I usually choose words for the year and by the end of January I’ve forgotten all about them.
But for 2018, I want to do it differently.
The words I want to live by this year pretty much hit me over the head in December. I had been having some really intense and super fruitful chats with a business buddy of mine about how I do business and it become really clear to me how I needed to do be in order to take my work onto a bigger stage.
So, I thought I’d share with you my three words and why I chose them (or they chose me!) and hopefully I’ll get you thinking about what words you might want to guide you in the year head too.
For me, 2018 is about three things. Commitment, discipline and fun. (I am the joy coach after all ;p)
COMMITMENT
I was sitting talking with that friend of mine and, as we always do, we were trying to understand how our patterns of behaviour were creating our reality and what we needed to tweak in our approach to life and business to get different results (man I love talking about that stuff!).
Anyhoo, a few years ago I did a personality profiling tool called Wealth Dynamics (you can do the ‘lite’ free test here), which helped me understand that I am a creative type, lots of ideas, good at starting and energising a project, not so good on the follow through (it gets boring and I lose my excitement cause it’s not ‘new’ anymore).
In business this means that I can do a thing, and then do another thing, and then do another thing, and not allow a new offering the time and attention it needs to grow and become established.
The other element in here is I don’t like to commit to something without knowing it’s going to work (ah, my inner control freak, I do love you LOL), but that’s just not possible when you work for yourself. You have to trust your gut, go with what your intuition says is right at the time, and commit to giving it your all for a certain amount of time and seeing how it works out.
And that’s what I’ve done with my latest venture, The Joy Jam Sessions, an in-person networking event for talented, conscious women in business. I started it last November, and have mentally committed to doing it for a year and then I’ll assess whether it’s a valuable service in my business or not. And if feels good to say that as I will have actually given it time to grow! (So far so good!!)
WHAT ABOUT YOU: what do you want to commit to giving a go in your business or life this year? Apparently it can take 90 days to see any kind of real result when you start something new, or start giving something your whole attention, effort and resources, so you don’t need to commit to a year like me but try for 3 months. Feel free to post in the comments below what you want to commit to – public accountability always helps!
DISCIPLINE (OR CONSISTENCY)
Once you’ve committed to a project or a thing, then you need to take the consistent action that will support you getting the outcome that you want. Again, I’ve not always been good at this as I either get bored, or lose heart when I don’t see ‘quick results’ (total Gen X trait right there.)
For me, with The Joy Jam Sessions, it’s all the practical stuff. Lining up speakers (excited that Helen Elizabeth Evans, the UK’s No. 1 Scientific Hand & Fingerprint Analyst is our next one, check it out here), booking the space, putting up the event pages, and most of all, spreading the world and raising awareness of what I’m doing. It’s the day-to-day, week-to-week stuff that is the consistency I need to make sure I give this project the best chance of success.
You could think about this is terms of relationships too – what are the consistent actions you need to take to ensure you stay connected and feeling the love in your relationships? Could be with your partner, kids, family members, friends or even colleagues.
WHAT ABOUT YOU: think of the previous question around what you want to commit to, then ask yourself, what are the consistent actions I need to take in order to get the desired outcomes I am looking for?
FUN
And the final word for the year is fun 🙂
Choosing what feels good and fun has been one of the core principle of running my business for awhile, but I want to make it even more central. I also want to push the boundaries of what it means to have fun in business and show that you can be productive, make progress and have fun while you’re at it – and that enjoying your business is actually a natural strategy for having success in your business on your terms.
I’ve had a lot of inspiration for how I can infuse this into what I offer those I’m here to serve and one of the most fun ideas I’ve had is offering experiences to people and doing them in groups other tribe members so you can connect, feel less alone on the journey, make great friends, have a laugh, get some support etc. (It’s still in incubation stage so watch this space.)
Funny thing about this idea though is I’ve been in total judgement of myself about it. “Isn’t that frivolous?” “Surely you can’t just offer something FUN – it’s gotta be something more than that”. And I guess I wanted to share these thoughts with you so that you can see that I’m not immune to those little buggers known as mind gremlins even though I’ve been on this path of joy for awhile. And sharing joy is my mission on this planet, but still I have to let go of my own judgments around that being seen as silly, foolish, a waste of time and no valuable!
Having lived this philosophy – putting joy at the centre of my life and business as much as possible – I know it works. I know it is incredibly valuable. I know it is a path to happiness and success and fulfilment. I know how much better my life is since I committed to this path. But still, those little buggers pop up from time to time. And I know they do for you to. So when they do – remind yourself of how good it feels to allow yourself to have fun and feel joy, and remember that the more relaxed, grounded and expanded you are, the more you can flow with life and see the opportunities around you.
So committing to even more FUN for 2018 is about having more fun in my business, injecting more fun into my business offerings, and having more fun experiences in my life!
WHAT ABOUT YOU : what does more fun in life and business look like to you? What do you want more of? Or perhaps the question is what do you need to let go of? (Difficult clients? Ways of working that don’t serve you? The idea you need to work all hours of the day to get ahead? The belief that it needs to be hard?)
OVER TO YOU
If reading this you feel like you’d love some help figuring out how to make your business more fun, so you can make more progress this year, let’s chat. I’ve got 3 spaces next week for a complimentary Momentum Creation Call, email me at hello@lynnhord.com if you can feel an hour with me talking joy, fun, and business is what you need 🙂
Love to hear in the comments below what your words for the year are, or let us know what you’re committing to for a bit of accountability, or shout out how you plan to make your business or work more fun 🙂
Can’t wait to hear your thoughts.
Here’s to a more joyful, fun, progress-filled 2018.
Lynn x