better business blog

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Do What You Love

4 March 2018

What is the purpose of being in business?

To earn money and live well maybe? This is true up to a point, but there are other ways to earn a living.

Perhaps having a business means that we have freedom to choose? I would say that that is a key element for me and I revel in the fact that I can buy items of stationery without having to fill out a form and then waste precious minutes of my life asking a manager to authorise a 50p biro. There is something liberating about being able to buy pens when I jolly well like! (Funny how the little wins in life can seem to have the most value to us).

However I wonder that being in business is really all about doing something that we love.

I’ve noticed that the successful people I meet at networking events, or on our weekly radio show, all seem to really love what they are doing. I don’t mean fake media ‘love’ that many people project, in order to impress others (it never works).

I’m talking about genuine, sparkly eyed affection for their product or service. Honest, enthusiastic love.

I know some people find the L word over-used, or difficult to make sense of, and that is ok. If ‘love’ feels too heavy for you then feel free to swap it for fondness, affection, joy, interest, or excitement. I like the L word because it has power and a sense of density to it.

Doing what we love makes everyday a new exciting challenge, instead of a foot-dragging chore.

I will admit that I do love being a business coach as much today as when I started 15 years ago. My next client feels like my first client and I love the excitement of starting a new project and building a new relationship.

Doing what we love can involve us making tough decisions. Setting up in business was scary and there was the risk of zero income to contend with. Well, haha, what am I saying …the risk was reality as all businesses start with zero income! However, at the time it didn’t feel as much of a risk as getting another PAYE job would have been, as that would have involved me doing something I didn’t love. Taking second best can be an easier road to travel, as it means we can take what is on offer in front of us, instead of turning away to travel further down the road.

There is no shame in taking second best and if needs must, then it’s the right decision. We can always choose to review that decision later on, once the crisis has passed. I subscribe to the view that we can all make choices and can think for ourselves. If we choose not to, that is still a choice we are making. When the time is right we will make the decision that is right for us.

Doing what we love may take time to achieve. I spent the first 10 years of my working life in factory jobs that paid the bills and didn’t nourish my soul. I hated them. Then I made a decision to not get a job after redundancy and to go back into education, which put me on a path that lead to me setting up my own coaching business. I had a ‘defining moment’ at work one day and knew I had had enough of working for other people and wanted to work for myself. Defining moments are precious things, they land when we least expect them and they shake our thinking and set us off in a new direction.

What would you love to do, for paid work? Are you in a business where you work hard, but lack enthusiasm? What is your secret ambition? If you want to make a change, what are you frightened of and what’s the reality of that fear?

A few questions for us all to ponder this week. We often know what we love and can be too scared to find the words and confide in a trusted supporter. We can think about the questions above and we can do some thinking to acknowledge our feelings about what they stir up inside us.

We can all do what we love.

Next week: Trump The Media