|
By Lorin Beller
Webster describes an entrepreneur as “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” Entrepreneurs are working hard in the 21 st Century. If you are an entrepreneur, no doubt you are working long hours. Work is always on your mind. You would like to be earning more money. When you are home with your family, you think about work. You want to live life more, but you are tired. You would like to be taking better care of yourself. You are on a hamster wheel in your own business.
Does this sound familiar? If so, stop.Breathe.
What does it mean to work smarter, not harder? We hear this cliché over and over, but what do those words really mean?
It is time to change how we are working and living. There is a better way. The change is a process. It does not happen overnight, but, in a strange way, it is magic. It is about re-training ourselves in the way we want to be in our business and in what we want to do each day. It is entirely and fully possible to love your life and your work!
Rediscover Your Vision
First, as an entrepreneur, it is time to get very clear about your “old vision,” the one that first inspired you to start your business.
Remember when the idea of your business first grabbed hold of you? There was nothing that was going to stop you from doing this. No obstacle was big enough to get in your way. In short, you found your purpose in life and your passion.
Remember that time? What did you think was possible? What is possible with your company now? Where could your business be 10 years from now? Asking yourself these questions is a vital step. If you don’t know where you’re going, how are you going to get there?
You’ve seen it happen. We get tangled up in voice mail and e-mail. Many opportunities look enticing, and we go down paths that distract us from our vision. The details of your vision are crucial. You must keep them in focus … and you must write them down. A vision that is not written is merely a dream. By writing down your vision, you give it power, and it becomes a reality in a way that is truly magic.
Build Your Plan
From that written vision, you can begin to build a plan that will be a genuine working document for you, not like the kind you might write when you need a loan for your business.
A working plan that results from your vision is a simple one-page document that will motivate you and inspire you. You’ll look at it and update it regularly. It will be a written road map that triggers emotion when you visit it. Inspiration, motivation and focus for living your business and your life are the byproducts of this exercise. You’ll taste, smell and feel them each time you revisit your plan.
When a plan is designed based upon the life goals that we have created, it becomes aligned with our vision. And when we have such a plan, the magic of running a business begins.
Doing this changes everything. We become clearer about what we should embrace and what we should let go.
The working plan shows the entrepreneur what they are trying to build, not how to build it. So many times, as entrepreneurs, we become so stuck in how we are going to accomplish a vision that we lose the vision itself. When you become extremely clear about your vision, the how will come naturally. The universe will work with you, not against you… but first you need clarity as an entrepreneur.
The entrepreneur’s task is to document the vision and then commit to it. When your vision is clear and your plan is based upon your faith in that vision, your clarity and faith will continue to grow in an inspirational cycle. Clarity of vision and faith in the process are the essence of the entrepreneur’s role.
Choose Your Lifestyle
From this point, we begin to ask questions about lifestyle and how we want to “live with our business.” Make this part of your written plan. Look at your goals for living, as well as your goals for your business. Where do you want to be in 10 years? What will enable you to achieve those goals? If you keep doing what you are doing today, will it impact your physical, mental and spiritual health?
Now is the time for you to discover how you can better care for your mind, your body, and your energy. In many ways, there is a direct correlation between the health of an entrepreneur and the health of that person’s business. That means that the health of your business is simply a mirror of how healthy you are as an individual. If that is, indeed, the case, then it is up to you to determine what you need more of, both in your life and in your business.
“Give energy to that which we want to grow” is the official Big Fish motto. In other words, if you want more business, give energy to getting more business. If you want more time with your family, give energy to that.
Giving energy to anything that we do not want only creates more negative energy that diminishes us. Gossip, water cooler talk, and complaining about customers, vendors or the like are all guaranteed to only create more of the same. Our businesses are mirrors of who we are being in our lives. A consistent shift to positive and purposeful energy can change companies, change corporate cultures, and change the bottom line.
Follow Your Intuition
When you find your purpose in life, are passionate about it, get clear on your vision and back it up with a written plan, and take better care of yourself, you will begin to notice and value one of your most valuable assets — your intuition.
In the everyday business world, we tend to ignore our intuitive voice. In order to hear that voice, we need to stay grounded and connected to ourselves, to who we are as entrepreneurs and as leaders of our own businesses. As we begin to learn to listen to our intuition, we also will begin to bring a more spiritual perspective to our work.
What might be the impact of being more intuitive at work?
Beginning to integrate work with our spiritual perspective might look like being awake to living and working in our ordinary world, yet at the same time, being aware of the magic and mystery that the spiritual world consistently shows us. When we see it and hear it, we are able to act on it in our business life.
Integrating our spirituality and our business means working and living from trust, rather than from fear. When entrepreneurs act from faith and trust, they tend to find more opportunity. It is important to realize that if we act from fear, we act with hesitancy, and we tend to run into more obstacles on the journey. From this place, we also create more stress, conflict and challenge, and we end up using our energy for defense and retaliation.
We don’t have to operate from fear, though. Instead, we can choose the spiritual path and trust our intuitive selves, seeking opportunity and finding like-minded allies and partners with whom we can work to make our vision a reality.
Remember, “Give energy to that which you want to grow.” Entrepreneurs who are working and living from faith and trust also tend to bring more love and lightness into their business and to business relationships. Imagine being in business and being able to love life and business more.
Entrepreneurs are finding that when they are “awake” and trusting in life, more opportunities show up, it’s easier to do business, and things that they thought were not possible happen easily and with less effort.
This is working smarter, not harder; this is the “big fish way.”
Ask yourself if it is time for you to get clear on your vision. Then, back it up with a solid plan and let go. Make a commitment to trust, have faith, and act responsibly in order to allow your vision to become real. Our world is ready for your vision, and it needs it. Swim on!
LORIN BELLER, CPCC, is a certified professional co-active coach. As founder and president of Lorin Beller & Co., the firm responsible for the Big Fish Nation program (www.bigfishnation.com), Beller works exclusively with entrepreneurs, helping them align their businesses with the lives they want to create . She can be contacted at 518-862-1113 (e-mail: info@bigfishnation.com ).
(This article is reprinted from the Winter 2005 edition of Enterprising Women magazine. Copyright 2005 Enterprising Women Inc. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited, except by express permission of the publisher.)
|
