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📝 Maybe you don’t need permission. You need a policy.
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A Policy Is a Decision You Don’t Have to Keep Making Hey Reader, Recently, I took two actual sick days. Not “I’ll answer email from the couch” sick days. Not “I’ll rest after these three things” sick days. Actual sick days. Sinus pain. Headache. Congestion. And a brain apparently operating on dial-up internet. So I gave myself permission to stop working, retreated to a darkened room with some over-the-counter medicine, and watched mindless reality TV for two days. It was absolutely the right decision. But afterward, I started wondering: Why did I need to give myself permission in the first place? If I worked for a company with a sick-leave policy, the company wouldn’t reconsider its entire position on illness every time an employee woke up sick. The decision would already have been made. And that’s when I realized how often we do the opposite when we work for ourselves. We repeatedly decide whether we’re allowed to take Friday off. Stop answering email. Take a real lunch. Schedule the doctor’s appointment. Spend money on professional development. Take a vacation without “just checking in.” Permission can be helpful. But permission has to keep being granted. A policy is different. A policy is a decision you don’t have to keep making. And no, I’m not suggesting you create an 84-page corporate policy manual for the spare-bedroom office. 😉 I’m suggesting that some of the things you repeatedly negotiate with yourself might deserve to become decisions you make once, in advance. That’s what I’m exploring in this week’s article, Stop Renegotiating With Yourself: Put HR Policies in Place for YOU, Inc. In it, I show you how to identify the places where you may need policies, including time, access, well-being, investment, and life outside your business. There’s another piece of this that matters, though. Your policies shouldn’t be random rules you impose on yourself because they sound responsible. Your policies should protect the vision you’ve chosen for your life and business. If relationships matter, perhaps there’s a policy about when work ends. If growth matters, perhaps professional development becomes part of your benefits package. If health matters, perhaps sick time doesn’t require a courtroom argument with yourself while your head is pounding. Vision tells you what matters. Permission lets you honor it occasionally. Policy helps you honor it consistently. That’s the kind of HR department I want running YOU, Inc. Your Action Step this WeekNotice five decisions you repeatedly renegotiate with yourself. Listen for questions like: Can I? Should I? Am I allowed? Can I justify it? Then turn each recurring negotiation into a simple policy: At YOU, Inc., we __________ because __________. The second blank is important. Connect the policy to something you’ve already decided matters. You’re not creating rules for the sake of rules. You’re making leadership decisions that support the season you’re intentionally building. And maybe making ordinary Tuesdays just a little easier in the process. 💜 If you’re an Insider or VIP, pull out September’s Tenacious WFH CEO Vision Brief as you do this exercise. Your answers about what you want to protect, prioritize, and invest in can help you decide which policies YOU, Inc. needs most. 💛 Insider & VIP CornerThis month's CEO Vision Brief Mini Power Tool is available exclusively for Tenacious WFH Entrepreneur Insiders and VIPs. It walks you through your CEO North Star, Leadership Compass, Next-Season Vision, CEO Investment, Strategic Focus, and CEO Declarations — giving you a practical place to work out your direction on paper before the season gets busy. Upgrade anytime to unlock this month's Mini Power Tool, along with the growing archive of practical worksheets, templates, and resources created to help you build your business with greater clarity, confidence, and sustainability. Premium subscriptions start at $7/month. 💎 Upgrade your experience here.
As always, I'd love to know what you think of this week's newsletter. Post your thoughts on social and tag me (@coachmichelepeterson), or simply reply to this email! Thank you. I appreciate you! xoxo, Now for more good stuff ... Upgrade Your Experience ...Tenacious WFH Insiders get access to monthly Mini Power Tool downloadables like this month's CEO Vision Brief, an exclusive audio version of the weekly newsletter and blog via the private podcast Insiders Only Tenacious WFH Entrepreneur Audio Experience that you can listen to on your favorite podcast platform ... and more! Get all the details here. UPGRADE TO INSIDER or VIP STATUS TODAY! Interesting Reads ...
Win WFH Tip of the WeekWFH Tip: To WIN working from home, create a "done for the day" routine. Setting work-life boundaries is healthy and important for sustainable WFH productivity. Grit & Grace Affirmation of the WeekI can do anything. I speak my mind. I am intelligent Say it. Believe it. Be it. From the book Badass Affirmations by Becca Anderson I hope you enjoyed this week's newsletter. Thank you for linking arms and being part of my working from home tribe! I'll be back next week with more tips, inspiration, and other fun stuff to empower your WFH success. Until then, have a beautiful week! xoxo, P.S. It's my goal to inspire you and remind you of your greatness as we navigate WFH life together. If you loved this week's newsletter, please feel free to forward it to your friends! And just one more thing ...
September 10, 2026 | Coach Michele Peterson
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Coach Michele Peterson
Get my best tips and insights on productivity, confidence, balance, and connection ... learned from 15 years of successfully working from home. Long-term WFH is a CHOICE, a lifestyle, a CULTURE. And I believe that if you're going to do something, you should do it right. But you don't have to do it alone. Activate your free subscription to The Tenacious WFH Entrepreneur newsletter so that you get your weekly dose of grit and grace to keep you going by entering your email address below.
Don’t Let the Season Decide for You Hey Reader, September does something funny to me. Maybe it’s all those years of back-to-school conditioning, but put me near fresh notebooks and a good package of pens this time of year, and apparently my inner 12-year-old still has purchasing authority. There’s something irresistible about that fresh-start feeling. But as entrepreneurs, fresh-start energy can quickly turn into fresh-goal energy. Launch this. Finish that. Fix the website. Post more. Start...
Now You Know More Than You Did Before Hey Reader, I think harvest has a way of settling arguments. For months, a vineyard can be studied, tested, watched, and discussed. Everyone can make their best predictions about what a particular block will produce. Then the grapes come in. And now you know. Not whether the season was officially a "Success" or "Failure." You simply have information you didn’t have before. Our businesses give us that information, too. The problem is that when you're both...
Your Best Resources Need a Better Assignment Hey Reader, There are only so many hours in the day when your brain is doing its best work. Only so much creative energy. Only so much emotional bandwidth. Only so many people, projects, opportunities, and ideas you can care deeply about at the same time. We know this. And yet, as entrepreneurs, we can behave as though the goal is to somehow manufacture enough of ourselves for everything. Maybe if we get more organized. Find the right app. Wake up...