Do you have a big fluffy monster of a goal?
It’s so massive, it’s almost inconceivable, almost. Something fluffy, amorphous that might take you a lifetime to reach. The closer you get, the more massive it seems. Like a mountain on the horizon, it looks climbable, until you get up close and personal and can finally appreciate the sheer scale of the task ahead.
Can you hear that monster calling out to you? It’s time to stop and listen.
I’ve always believed that small businesses have the power to change the world, for the better.
We rarely start our businesses to get rich – many of us start our own because we have a passion. Something we deeply believe, something visceral, something we see is wrong in the world and we want to do our part to make a difference.
Most of us start our own business because we have a skill, a ‘gift’ if you like, to share with the world. Something you know you can do and you like doing it, so why not get paid for it?
Even if your work isn’t earth-shattering, you don’t have grand plans to change the world – just to change your world – that is still a purpose.
It can be in a small way, like helping people to find the courage, confidence and creativity to write, to tell our stories in our own words. To find freedom through enterprise.
Here’s the thing, even if your work only changes your little piece of the world, you can’t help but have an impact, to influence others around you.
This positive, productive, do-it-for-the-joy-of-it vibe will change the world if enough of us do it.
Listen to others, seek advice, get feedback but ultimately, this is your purpose. Your dream is not fulfilled by being a character in someone else’s story, you get to decide when it’s your business and your life.
Your Own Path to Purpose
It was while reading this blog, ‘What Should I Do With My Life?’ that set me thinking more deeply about what my vision for the future is. What my true purpose is.
I like the overall sentiment of this piece, although towards the end it gets a little too capitalistic for my liking.
Writing on my just-for-fun blog, if you took money out of the equation, what would you do with your time?
How would you spend your life?
What would your purpose be?
It may seem fanciful, vain, perhaps, to consider a life where you are not thinking about money (in my blog, for a year at least). However, giving yourself the freedom to daydream the possibilities helps you to realise what is really important to you.
So often in our businesses, we are caught up in the minutia of servicing our customers day to day. Worrying about that next job. Working out how you can afford that new equipment. Considering how much you can realistically do on your own and what do you outsource or employ someone to do?
Rarely do we stop to think, to take stock, to listen to our instincts.
We move along, step by step, small goal by small goal, forgetting what the big goal is. Feeding the small monsters at the expense of the big one!
Listen To Your Instincts
You can only control whether or not you will be successful to a certain point, the important thing is that you tried.
Success means different things to different people.
I reject the notion that success is measured in numbers on a bank statement.
When your purpose is to change lives, to change the world, to create a legacy, money is merely a lubricant to smooth the route ahead. It’s surprising how much you can achieve with very little capital.
A lack of funds forces you to be creative, to innovate and to dig deep within yourself to find new capacity, resilience and to learn new skills.
When your measures of success are your own personal growth and development, success comes along the journey, it’s no longer a financial destination.
Instant updates when I publish a new blog post, Follow me on Bloglovin’
For extra goodies and exclusive new information, join my mailing list HERE.
