How to find happiness with your business....

Possibly most people who decide to start their own small business do so because they want a lifestyle change. They want to do work they ENJOY…. And if they can make a little more money at it too, then that’s an extra bonus. But in their calculations to find something they enjoy, they often leave an important aspect out.

The usual approach to find something you enjoy is to first list the things you like to do…. Your hobbies, interests, and so on. Is there some way you can make money doing these things? That can be the FIRST step to finding how you can enjoy yourself….

But don’t neglect another important aspect of human nature. We humans often seem to be happiest when we are GROWING, when we are CHALLENGING ourselves, when we are LEARNING new things!

I’ve read about a recent study which showed that, for employees, even a few days of extra training a year on the job can increase employee job satisfaction significantly. The reason why this is, in my opinion, is because we always like to feel like we are growing as human beings, we are expanding our knowledge and skills. We don’t like to feel like we are stuck in a rut, going nowhere.

In fact, this is one of the main components of happiness. For many of us, to be truly content, you'd like to be continually learning new skills and knowledge. It is part of feeling like you are growing as a person, and it also helps to satisfy your innate curiosity.

So, if you want to be happy in your business, I suggest that you take this into account too…. How will you grow while you are doing it? Are there enough challenges there to keep you happy? Will you be learning about enough new things to keep you contented? Think about this issue too, since I believe it is an innate part of human nature to want to keep growing, and to not be stagnant or stuck in one place.

I’ve noticed that Bill Myers (a very successful product developer) says that he always tries to learn something new with every new product development project he undertakes. His reasoning is that, no matter how the project turns out, if he has learned something new, then he wins no matter what. However, I believe another factor is also at work here – and that is, work is also MUCH more satisfying if you are at the same time also learning some new skill or knowledge, or overcoming a brand new challenge.

I realize this may not characterize everyone…. We are all different. But I believe it does characterize a lot of people, and perhaps most people – I know it characterizes me. Yet it is something I left out of my plans for my business until recently, because I didn’t realize how important this can be.

Do you have enough challenges in your business…. Good challenges can keep what you are doing interesting and fun! What do you think?

- Dien Rice