As you are deciding the type of business you want to start, one of the crucial things to think about, in my opinion, are the good things in life, and how will this business help you achieve the things that make your life good for you?
Why create a business that will consume all your time. What would that do to your friendships or your family?
At the start, it might take a huge amount of time to get things off the ground, but that should not be the average. Grinding in your business for a few months is a lot different than ten years.
In some circles, this is called lifestyle design. Lifestyle design holds that you are in complete control of your own life and choices.
Most people don't start off thinking about actually constructing their life intentionally. Instead, they roll with the punches and let life happen to them.
That is not your fate.
You are part of the Choose Success community.
Choose Success people step out from the crowd and plan for their lives. Just like you.
You have a definite purpose. So you make plans for your purpose and activity pursue your dreams every day.
You want to enjoy all the things life has to offer you. Therefore, you have to design your business to support your lifestyle, not the other way around.
Understand the consequences of not designing your life.
If you do not design your life you will not:
So if you genuinely want to create a lifestyle that matches your business plan precisely, you need to know the kind of lifestyle you want first.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself about the lifestyle of your dreams.
Why are you here?
This question is really about what your purpose in life is to you? It should align with your definite purpose and core values. It can help you to create a mission statement. Your purpose should spell out what matters to you in life.
What do you want to achieve?
Many people have found it helpful to write their obituary to answer this question. What do you hope you have accomplished if you die at the ripe old age of 120? Spell it out as if it happened.
What energizes and animates you?
Starting and growing a business will take a lot of energy. Therefore, it is best to know how you can recharge your batteries.
What do you love to do most?
Can you name one thing you love to do the most out of anything else. Don't think about money making things when you answer. Think about what makes you feel happy. When you exude joy, it's obvious you like what you're doing.
Where will you do it?
When you think about doing what makes you most happy, where do you want to be when you do it?
Who will you do it with?
Life can get very lonely if you don't build the structures to meet your social needs.
What impact do you hope to make?
Ultimately, what impact do you hope to have on your world doing this thing you want to do? What impact will it have on you, your family, your friends, your customers, and the world at large? This is vital information for you to figure out.
It would be best if you create your ideal lifestyle and life on paper just like your business plan.
Creating the ideal business is to provide service to your clients and develop the best lifestyle for you.
A lifestyle that the nine to five grind can never support for you.
It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busyness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall. Stephen R. Covey
Keeping your designed lifestyle in front of you can be a challenge.
One of the ways is to create a vision board with aspects of your ideal life.
The pictures remind you of what you're working toward.
Another way is to have pictures of your loved ones around to remind you of why you are building your business.
Knowing what success looks like to you will be a lot easier to experience some of it every day instead of some distant time in the future.
Remember to develop a business around you, not the other way around.
A successful business without a successful personal life is like settling for a participation trophy.
It looks good at a distance, but when people get close enough to examine it they see it is skin deep.
Don't settle for that.
Take the time to develop a lifestyle you want. Don't compromise.
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