You Know How to Grow a Business. What Do You Actually Want From Life?
You can know how to grow a business and still be unclear about what you want next.
You have goals. You have opportunities. You can probably name three things you should be doing to grow your business. But when you ask what you actually want your life to look and feel like, the answer may be harder to find.
Maybe you want a bigger business, more freedom, deeper relationships, a stronger body, and more adventure. You can feel the possibility of a fuller life, even if you haven't put words around it yet.
Your ambition belongs in that picture. So do the people you love, the experiences you want to have, and the person you want to become.
A personal vision gives your ambition a direction you actually choose. You get clear about what you're building and the life you want to experience along the way.
Get honest about what you want
It's easy to inherit a definition of success. You see what other business owners are building, hear what someone says your next move should be, and start pursuing a goal before asking whether you want the life that comes with it.
You might genuinely want to double your revenue. Great. Get really clear about what that growth would make possible and how you want to experience it. What would your role become? What would change in your days? What would that success allow you to create, enjoy, or contribute?
Self-awareness starts with questions like these. Notice what excites you, what matters to you, and where you've been letting expectations make your decisions.
If you've been wondering how to get clear on what you want, begin there. Give yourself room to answer honestly before deciding how you'll make it happen.
Let yourself dream beyond the business
Take a few minutes and imagine a day in the life you want to create.
Where do you wake up? How do you feel in your body? Who do you spend time with? What work are you doing? What are you looking forward to when the workday ends?
Pay attention to the parts that move you. Maybe it's building a company that makes a bigger impact. Maybe it's laughing with your partner over breakfast, hiking somewhere you've never been, or having the energy to enjoy the life you're working to create.
The dream gives you an emotional connection to what's possible. A written vision turns that possibility into direction.
Write a vision for your whole life
Open a blank page and describe what you want over the next few years. Let your personal vision statement include the whole person living the life:
Business and wealth: What do you want to build, earn, own, and contribute? What role do you want to play in your business?
Relationships: What kind of connection do you want with your partner, family, and friends? How do you want to show up with them?
Health: What do you want your strength, energy, and daily habits to make possible?
Freedom and adventure: How do you want to spend your time? What do you want to experience, explore, and learn?
Include both the circumstances and how you want to feel within them. Make it specific enough to guide a decision. If you want more freedom, describe an ordinary week with that freedom in it.
Read what you've written. Does it excite you? Does it sound like your life? Keep working with it until you recognize yourself in the picture.
Move from I have to toward I get to
Listen to the way you talk about your goals.
“I have to keep growing.” “I have to make more money.” “I have to keep everyone happy.” Those statements can become so familiar that you stop noticing how much of your life feels like an obligation.
A vision brings choice back into the conversation. “I get to grow this business because I want to create something meaningful.” “I get to have this difficult conversation because I want a deeper relationship.” “I get to train because I want the strength to enjoy my adventures.”
The responsibility may still be demanding, and the conversation may still be uncomfortable. Your vision reminds you what you're choosing and why it matters. You get to decide whether you're willing to move through that discomfort to create what you want.
Use your vision to start playing offense
Playing defense means organizing your choices around preventing what you don't want. Playing offense means intentionally creating what you do want.
Your written vision helps you stay on target when an opportunity, someone else's opinion, or your own discomfort pulls you in another direction.
Choose one action this week that moves you toward it. Schedule the conversation. Take the first step toward the new offer. Put the adventure on the calendar. Protect time for the relationship you said matters.
You may feel uncertain when you do something unfamiliar. Courage grows through your willingness to take a meaningful step while that uncertainty is still there. Then you learn, adjust, and take another.
Get support for the life you want to create
This is the work I do with entrepreneurs at Inner Wealth Global. We get clear about what you genuinely want and keep bringing your choices and actions back to that vision.
Private coaching gives you a deep, trusted, nonjudgmental one-on-one relationship for that work. The Inner Wealth Mastermind brings coaching, honest conversations, and a community of entrepreneurs growing alongside you.
If you're ready to get clear about your next chapter, let's have a conversation about the life you want to create.
Image by Paul Henri Degrande from Pixabay