Today’s world has become fast-paced and always in constant motion. We can attribute that to the growth of technology and the advent of social media. The world is more connected now than any time in the past. It allowed us to expand our reach disregarding time zones and boundaries.
However, the highly dynamic world of business is taking a toll on our personal lives. Many individuals lamented that technology stamped out the boundaries between work and personal lives. Even after office hours, it is common now that we check your office email or any message on our messaging app. We cannot deny that sometimes we interrupt our dinner to take business calls. Weekends should be family time but every so often we postpone the family activities to work on our laptop.
With the current pandemic, almost everyone is doing remote work from their homes. We can see that the prevailing work from home setup has further blurred the boundaries between work and home. We can no longer distinguish work from our personal life. Hence, work-life balance is a timely topic today. It is something every one of us needs but we always fail to achieve. Both work and personal life are significant aspects of our lives. However, it is a challenge to strike a balance between the two.
We were fortunate to have a chance to talk with yoga instructor and Flow2Glow, LLC founder Tierra Briscoe about entrepreneurship. During the conversation, Tierra was able to share some of her thoughts on the elusive work-life balance.
Who Is Tierra Briscoe?
Tierra is popularly known as Tierra B and YogiTB. Tierra B has been practicing yoga for at least a decade now. Her passion for yoga can be traced way back to her college days. Yoga served as her mental, spiritual, and emotional outlet. And when Tierra B left her government job, she turned that passion into a business.
Now, Tierra B is a freelance yoga instructor who offers yoga sessions to students, athletes, and other clients. Through yoga, she is helping them develop mindfulness and build a strong foundation for their muscles. She became a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) in 2012. RYT is a distinction provided to yoga instructors and teachers who successfully met the Yoga Alliance’s requirements on training and teaching experience. In 2018, she finished her Yoga4Trauma Training and Prison Yoga Project Training.
Tierra B’s approach centered on promoting loving and kindness practices. She is a staunch advocate of intentional actions or ways of living and a strong believer that our actions leave a lasting effect on those we met.
What Motivates Her?
Motivation is one of the driving forces in our lives which is why we asked her about the things that motivate her. For Tierra B, her family remains her primary motivation.
Tierra B shared that the bitter loss of her grandfather due to COVID-19 last year has given her a new life perspective. It taught her that the future is not guaranteed. “It compelled me to live up my life. Tomorrow is not promised,” she explained. It lit the flames of her soul that drive her to continue what she is doing.
How To Achieve Work-Life Balance?
We also took the opportunity to get her concept of work-life balance. That is why we asked Tierra B to share with us how she achieves work-life balance. She provided a simple but effective approach. For Tierra B, establishing boundaries between the different aspects of her life is crucial to have a work-life balance.
Tierra B. shared that she typically woke up between 6:00 to 6:30 in the morning. She devotes the first couple of hours in her day to herself. “I do not check emails. I do not send any text message to anybody unless it is very important. I also refrain myself from social media,” she said. Instead, her morning routine involves making some tea, playing some music, and dancing around her home. She took time to meditate and write in her journal. She added that do not forget to take a daily nap and work out in the gym.
She emphasized the importance of ensuring boundaries in her life. “I allocate time for school work, business activities and for myself,” she said. Aside from being an entrepreneur, she is currently a full-time student taking a doctorate in criminal justice at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
“Everyday, I devote time to myself. One in the early morning, the other during mid-day, and the evening as well. I usually allocate two hours for creating content for my social media accounts. Then, I spend one to three hours in school depending on the type of homework that I have. I also make sure that during these periods, my phone is on to not disturb movement,” Tierra B remarked.
The greatest lesson that we can derive from her daily routine is setting boundaries in the various aspects of our lives. We need to define how long we should spend doing our work and school papers. And most importantly, we should set our me-time every day.
Parting Words
“Always have a plan.” That is Tierra B’s advice to any college graduate who aspires to be an entrepreneur. Aspiring entrepreneurs have the latitude to formulate and design as many plans they want. But the important thing is they need a plan. A plan is vital for any aspiring entrepreneur because it provides them direction in their business journey.
“Entrepreneurship is a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs,” Tierra B explained. She recommended that aspiring entrepreneurs should embrace the lows the way they embrace the highs. She reminded us that our losses do not define our gains. Tierra B concluded that there is no limit on what we can attain but be ready to put on the necessary work.