around? How can you experience 
the time and financial freedom you crave? How can you run a 
successful business and have more fun?

You have to stay true to what's important to you.

Here is an example from my own life. Early last year I had a huge 
breakthrough. In the midst of creating the Unstoppable Goals 
Method product, running two companies and coaching 20 
entrepreneurs it hit me. I was way too BUSY. I wasn't enjoying my 
life. I didn't do anything but work and coach and go to events. I 
was exhausted and honestly, I wasn't having a lot of fun.

So I set out to redefine what success looked like to me. Here are 
the same steps you can use right now to jump-start your joy 
factor and start actually enjoying your life as a successful 
business owner.

1. Create a vision of my life (outside of work.) My big "a-ha" 
moment was - "What do I do for fun outside of work?" I had to 
create new hobbies, and set some new intentions for socializing 
and fun time. The result was I spent this summer traveling, going 
to more spas, and I've taken up golf again. I block out time in 
my calendar for fun time.

2. Reconnect with my priorities and values.I had forgotten along 
the way that freedom was my #1 value. I was working so hard being 
successful that I lost sight of the very reason I started my own 
business. Now, every day I wake up and say, "What can I do to 
create more freedom in my life?" That has led me to change all my 
coaching programs, hire coaches and launch the ULTIMATE Business 
Breakthrough Intensive. I'm having more fun and my clients are 
getting more value!

3. Be ruthless about my time. I was saying YES to a lot of things 
for other people. Things that weren't making me money or leading 
me to my goals. I had to get ruthless about where I invested my 
time. Yes, it was a bit challenging but it paid off in spades. 
Now I use my time wisely and have a formula to evaluate 
opportunities against. Everyone on my team is trained in this 
formula to ensure we say YES to things that are in alignment with 
our success factors.

4. Surround myself with people who get it. If you want to change 
your lifestyle and business strategies, you will get there faster 
with people who share your vision. As I made a commitment to 
experience freedom, I attracted more business owners who live and 
breathe freedom. Now I learn from them on how they make it 
happen. When you are surrounded by people who don't get it, on 
some level, they may try to sabotage your efforts. Remember, you 
are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

5. Uplevel my game. I had to change the way I was thinking. I 
stopped thinking that "busy" was valuable and started focusing on 
leverage, delegation, and automating my work flow. I began to 
think in terms of earning millions rather than just getting 
enough cash flow to cover my expenses. I raised my standards in 
all areas of my life and set goals to achieve massive results.

I know that the only way to get out of the "too busy for life" 
trap is to recognize that it is possible to live a freedom-based 
lifestyle. I know it is because I'm living proof. I have friends 
and colleagues who live that way. And I have clients who, when 
they follow my program, are creating success without the 
"busyness."

Are you ready for it? I mean, truly, are you ready to give up 
being too busy so you can have more fun than you ever dreamed of? 
This is the year you can make it happen. Make a commitment and 
just do it. If I can do it, anyone can! 

Melanie Benson Strick offers keynotes speeches, mentoring, 
training and products designed to get people out of overwhelm 
and onto the success fast-track. For your FREE copy of "The 5 
Massive Mistakes that can Put you Out of Business..and How to 
Avoid Them", visit http://www.SuccessConnections.com.