5 Things To Ask If You Want To Bring Joy Into Your Business
Did you lose the last of your joy meeting deadlines in that pre-Christmas craziness? Maybe you’re working in a 9-5 and want 2019 to be the year you finally make the leap to work for yourself? Maybe you have an embryonic idea and are still unsure how to give yourself the time and space to explore it? I believe everyone deserves to have joy in their business.
Whatever stage of business you are at, asking yourself these questions is going to help you figure out what a joyful business looks like to you so you can start to bridge the gap from where you are now to where you want to be.
There is always room for more joy in our creative business! Sometimes we get so busy that we fall a bit out of love with what we are doing in our creative business.
Working for and not on our business is one of the most common business traps there is. Don’t fall down that hole! A third of our time on this planet is spent working so we’ve got to make it cool AF!
1. What is the best-case scenario for me this year?
My theme for this year: To be prepared for the best-case scenario and my mission is to help you be too. Imagine you’re going to have the best year of your (creative) life. What does it look like? Close your eyes and vision it out.
Maybe that’s to take the leap and start your own creative business or blog. Maybe it’s to start working with some cool brands that you love? Or perhaps you want to write a book or launch a podcast or pivot your blog or business.
2. What’s my joy-o-meter right now?
OK, now you need to think about what percentage of your working time you are feeling all the joy feels, and what are you doing when you feel them? Maybe you’re a designer who loves the thrill of getting a new brief, but you spend so much time making amends so you need to rethink your process for that. Maybe you’re a branding expert and you have a big idea to add value into your business so it’s not just about your time or money and you need to carve out a few hours a week to explore it.
Ask yourself how joyful you are. I think we should be aiming for at least 80% joy in our work, how does yours rank compared to that?
3. Name three things that don’t bring joy into your life? Write a plan to reduce or eliminate them!
Maybe you’ve got an energy-sapping client, or maybe there’s element of what you do that you just don’t feel. Are you a great interior stylist who cannot keep up with your social media and you know it’s holding you back? Or are you a food stylist that finds it really hard to write and you need some help with that? Maybe you can do an online course or a workshop with a writer or coach you admire?
4. Am I achieving or progressing towards my why?
Are you clear on your purpose? The reason behind what you do? Are you working towards running a lifestyle business from anywhere in the world?
For me my why is centre stage. It’s to have mad, family travel adventures as often as possible. Like the time when we decided to spontaneously have a date day in our campervan after the school drop-off and headed up to the Costa Brava where we had the beach all to ourselves (and got stuck in the mud too but that’s another story!)
I can work from anywhere I like, I just need my laptop and a microphone. I’ve worked out of Croatian campsite bars, in car parks literally all over Europe and got up at sunrise to work while watching the sunrise of countless lakes and oceans.
If you need some help figuring out your why, head over to read my blog post 5 Steps To Defining Your Creative Purpose where you can also access a free workbook, Finding Your North Star.
5. How can I make the juggle between my creative life and my life more joyful?
This is a big one for me. We need to have boundaries and we need to have me-time, time for self-care and having fun in our lives. Ask yourself what boundaries you can put in place to make time? For me, that looks like finishing at 3pm so I can be with my kids after school, even if it means I get less done. Maybe you’re working full-time and have a side-project and you’re wondering how to keep both going? Ask what is going to bring you the most joy and how can you grow it to be a full-time business?
Maybe you’re so busy working on your business that you aren’t getting as fit as you’d like or it’s stopping you learning new skills. Play around with your schedule, look at your working week and see what you can cut back on and replace with more joyful activities.
If you are looking for a few more ideas around building a more joyful creative business you can check out my episode 1 of my podcast, The Happy Creative, where I’m talking all things joy.
I am so excited to hear how you go, what your joy-o-meter is right now and what you plan to do about it? Tell me in the comments, tag me on Instagram (@ruthie_hoskins) or use the #TheHappyCreative to show me. I can’t wait to see (and share) your work.
Big love,
Ruth
