Let’s talk about boundaries.

As a business owner (whether you’re new or seasoned), you’ve likely been faced with boundary disrespect. This can be anything from insisting on meetings outside of your preferred work hours, being asked to lower rates or perform friends-and-family-favours, unrealistic turnaround demands, or something as simple as an after-hours text message while you’re in Netflix mode.

This disrespect is often innocent and unintentional, but the end result is the same. You find yourself feeling bulldozed, burnt out, resentful, and annoyed at the human race.

This is for you.

It’s important to look at this topic without blame. Literally EVERYONE is capable of testing boundaries. The fact is, as humans, we push the envelope. It’s in our nature, and is how we figure out what the rules are in any given situation.

In the same way, EVERYONE has the power – and the right – to set healthy boundaries that work best for THEM. Rather than cultivating the negative (this looks like blaming those around you for taking advantage) it’s SO KEY to look inward – at your protocols, policies, and preferences, first.

Imagine this:

You’re shopping online, and you order a product that isn’t quite what you were looking for. You scour the website for a return policy, but don’t see one listed. Hands up if the first thing you thought was, “well, it doesn’t say they DON’T accept returns, sooo…” and begun packing up your purchase, intent on getting your money back. You’ve taken the fact that there is no return policy as… well, a return policy of its own.

If that example didn’t resonate, let me ask you this: should you get a parking ticket for parking in a spot that has no sign telling you not to park there?

My heart says NO (even while my many parking tickets are screaming YES).

AHEM. This theory is called, “If there are no rules, I’m not technically breaking them,” AKA “rules cannot be broken if they don’t exist,” or “nobody told me not to!” or any number of things you tell yourself to sleep at night.

Here’s the cold hard truth:
If people aren’t respecting our boundaries, 99% of the time, it’s because we haven’t stepped in front and set them.

Your role is to focus on being PROACTIVE. Are there loopholes in your contracts that could get taken advantage of? Are there areas where you’re consistently being trampled, because you aren’t being clear enough about your expectations/needs/procedures?

Clarity + honesty work together to create the boundaries that you so deeply crave and DESERVE. A world with solid boundaries is a world with blissful, actually-relaxing evenings + weekends, vacations that feel like vacations, and resentment-free work environments.

If you have no idea where to begin – let’s work together to figure out what boundaries for your business + brand could look like, keeping compassion and human nature in mind.

You didn’t design the dream just to get buried in it.

Keep dreaming,
The Appleyards.

Pssst. We’re doing something BIG to kick off 2020! Starting January 6th, we’re going to be showing up in our Instagram stories, ON VIDEO, every day for 30 days. We’ll have questions and themes prepared to talk about, and we invite ALL OF YOU to tune in and SHOW UP in your stories, with our prompts and our encouragement. Stay tuned for more details dropping right HERE, next week!