How to Add More Joy to Your Business
When we enjoy our business or what we do, it’s amazing, right? We’re in the flow, time flies, and we feel extremely satisfied by the end of the day.
But what if this feeling is gone?
You would love to reignite the joy you used to experience with your business. Or you know everything is energy, and you’d like to have more positive days in your business or career.
At the moment, my business is bookkeeping. Some would call it a job, but I prefer to call it my business now. I have clients whom I invoice, and I’m responsible for paying my taxes (nobody deducts anything from my earnings), and I like it this way.
As I wrote in A Tiny Book of Joy, bookkeeping was always something I earned good money with. I tried many things, and bookkeeping always came to rescue me after another business adventure. However, I was very resistant to bookkeeping. I could even say… I hated it. Until one day, I realised that all I wanted was to write. Bookkeeping turned out to be a great business to have while I write. It also gave me the location independence that I had since 2015.
You can imagine that bookkeeping is not always exciting. I understand some love accounting or bookkeeping naturally. I’m not one of them. I learned to enjoy my business.
The first step is understanding what good your business or a job brings you.
For me, it’s a stable income, and as a result, I can save, invest, pay for my expenses, travel and buy things I want. That already feels good, right?
Then, look at what areas you do like.
No matter what business or profession you’re in, there are aspects that you like more than others. For me, I love it when I’ve done a bank reconciliation — allocated all expenses to the appropriate accounts and matched all incoming payments to the invoices. I LOVED it. The feeling is like you just decluttered your whole house. Seriously.
There is always a repetition of some tasks. Some people thrive on repetition; others get bored.
I always remember that even actors whose job seems so exciting repeat the same scene sometimes a dozen times. They still get make-up and hair done every time they go on stage or in front of the camera. Sometimes, actors spend hours waiting while the crew arranges or rearranges the equipment, and then they have to get up and give their best performance.
So, how can you approach the tasks that you need to repeat in the most efficient and pleasant way?
One of the tasks I have is entering hundreds of invoices. I usually put my phone down (on silent without vibration) and just go for it. I have tea or water next to me. Sometimes I light a candle. I punch in the numbers while a candle is burning, and it smells incredible.
Counting your wins is another way to add joy and satisfaction to your business and life.
Small wins, big wins, everything counts. Every day after you finish work write down 3 wins. Any. For example:
WIN 1: I sent all invoices to private clients
WIN 2: I got the payment for that difficult invoice from a one-off client
WIN 3: I finished at 5 pm.
Highlighting your wins will also add confidence in what you do.
Of course, if you hate your business or your job, it’s time to close your business or change your job. We spend a lot of time at our jobs or in our businesses. There is no point in spending all this time on something you feel repugnant about.
I hope you’ll find more joy in your business. In my book A Tiny Book of Joy, I wrote about adding joy and creativity to your everyday life.
Learn how to define your version of success as your first step towards more joy and creativity from the first chapter of A Tiny Book of Joy, which you can download here as a gift.
Olya
“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”
~ Maya Angelou