💡 Business Tip - Seek Purpose for Happiness (Issue #17)

Fulfillment doesn't come from infinite leisure

Photo by Surface on Unsplash

A surprising number of people think happiness means never working again and "taking a vacation" for the rest of your life. I have several friends who dream of the day when they can fully retire.

Let me tell ya, that gets really boring, really fast.

Been there. Did that.

When I left my corporate job forever, almost 13 years ago, I took the entire summer off to vacation and spend time with my family. It was great, but I got the itch to start doing something meaningful again by the end.

I really didn’t want to go back to working for someone else. But, I did want to work on something that mattered. Something I believed in.

Fulfillment and joy come from spending your limited precious energy and remaining time in this world on what you choose, not what an employer decides for you.

• Creating something that matters.

• Working on something you believe in.

• Helping make the world a better place and leaving a legacy behind.

I worked as an employee for over 20 years. I had a bad habit of losing myself in my work. Yes, I did drink the company Kool-Aid a few too many times. Looking back and viewing those experiences as a psychologist, I think they happened for a couple of reasons:

• Working with insane intensity for long hours is a bit of a hazing ritual that weeds out people who aren’t committed enough to the company (e.g., “If you don’t like it here, leave!”).

• Cognitive dissonance occurs when you give up so much of your life, so you try to reduce that dissonance by believing what you are doing for the company must be really, really important.

However, I eventually burned out and realized that very little of the work I did for those companies mattered in the big scheme of things. Big surprise, trying to get more people to click more ads to make the company more money isn’t improving the world or people’s lives. Ugh.

So, part of me felt like I didn’t enjoy working anymore. Maybe I hated work. Maybe I just didn’t want to work hard on anything at all.

I was wrong.

I've discovered firsthand that life and work are so much better when you work on what matters to YOU. I learned that I actually enjoy working and keeping busy when I am working on something that matters! When I’m actually helping people. When I’m actually improving people’s lives.

I plan on working on some sort of project until the day I die. I just don't like giving the limited time left in my life to an employer who wastes it.

I've had enough of that. And, believe me, every employer wastes your time sooner or later. In small ways (e.g., pointless meetings), and often in huge ways (e.g., multi-year initiatives that suddenly get canceled).

Your life is too short and too valuable to let someone else waste it.

If you're tired of working for someone who wastes your time:

• It's time to plan your break for freedom.

• It’s time to plan a future of work with more purpose and meaning.

• It’s time to create your own business, do something amazing, and control your destiny.

Maybe not today.

Maybe not tomorrow.

But don't wait too long…

P.S. Would you be interested in an 8-week group coaching program to help you plan how to transition from being an employee to becoming a solopreneur? I’ve decided that a one-day workshop isn’t enough time to get you up and running. So, this program will have weekly private Zoom calls with the group to cover the specific topics that will take you from business ideas to your first paying customers.

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Hi, I’m Larry Cornett, a coach who can work with you 1-on-1 to design, launch, and optimize your business. I currently live in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with my wife and our Great Dane while running my businesses 100% remotely. We’re kinda snowed in right now. It’s been a crazy week of storms!