If you work for yourself, especially if you’re a solopreneur, having strong boundaries is one of the most important things you can do to protect both your time and your energy.

What I love about creating boundaries is that not only does it help you have more time, space and energy, but it’s also really powerful for your clients. It’s really of love and of service to create boundaries for your clients and hold them to their highest potential.

If you’re always saying, “Oh no, that’s fine, we can reschedule, it’s no problem that you’re late, it’s okay that you didn’t do the homework,” you’re not really being of service. You’re just letting them get by with the B.S. that they would get by with on their own terms.

If you are a coach, healer, business owner, or simply want to stop over-giving and burning out at work or in your relationships, it really comes down to being able to move past the story of “I have to do this or should do this” and instead  take a moment to slow things down, check in on what is truly aligned for you, and hold everyone involved to the best possible versions of themselves (yourself included).

In my latest video, I’m sharing the ways I create healthy boundaries for myself and for my clients. Watch it now, or read on below!

If you don’t have your own business or clients at the moment – use the law of adaptation to apply these principles to your boss or coworkers, relationships, and even with your kids.

1. Make sure you have all the information

Sometimes we can look at an email it can create a little bit of resentment or funky energy. But we always want to give our clients the benefit of the doubt and get all of the information.

One way you can do this is to send an email if they don’t show up to a session. I title mine “Everything ok?” I say “Hey, checking in, is everything ok? I have us on for 2 pm.”

And then I set the boundary: “If I don’t hear from you within 10 minutes I will assume something came up and you can reschedule here.”

Many times I’ll send out that email and people will call me and say “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I’m so glad I saw your email.”  I’m so glad I take the time to reach out and get the information because they didn’t know we were meeting at that time or they were in the middle of something and it totally slipped their mind.

2. Check in on what feels ok for you

What feels like “I really don’t want to do that, that doesn’t feel right, that feels like over giving” and what feels like, “I’m okay with this, I’m available to extending that session or supporting them through getting their homework done if they haven’t done it yet.” Tune into your intuition and get clear on what you are feeling.

 

3. Use their information and use your internal information to try to find a solution that works best for everybody.

Then, ask yourself, “How can I make it work so that I get to serve my clients and they get to stand up and really show up for themselves?”

An example that came to me this week was that somebody had booked a session with one of my clients and they wanted to meet in person and they wanted to meet out of my client’s typical hours.

First, we had to get the information. We found out this woman works during the hours my client typically does her sessions. She wasn’t just being frustrating, she actually wanted to do the session but had work.

So my client checked in on what she was willing to do. And when she checked in on it, she realized she was willing to meet outside of her normal business hours, but she wasn’t willing to meet in person.

Then, my client was able to find a solution that benefited both of them — scheduling an online meeting at a time outside of her normal business hours.

What things work for you when setting healthy boundaries with your clients? How can you use these tips with your clients? Let me know in the comments below.