Clearly set boundaries help other people to understand how you want to be treated. They are rules, if you like, that apply when others deal with you and your business. Many of us aren’t good at establishing boundaries, something that probably stems from way back in our childhoods.

As children we are often taught that other people’s needs are more important than ours. That we should obey others without question. And we were rewarded for pleasing other people and sacrificing our own needs. Sometimes we do not set boundaries because we dislike confrontation or anger, or because we think we will hurt other peoples feelings. If this behaviour of putting ourselves last carries over into our adult lives, it’s likely to stop us from telling other people what we want.

The good news is that setting boundaries is a learnable skill, and one that can make a huge positive difference to quality of your life.

The first step is to identify which boundaries you need to set. These seven are suggested for easing pressure on you in your business life:

1.Learn to say no Don’t feel uncomfortable about saying no to an unreasonable request. If it is going to have a negative impact on you, or you don’t really want to do something, then just say no. And don’t feel as thought you need to explain why. After all, we don’t offer an explanation when we say yes.

2.Be clear about what you do and what you don’t do If something is outside bounds of your normal scope of work, then simply say so. It is easy to get caught up agreeing to do unusual things or one-offs that take up a lot of extra time. Your time is valuable and you want to spend it accordingly.

The inclination to complain about a customer happens to all of us from time to time. After a customer irritates us in some way and eventually walks away or hangs up phone, we immediately look for a nearby co-worker so we can share our negative experiences.

“Hey Bob. You won’t believe this jerk that was just on phone…”