How to Put Purpose and Passion Into Your Small Business
Top 10 rules for creating passion and purpose in your work now.
Proverbs are very useful in life and one of my favorites has always been, “Do what you love and the money will come.” Problem is, it’s a lot easier said than done and I haven’t witnessed this in action very much in my life. In fact, what I have seen is quite the opposite.
Throughout my 20+ years in a recruiting and professional coaching career what has stood out for me is that most people want to be passionate about their work and, in fact, have known what they love since they were children, but are instead making a living in careers forged through a myriad of external circumstances that have little to do with what they love.
Most of us succumb to the wishes of our parents, society, culture, etc. We don’t really believe we can make a living doing what fills our hearts. I know I didn’t for a very long time. That is, until the pain of not doing something meaningful became greater than the fear of taking the biggest risk of my life so that I could experience love and joy again in my work.
The small business enterprise I started
The small business enterprise I started 15 years ago was founded on the vision that we could do our business with purpose and passion. And we do. But this takes courage and intention every minute of every day. We are successful, profitable and growing.
What we do changes lives and makes the world a better place. But the road here has not been traversed without pain. Well, I am here to tell you that, after all these years, I have learned that another infamous proverb “No pain, no gain,” is a lie.
Or at the very least, it doesn’t have to be true. I have come to understand that much of the source of the difficulties I have had as a business owner have had at their core a central belief that making a living doing what I love is hard. It is as hard, as difficult and as improbable as you believe it to be. Period.
To shift a belief – and that is what it will take – you have to start somewhere.
That somewhere is now, right here where you are in this moment.
My belief is that purpose and passion have nothing to do with circumstance.
For simplicity, let us say that to have purpose is to have meaningfulness. And that to have passion is to deeply love something.
If you want to deeply love your work and for it to have meaning, and if you want to be able to make a living with that work, you must not limit your possibilities. And you absolutely must not believe that it is hard to have this! You can start to shift your reality by creating deep love and meaning in whatever you are doing right now. By doing so you will elevate your personal game and begin to attract into your life more and more meaningful work.
There’s no limit to what you can create when you come from a place where you already have purpose and passion. That’s because “Like attracts like.”
Here are my top 10 rules for creating passion and purpose in your work now:
10. When you have a legitimate complaint.
Rather than allow it to fester, take it to the person that can do something about it. If that is not possible, choose to let it go. And then do!
9. Keep your ears and eyes open.
Be aware of all opportunities to take on projects that align with who you really are.
Next- Rules 3 through 10
