There were days when I was still in my 9 to 5 where I would come home after a long day of work and complain to my husband about what happened. You've probably done the same thing. Please tell me I'm not alone. But I'd come home and I'd say, you will not believe what so and so did. Now most of the time, I was talking about my boss. There's something that he or she did that set me off and I came home still steaming about it. The thing is, I don't do that anymore. I don't complain to my husband about my boss.

But that's because it's me, and not because I'm not a complete bitch to myself sometimes as a boss, but because I don't wanna tell him about it. But the reality is I do some of the same things to myself that I used to complain about. Now I love what I do, but sometimes I put so much pressure on myself that I make myself do things I don't even wanna do in my business. Right? Or I feel a certain way about my business because of the pressure that I'm putting on myself. Maybe you can relate. Have you found yourself working nonstop, putting in crazy hours and not just because you want to, but because you feel like you have to. You have to in order to meet that goal. You're telling yourself you have no choice.

You feel chained to your desk when you'd rather get up. You realize at the end of the day you never even took a break to have some lunch. Maybe your eyes are glued to your phone, checking emails and social media after quote unquote hours. Perhaps you're checking your inbox or your bank account for new orders or payments to come through, keeping track of Your sales goals and trying to hit those metrics that were set, you're holding yourself to higher and higher standards. Nothing is good enough. Every time you reach a goal, you expect more of yourself and you just continue to put more and more pressure on yourself to perform. Is any of that familiar? I mean, I remember complaining about all of those things when I was in my 9 to 5. I would go all day without eating and come home and complain that I didn't even have time to take a break.

I would work crazy hours after hours, bring work home with me, and complain that I needed to put in the extra time. I'd constantly check my inbox or social media because I thought I had to. I thought that's what was expected. And no matter how much I did and put in and how much I achieved, I felt like they just expected more. The better I performed, the more work I felt like they threw my way. I proved that I could handle it and so they gave me even more. I was rewarded for incredible performance and commitment and hard work with more work. And you know what I figured out? After now being my own boss, I'm the one who chose all of that.

I'm the one who opened the door to that, and I'm doing it to myself. Because now I don't have a boss. I'm the boss. And that still happens from time to time. I had a couple of conversations with clients this week that reminded me of what it's like when this happens. I've spent some time evaluating what it is that I really want out of life and what I want my work day to look like. And as I said, from time to time, things like this still pop up. But for my clients, I see it.

I can sense it. And I realize that they have to work through this for themselves as well. And so this week when 2 of my clients came to me feeling stressed and burnt out and overwhelmed and describe what it was like for them, some of the very examples I just shared were statements that they told me. One client actually said she wondered what it would be like just to go back and get another job. But what I know is no matter whether she's working for herself or whether she goes back to another job. This is hardwired into her. And as an entrepreneur, it's likely hardwired into your personality as well. It's something that you're going to have to work to overcome is a conscious choice that you have to make.

Otherwise, you're gonna fall in the same trap. Working for someone else will not solve it. You have to decide to be your best boss. You have to decide. Only you can decide. So I'm curious. If you came home today and you shared with a friend or a family member how your boss treated you today, what would you say? Of course, you'd be talking about yourself, but if you rated yourself, where would you rate? On the scale of best boss ever. If you're not being the boss that you would want for yourself, then it's time to take a closer look.

And I have 5 areas for you to work on as it relates to being your own manager, being your own leader, being the best boss ever for yourself to hear our 5 things that you need to do to be your best boss. 1, remind yourself of your purpose. Remind yourself why you started your business in the 1st place. What it is that you even committed to do. What's the bigger reason behind what you're doing? What's the impact that you wanna make? What's the vision that you have for your business, for your audience, for the world, and for your life? Remind yourself of every success story. Put them in a folder. Save them every time you get a compliment from a client or an email or a testimonial or some kind of a story about how you changed someone's life. Hold on to those and revisit them and remind yourself of your purpose.

Remind yourself why you got into the business that you're in to begin with. Number 2, care. Care about yourself. Instead of demanding things from yourself and putting so much pressure, ask yourself what's really best for you. Stop focusing on what's best for the business in a sense of putting that 1st and foremost and make sure you're prioritizing yourself because without you there wouldn't be a business. So how will you care for yourself this week? What does that look like? What do you need? Number 3, give yourself affirmation for the things that you're doing well. Recognize yourself. Reward yourself.

Again, celebrate the wins. What's one thing that you can reward yourself for this week? How can you celebrate? How can you remind yourself of what a great job you're doing? Number 4, create space for growth. You gotta give yourself space to learn and grow, to continue to improve, allow yourself to fail without beating yourself up, allow yourself to learn instead of putting so much pressure on yourself to be perfect. There's no such thing as perfect. Give yourself that space, allow yourself to open up your mind, to stop acting like you know it all or need to know it all, and to focus on the areas where you could improve. Number 5, play. Simply have some fun. What would you do if you spent this next week coming up prioritizing fun? If every single day you led from a place where you're gonna have some fun with what you're doing versus again putting all of that pressure on yourself to perform.

Play around, have some fun, look forward to what you're doing, enjoy what you're doing, laugh a little. When you start doing these 5 things, reminding yourself why, really caring about yourself, affirming and recognizing yourself, allowing space to grow and having some fun. When you do those 5 things, you will really begin to shift into this role of becoming the best boss ever. I think that you should want to talk about yourself at the end of every day. End of every work day, whether again it's a family member, a partner, a spouse, a friend, and tell them about your boss. Tell them what a great day it was because of the good things that happened. Brag on yourself a little. You know, today, my boss was amazing.

She realized that I needed a little bit of time away and sent me to the spa to get a massage. Or maybe today was amazing. My boss took some time to really reflect on all the things that I've been doing well and really celebrated those. Imagine the things that you would say about your favorite boss ever. And if you've had one of those in the past, what made them so amazing? Strive to be that for yourself. You're the boss. You get to choose, so be good to yourself.