When it’s time to take stock and review your results, performance to understand what it all means for the months ahead, how to you conclude the overall sense? How it feels like it’s going?
Typically in my conversations with many business owners who are in stabilise and growth stages, they often feel stretched, pulled into too many directions, have frustrations about progress, or lack of, etc. One thing is completely consistent: all of this eats into your personal time, your switch off time, and your time to focus on all the things that are important outside of business.
So, wherever you are right now is a good time to take a breath. I am not saying your next phase will or won’t be any easier, but it can be clearer. And to get there, we need two things: Red lines and a rooftop view.
Red Lines: What You Won’t Cross Anymore
Red lines are personal. They’re the boundaries we draw not around what we want to do, but around what we simply won’t do anymore. And the honest truth is, many business owners don’t set them until something breaks, quite often the thing breaking being themselves.
- Maybe you are feeling the calendar has too many meetings every week, meaning you are having to work earlier, later and weekends to do the creative thinking your business requires
- Maybe days have become too exhausting and you are skipping gym sessions, outdoor activities or regular meals
- Maybe you are feeling staff performance and attitude is deteriorating, but you cannot get the headspace to think on how to deal with this before it festers further
These aren’t really business problems. They’re life signals. And your body, your stress levels, your calendar are all data points just as much as your P&L is.
Red lines can be powerful and they may even come at an early cost; you may also feel almost guilty that you are not putting the work in that other owners are. But they have different red lines, different bodies and different goals. You are you and you alone.
Example: Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted into the Vietnam War, citing his personal and religious beliefs. At the height of his boxing career, this red line cost him his heavyweight title, his license to fight, and millions in earnings. He famously said, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.” The longer term result: he may have lost years of his prime, but gained enduring global respect which still persists today long after his death. When he returned, he reclaimed his title, and his stance became a defining part of his legacy. His red line became a beacon of integrity.
Example: When Adele became a mother, she famously drew a red line around touring. Despite the commercial pressure to capitalise on her massive success, she turned down huge global tours because she didn’t want to be away from her son for extended periods. “My son comes everywhere with me… My world revolves around him — I made that choice very clearly.” The longer term result: She built a career on her terms, with fewer but more powerful releases. It protected her mental health, family life, and arguably made her even more admired for prioritising authenticity over fame.
So here are some red lines worth drawing, if you haven’t already:
- I won’t sacrifice my health for revenue
- I won’t accept clients who don’t respect scope and boundaries
- I won’t let delivery become more important than leadership
The point isn’t to say no to everything. It’s to make the focus on what you’re saying yes to.
The Rooftop View: Reconnecting to Your “Why”
Now let’s climb up higher.
We can spend so much time in the day-to-day of the business: email and Slack pings, proposals, HR, cash management, sales tracking etc, that we forget to climb up and look out across the whole city of our business and life.
That rooftop view matters. Because from up there, you can see:
- What’s growing and what’s just noise
- Where the pressure points are really coming from
- Whether you’re still heading in the direction you meant to
At the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles shocked the world by stepping back mid-competition to prioritise her mental health. She zoomed out and decided that her wellbeing mattered more than gold. Rather than damaging her legacy, the decision strengthened it. She returned later with renewed clarity, and became a role model for athletes everywhere in redefining strength as self-awareness, not just performance.
“At the end of the day, we’re human too.”
~ Simone Biles
Similarly, as Roger Federer’s career progressed he decided to prioritise longevity over constant grind. He started playing fewer tournaments than his rivals, focussed his workload on specific playing surfaces and tournaments, all by listening to his body. He extended his career well into his late 30s, highly unusual for a top male tennis player, and an era in which he won more Grand Slams, regained world No. 1, and deepened his global reputation as not just a champion, but a wise and enduring presence in the sport.
“Sometimes you have to take a step back to have a better perspective.”
~ Roger Federer
So as you head into your next chapter pf personal and business phases, please do try these exercises:
- Define the one red line you need to draw right now to protect your energy or time.
- Think about the last time you felt truly in flow at work: start to think about how that happened, the environment, the time of day and replicate it again and again.
- Start thinking about your 4 week test: if you had to step back from the company for a full month, without any contact, what would need to be in place?
- What do you want this business to give YOU this year: financially, emotionally, and creatively?
Final Thoughts
The Takeaway – Now’s the time
The best businesses I work with don’t just focus on profitability or awards. They’re run by founders who are clear-eyed about what they’re building, and why.
That’s not soft thinking; it’s a fundamental part of strategy.
So whether Q1 was brilliant or brutal, now’s the time to lift your head up and check the view.
You’re not here just to make it through the to-do list. You’re here to build something that gives you life, not just takes it.
And that starts with knowing your red lines, and climbing up high enough to remember the whole picture.
Author: Niall McGinnity, CEO @ Nuvem9
Main Image Credit: Photo by Eugene
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