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Small Business Articles from Make-it-Fly®
 Three Keys to Keep Passion and Play
In Business and Life
By Victoria Munro
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We live in challenging times. Watching the news or just looking around, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, even discouraged or a bit fearful. The following three keys have not only helped me weather the ups and downs of business and life, but have helped me to enjoy the journey—and have fun along the way!
This may seem frivolous—after all, business is serious, life is sometimes hard and running your own company can be tough. However, I’m convinced that, if you want to be successful over the long haul, it’s crucial to keep passion and play alive and well in your business and your life.
Key #1
Focus on What You Love to Do—enjoy doing what you do!
Studies have repeatedly shown that highly successful people are generally passionate about what they do. In his recent book, The Richest Man in Town, author Randy Jones interviews 50 of the richest men and women in cities large and small across the United States. Almost without exception these people worked for themselves and worked really hard, but thoroughly enjoyed and were fulfilled doing what they did. It wasn’t always easy, but the fact that they loved what they did helped them withstand the pressures of business and life.
Another recently published book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, by fellow Liverpudlian Ken Robinson, addresses this issue. He claims that people are truly ‘in their element’ when they’re working at the intersection of their passion and natural gifting. For entrepreneurs, I would add a third important component: a product or service that people want and can afford to buy.
Incorporating these three elements can be key to success. It’s also important to define exactly what ‘success’ means to you.
Key #2
Un-Stress—De-stress for long-term success
Stress is part of life and, though there is harmful stress, it’s not all bad. Owning and running a business is stressful at times—after all, the buck stops with you. If you’ve come from the corporate world of regular paychecks and support systems to help you get your job done, entrepreneurship can be doubly stressful.
Certainly, keeping a clear vision of your life and your future and following realistic, clearly defined goals to get there will not only help to keep you focused but will ease this stress.
It can be helpful to determine what triggers stress for you, then take a look inside and find out where each stressor came from. Ask yourself, “Where and when did this start?” Identifying and being aware of what causes our stress is sometimes all we need to stop falling into the same traps again.
Click here to check out some effective stress-busting tips. Laughter is also good medicine for stress.
Key #3
kNow what you really want in Life—Clarify your vision and purpose
Like the account of Alice in Alice in Wonderland, many of us haven’t taken time to clearly define what we want and where we want to take our lives and businesses. Walking along, Alice comes to a fork in the road. The Cheshire Cat is sitting there, and Alice asks him which way she should go. The cat logically asks Alice where she wants to end up, to which she replies, “I don’t much care where as long as it’s somewhere.” “Then,” says the Cat, “It doesn’t matter which way you walk.” This seems absurd, yet it’s easy for entrepreneurs to become absorbed in the daily chores of running the business and become like Alice.
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