Quote: Starting a business takes a tremendous amount of energy…

It’s funny how after you start thinking about something you often start seeing it and hearing about it everywhere. Like an art you’ve never heard of until one day you discover it and from that day on it seems like you never stop hearing about it and seeing it almost every where you go.

For a while you simply pay more attention to something you were before overlooking or ignoring.

Over the last few years, I spent a lot of energy thinking about my business strategy and direction. But the last couple of months have been particularly intense for me, not giving me time to sit back and reflect much. A few days ago I realized I haven’t been paying enough attention to where I was going.

And now it seems that everything I do, read, or hear is related to “where I’m going with my business”! This morning I stumbled upon this:

“Starting a business takes a tremendous amount of energy — far more energy than most people who have been employees all their life typically even imagine — so it’s really important to pay attention to what it is you’re pouring your energy into. It needs to line up with what you want your life to look like.

So with that, I think I would say one of my axioms these days is this: Make sure you own your business, rather than your business owning you. There’s an article I read about once a year that relates to that: “The Good Life and How to Get It.”

Take retreats, by yourself or perhaps your spouse or business partner if it’s appropriate, regularly. I can’t say strongly enough how important it is to pay attention to where it is you’re going. If you don’t step out of the intense stream of the day-to-day, it’s very easy to find yourself on a path you don’t really even want to be on.”

By Donovan McNutt, Founder & President of GeekDesk, on his company’s story published yesterday by 37signals.

That’s right on the spot for me .

Readers who read this quote also read:

• Steve Jobs on how to live before you die
• Productivity comes from interactivity and the exchange of ideas and talents