If you've made a choice to get paid for doing work you love, you might have figured some of this out already. Not only is entrepreneurship a choice, but it is also a series of decisions.

And it's an epic journey of personal development too.

I'd like to share with you why I feel personal development and holistic approaches to business building are essential for your happiness 🥰 and consistent income.

Furthermore, if you're a service-based help-y kind of entrepreneur like me, I think you'll find this particularly useful.

Start with what feels easy

I'm good at some things and not so good at others. In fact, I love to write but have some pretty epic learning disabilities that involve reading and writing. So writing is something I love, but it's really time-consuming, and I can't say it's easy for me.

More than that, I also enjoy some things more than others.

Then there are the things you don't want me to do for you - like remember where the car is parked or take care of your bookkeeping.

I bet you're the same.

And aren't you happier when you're not hammering away at things you find painful?

If I have to focus most of my time on the things I know I'm not very good at, it stresses me out. Furthermore, I can end up feeling inadequate when I don't get an opportunity to spend time doing things that let me shine.

Make sense so far?

Align your work with your strengths & core values

How often do you think about your core values? If you’ve never thought about your values beyond the idea of them, it’s worth while pulling out a journal and exploring this more. And I’d suggest that you do this regularly. What you value can change as you move through life stages. There are many things you can do to stay focused on what you need to be your best self in life. Understanding your core values and aligning your life (and work) is a very good start. This will help you focus on the right things for you and your business.

Some of my values include freedom and deep connections with others. And a few of my strengths are innovation, creativity, listening skills and empathy.

I highly recommend doing as many “personality tests” & skills tests as you can get your hands on.

Not because I think they are the ultimate truth, but because they are tools that can help you know and validate your own thoughts about yourself. Skills and personality tests can help us understand the truth of who and how we are. You either agree with results or disagree and when you ask yourself why, your answers are invaluable.

Knowing your core values and strengths will help you create a business that serves you in every way. You will be less stressed, and learn how to create an income on your terms, based on what you need to be your best self.

Be prepared for setbacks

Business building takes time, setbacks are real but don’t mean you are failing at entrepreneurship.

Numerous articles online report that 50% of companies fail within the first 5-years. We don't know how many people end up creating something they enjoy doing. Since this percentage continues to go up, I suspect that happiness is not in massive supply for many business owners.

Being the master "chooser" of all things j-o-b does take a lot of work.

Entrepreneurs can find themselves underpaid and chronically stressed about money. You might have clients that aren’t aligned with who you are and how you work and you might spend most of the time doing things that don’t fall within your zone of natural skills and talents.

If you create a business that isn’t aligned with who you are and how you are in this world, you can expect a lot of unhappiness, stress, analysis paralysis, impostor syndrome and complete burn-out.

And usually when we pay more attention to what others are doing online for business, we’ve lost sight of what we should be doing.

What someone else is doing really has nothing to do with you 🥰.

You and I need different things

What works for one entrepreneur may not work for another simply because we are all different. Understanding what you need for success is crucial. This is why we shouldn’t try to mimic what we see others doing online for their businesses. That’s not where we should start our decision making process.

"Needs" are the essential, non-negotiable things you must have to be your best self, the these are the foundations that keep you happy and healthy. Do you know what they are for you? Do you evaluate this regularly? One way to explore what you need for a job you love is to ask yourself a lot of questions.

Questions to ask yourself

Do I have the support I need?
- What kinds of support do I need?
- What do I need in my life to be my best self?
How do I work best?
When do I work best?
How much time off or “down-time” do I need?
How much income do I need to feel financially secure?
How much money do I need to have saved to support me until I make the income I need?

This list can go on but you get the idea.

Know yourself and keep learning

Understanding your core values, strengths and what you need for success will help you create your own job and get paid to do something you love.

But like many things in life this isn't easy for most people to do and that's why I'm here. We learned to go to school and then work for someone else. We didn't learn how to explore our natural strengths, align our lives with our personal values and understand how to honour our unique needs when we create work for ourselves.

A note about “doing what you love”

One of the most misleading pieces of advice given to potential entrepreneurs is to do what you love or find your passion and “just” do that. The idea is overly simplistic and leaves a lot to the imagination.

Please try to invite more of this into your life, but if you're going to create your own business and create a job you actually enjoy, just beware, this is a very strategic process and your passion might not make the best businesses - for you.

Seven things will help you get paid for work you love

Tune into your needs: Mind, Body & Spirit
Align your work with your core values
Leverage your natural gifts & strengths
Get support for what you can’t do or shouldn’t be focusing on
Learn business and marketing basics
Learn basic techie things
Let go of perfectionism
Practice essentialism

The Internet & the techie bits

The Internet and techie bits are powerful tools for all entrepreneurs because they can simplify your life, reduce income stress and help you align with your way of working.

Learning how to make your online presence work for you is essential ❤️

Technology shouldn't make anyone nervous or feel left out of today's techie online world. I know that you don't need to be super techie to take advantage of what the Internet has to offer small businesses. I also know from experience, that non-techies can learn skills they need for their businesses to thrive.

Bottom line is this; if you're creating your own work I think you should be able to earn an income on your terms and enjoy the work you create for yourself.

Otherwise, what’s the point? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Here’s to health, happiness and work you love 🍏😊👩🏻‍💻❤️.

How to get paid for work you love