Love What You Do, Do What You Love. Here’s why and how to find out what that is:

Most of my clients, and potential clients, already know what their life purpose is and I am truly grateful for that; it saves so much time and it makes us way more productive with the time we have.

Why? Because this knowledge permeates through their very being and is shown in drive, ambition and determination. They understand where they want to get to, and most of them realise that to achieve what they want to achieve they need good systems and processes in place, because it’s just not possible to scale up without them. This means that they have the motivation to seek change – to invest time and energy into new processes supported by systems which they are excited to learn and embrace – because they know they will reap the rewards.

But I see other business owners struggle; they are more reserved and reluctant to embrace the change they need to succeed. I often find, after chatting further, that they are not as emotionally connected to their business as they first appeared to be.

Running your own business is hard – running a successful business is even harder – but the rewards are massive and worth the pain. We all have days when it feels like too much of a slog. At times, thoughts may even creep in about “getting a job”!

To ride out the roller coaster of running your business you really do need to “love what you do” so that you can “do what you love”.

When you love what you do, your motivation hits a different gear: you are more productive, you find ways around those insurmountable problems, you embrace the change that’s needed, and you level up and enjoy the challenge. When you are in this place, you may need some help to identify the new processes needed and welcome the new systems because you know that without them you won’t be able to help as many of your clients as you can with them.

The average human can only keep 7 (give or take 1 or 2) items in their short-term memory at any one time. So, to really succeed, we need some help to remind us to do the things we need to do. I would argue that when stressed, or when we are having a bad day, it’s not even possible to keep 5 things in your short-term memory, which is why I love the systems I design and create. When they are embraced by the client, a bad day is never an unproductive day because you are reminded and prompted to do something that you may not have remembered to do.

Ikigai

There are many suggested ways of finding your life’s purpose, but I rather like this Ikigai – it pops up every so often and, to me, it makes good sense.

What is ‘Ikigai’ exactly? It is that place where your passion, mission, calling and career intersect. This is best illustrated by the overlapping circles of a Venn diagram.

 

 

The four circles represent:

1. What you love
2. What you are good at
3. What the world needs
4. What you are/could be paid for

The place where the four circles meet is where you find your ‘Ikigai’.

So, if you are concerned that you aren’t fulfilling your life’s purpose, have a read of this fab blog: Ikigai: finding purpose in life.

If you want to find out more about Miller’s Law (7 things in your short term memory at one time) then have a read of: Your Short-Term Memory Can Only Hold 7 Items (But You Can Use This Trick)

If you would like to have a chat about how the holy grail of systems (CapsuleCRM, Mailchimp, Xero) can help you scale your business, arrange a time to have a chat with me by clicking here.

If you would like to dive straight in and have a look at CapsuleCRM, just click here.

If you want to find out more about why being happy is fab and how being happier makes you more productive and successful then check out this brilliant TED talk.

About the Author

Award-winning Julia Blake founded Blake Consultants nine years ago to help ambitious owners of small to medium-sized businesses looking for growth and success. We predominantly work with UK-based and international Coaches, Consultants, Consultancies and Service Based Businesses.

Here’s how Blake Consultants can help:

• Experiencing overwhelm?  We will reduce your workload and increase your revenue by making you more efficient.
• Experiencing high success?  We’ll set up your business to enable you to cope with high levels of delivery and have time to plan and grow.
• Reached a growth milestone?  Our CRM solution will enable you to recruit and maintain consistency of approach.
• Struggling to convert opportunities?  We will help you find the time to nurture your business and segment your activities and messaging.
• Forward thinker?  As a very early start-up needing a business structure to grow into, we should be your first stop.

I’m always happy to have a chat – you can contact me at julia.blake@blakeconsultants.co.uk and sign up to receive my Growth Hacks Bulletin too 🙂

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