Something I have struggled with a lot over the course of my career is how much I care.

You’re probably asking yourself why this is a problem. Well, there is such a thing as caring too much. It can be taken to a toxic level and cause real mental health problems like burnout. And if you’re not able to do your job, then it is a real problem.

On the toxic note, I think it also made me resent people who didn’t care as much as I do. That made it hard to work with others and made me much less effective at my job.

So how do you harness this need to care and use it to make yourself more effective? Let’s take a look at it.

“No one can do this as well as I do, so I have to do it all.”

I can’t even tell you how many times I have said this, and I just sat through a presentation from a leader who basically said this as well.

This is one of those areas where my mind was changed by having a child. My daughter is a few months shy of three right now, and as it turns out, she doesn’t know how to do everything. But she really, really wants to do everything. I would love to bake and cook by myself. She would love to do all of it herself. It’s a fun fight between two type As.

Instead of focusing on everything she can’t do and how much easier it would be to not teach her, I focus on her current abilities. I give her as much as I can based on those abilities and more as I can. Does she do any of it as well as I do? No. She’s a toddler. Do I always have a huge mess after she does the task? Yes. But as she grows, her confidence with these tasks will grow and she’ll be able to do everything herself. That means she’ll be cooking and baking for me, namely she’ll make me cake. I’m investing in her now, so later I get my cake.

The same can be said of your employees. If you give them guidance while letting them do tasks they’re not good at yet, you’ll likely get your cake as well. It may be a slow and frustrating process, but once you get to your cake, it will have all been worth it.

“All I do is work.”

When I get into constant work mode, my work actually starts suffering. Creating balance and setting boundaries actually makes me better at my job. I’m less weird and can connect with audiences much easier.

If you’re finding yourself in the position where you are always working, it’s time to start creating those boundaries. Is your first instinct that there is too much to do and you have to do it all? Re-read that first section and dream about the cake you will eventually have. And if you are still saying that there is too much to do and not enough people to do it, then let’s talk about boundaries.

Whenever I’ve put boundaries onto my work life, it has succeeded at making me more efficient as well as better overall at my work. Wouldn’t you love to be more efficient and better? There is something about knowing that you have to have everything done by a certain time that just gives you tunnel vision. You don’t dilly dally as much and your ability to focus just grows. And you’re able to delegate much better as well. Everything becomes more balanced naturally and that’s the best place to be.

“It needs to be perfect.”

I’m a perfectionist, and there is nothing that annoys me more than my humanity. I’m not perfect. I never will be. And yet I used to stare at mistakes I made like I could burn them away with my eyes.

I’m much more forgiving of my mistakes now, because I realized how much my perfectionist streak was paralyzing me. Like I said, I was in the habit of staring at my mistakes. But it’s not just that. If you constantly wait to release something until it’s absolutely perfect, it’s going to take forever and likely never happen. I would even argue that taking the humanity out of it (those slight mistakes) might even make whatever it is less effective. Humanity, in the end, is what will connect someone to it and then persuade them to purchase or engage with it. People just don’t want the sterility of perfection anymore.

So for the good of your sanity and your business, let go of that perfectionism. It will make life a whole lot easier and people will be more likely to actually buy from you.

“Should I really not care?”

Caring a whole lot is kind of a superpower, but it will burn you out in the end. So is the answer to not care? Absolutely not. It’s all about redirecting this energy into places that will make you as effective as possible. And eventually everything else will fall into place. It’s a lot about trusting that if you become a more balanced person, your company will follow.

How are you channeling your energy to make your business better?