We want to love our business, but we don’t. It seems like it takes everything from us. Our money, our time, our freedom – our LIFE!
We want to love our business because it’s a part of us. But it’s hard because we feel stressed, frustrated, overwhelmed, and exhausted.
We want to love our business because we built it from nothing to something! But every day we’re confronted with problems. Problems with money, staff, clients, the market. The list goes on.
We want to love our business because we don’t want to give up. But it’s getting almost impossible to keep going (pivoting, showing up).
We want to love our business because we never want to work for someone else. But we can’t see our way out of the situation we’re in right now.
Do you see yourself in any of these statements? All of them described me at one point.
But then I learned something that changed everything.
Love isn’t created by external circumstances.
The money in our account, our team’s performance, our client’s behavior – none of it determines whether we love your business.
Love is an inside job.
We create the feeling and experience of love for ourselves.
This is the opposite of what we’re taught growing up – that we feel it or we don’t depending on the situation. In reality, love is a feeling we create with our thoughts. Yes, there are circumstances that make it easier to think loving thoughts. But we can still choose love even when it’s difficult.
What does it mean to love our business? It means wanting our business, appreciating it, and feeling connected to it.
Our business doesn’t have to be perfect for us to love it, just like our spouse or child doesn’t have to be perfect for us to love them. We can treat our relationship with our business like we would any other important relationship – prioritize it, nurture it, and look for the good.
Over time, most business owners stop looking for the good and focus instead on what’s wrong because it represents risk. The more we look for what’s going wrong, the more we see it. It’s the same in a marriage, or with a parent child-relationship. To override this, we must decide on purpose to love our business again.
I’m not suggesting we become Pollyannas, and ignore the problems. Or pretend everything is great when it’s not. The loving thoughts we think about our business have to be believable. We can start by asking our brain to look for all the ways the business is working for us right now and give it some time to answer. We will start to find evidence.
The purpose of consciously choosing to love our business isn’t simply to feel good (although it does!). Choosing love generates excitement, enthusiasm, and energy. It makes the actions we take to achieve our goals feel almost effortless. Or even if they require effort, it’s a fun effort.
Contrast this with feeling resentful or depleted. Taking action becomes harder. We rely on willpower and grit to keep going. We burn out.
Resenting your business costs you time, money, and freedom.
Loving your business is the solution.