This may come as a bit of a shock, but building a business is a creative act.
I grew up thinking "business" meant serious, corporate, life-numbing overwork. It meant MBAs, resumes, suits and cubicles. Blech. But now I'm running my own business I see that it can be... well, it can be whatever I can envision it to be. And it can be a lot of fun.
What's the creative part? So much of it, really. What's your business about? What's its name, its personality, its colours? Imagine where you'll be in 10 years. Imagine your ideal client. Create a webpage, a business card, a logo, an article. Get an idea and ask yourself 'How?' You play, you plan and then you take a risk and see what happens You start with nothing and based on your own vision and efforts something comes to life - creativity!
There's a real movement towards authenticity and fulfillment in all aspects of our lives, including work and business. Tara Joyce has written about the new phenomenon of the innerpreneur, someone who has "realized their purpose/life work and has started a business to pursue it." Jenn has created the Right-Brain Business Plan. People like Molly Gordon talk about authentically developing and promoting your work. New models of how to do business are showing up everywhere.
I'm currently working through The Joyful Business Guide by Laura Howard West. I'm going to share with you an exercise I'm doing this week that you might find fun and interesting too. It doesn't just apply to business. You can do this for any project or for time period.
Exercise:
Decide on 3 feelings/emotions that you'd most like to experience while you develop your project/business/month. Then start collecting synchronicities, taking note of anything that crosses your path that reflects these "infusion qualities" as Laura calls them.
Of course, I had to break the rules and come up with 5. These are the 5 energies that I would like to experience as I develop my business:
- Sacredness
- Creativity
- Beauty
- Confidence
- Prosperity
My childhood "MBA" view of business sure didn't involve sacredness. But my Jamie Ridler Studios vision of business sure does!
I'll be collecting signs of these and share them with you next week. If you decide to try this too, let me know. I'd love to hear what you experience.
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7 comments:
The beauty of business is that it can be anything that you want it to be. It can look a certain way. It can feel a certain way. It doesn't have to fit into a mold.
Thanks so much for the shout out on your blog for the Joyful Business Guide! I LOVE the Infusion Words! It's one of my favorite parts.
I also create them for special projects. I'm launching a new year long program and it's a big one for me to step into and launch. My words specially for this launch are "Magical, Playful and Collaborative"...ah, I breathe a sign of contentment everytime I see my words on my wall board!
Thanks again!
En-JOY!
Laura
oh my gosh, it is such a creative act :) yes!!
I am going to sit down and use this as an exercise to see what I want out of all that I am doing in November - I think that this is the perfect grounding exercise to get me ready for next week!!!
Thank you!
xo
Jamie, you are a constant source of inspiration, more to add to my reading list! Thank you for sharing. We will, one by one, change the context of the world of business I am so thrilled to be a part of the beautiful effort we are all embarking on to create the foundation for the creative world of work that will come after us!
I'm back with my three. Fluidity, Discovery and Joy.
I'm going to collect signs of these too!
Hi Jamie, I'm behind in visiting blogs. Thanks so much for the mention here. You know I'm soooo in alignment with our businesses being a creative act. It's such an expression of our values, vision and voice! And love that you're sharing your learnings from the Joyful Business Guide. I had seen that awhile back and was curious about it. So, it's nice to get a peek into the process through your experience. Thanks for always being an inspiration.
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