Introduction
Welcome to the Coaching Hive podcast. I am thrilled that you’re here for today’s episode because today’s episode is near and dear to my heart in a way that I haven’t shared with you in the past.
This past week, my grandmother, who was almost 102 passed away. The thing that stands out the most about her life is that she always got asked, “What’s the secret? You look so young.” The answer was inevitably something about skincare, something about getting outside. And it wasn’t until this week as a family, as we were surrounding her in her last days, that we realized the answer to why she looked so young. Her skin was still beautiful. She was still walking up until the last week.
So how did that happen? How did she look so young? Act young? How was she able to do the things she was able to do?
The answer was happiness. My grandmother was happy in her life. That’s what I want to talk to you about today. It is what’s on my mind and what I hope for all of you.
And so today, we’re taking a little step back and talking about happiness. So, if you are ready, I want to invite you not to grab a notebook and a pen as usual, but instead, I invite you to go on a walk as you listen or to sit someplace calm and quiet so that you can do a little bit of reflection as we talk.
And if you’re ready, let’s get started.
Happiness
I tell you about my grandmother’s life, not to make you sad because that is the last thing that she or I would have wanted. She had an amazing life with an amazing love of life and happiness, and that really made me more than anything, stop and think that as entrepreneurs, we have a unique opportunity.
When you work in the corporate space, you sometimes have little control over what your job looks like, what your day-to-day tasks might be, or even when you can take time off. But as an entrepreneur, we can choose happiness and build happiness into our businesses.
And what a fantastic gift that is. So today, I invite you to think about a few different things. I will keep this short, so you have time to reflect.
What does happiness mean for you?
For my grandmother, it meant that she was highly engaged in her friend circle. She could always be found outside chatting with neighbors. She would host dinner parties. She was involved in community theater. She was a part of the community. For her, that was happiness. Happiness was being with her family, celebrating with them, and just being in the moment. So what does happiness mean for you, personally and professionally?
Because if we think about our lives, we spend a lot of time working. And as entrepreneurs, shouldn’t that be happy? I certainly think so.
What does it mean to be happy? Personally, in your life, where does your happiness come from and how does it look? From where does it derive? And then I want you to think about that in terms of your business.
What does happiness look like in your business?
What would happiness look like if you allowed it to creep in and slowly take over?
Because here’s the thing, happiness doesn’t just impact our health. But, of course, it affects our health. It allows our body to function better. It allows us to get better sleep. It allows us to have the energy to get out and move to connect with one another. We are social creatures.
Happiness allows us to take in the small moments and enjoy them, not just chase after the big moments that may leave us feeling empty moments later. We need to notice, reflect, and dance for joy in the small and medium moments.
Happiness benefits us by allowing us to take better care of ourselves.
When you are happy, you are more likely to work in flow with yourself, others, and your business. The concept of flow, from Csikszentmihalyi, is the idea that you’re in the moment. You don’t realize that time is passing because you are so engrossed in the task on which you’re working. It just flows, which is why we call it flow. Things flow.
When we’re happy, we’re going to be much more likely to experience flow, which is going to allow our business to catapult forward. We’re going to see a much more successful business when we are happy. And so we have to build in the moments into our business for happiness.
Does that mean that you take time out to write thank you notes to customers or clients? Does it mean that you are personally answering those emails instead of handing off all of them to your VA, your virtual assistant? Does it mean that sometimes you offer a discount just because it feels right? It feels like you want to, and it makes you happy.
It gives you that deep-seated satisfaction. What does happiness look like for you? The benefits are never-ending. So we know that there are health and well-being benefits on that personal side, but also when we are better able to take care of ourselves, when we are healthier, we are going to bring more to our business. And not in an overworking kind of sense,
but in a, we are super productive when we’re in our business, and then we can step away and allow our bodies to relax and rest and recover. We can spend time with family and friends without the constant worry of what our business is doing in the background. So happiness is important.
It’s important as an entrepreneur, and it is something that is infinitely more controllable as an entrepreneur than it is when you are in the corporate world,
because you have so much control. You have ultimate control over what you choose to do in your business or choose to let go. Now, that does not mean that happiness comes without its challenges. As an entrepreneur, is it hard to be happy? Sometimes? Yeah, of course. It’s hard to be happy in life. All you know, 100% of the time,
regardless of who you are, you have to work at it. But as an entrepreneur, when you find yourself saddled with tasks that are outside your wheelhouse or zone of genius, you might find yourself getting frustrated. You may dread the tasks and feel set apart from happiness. Happiness feels like it is in a box across the room and you can’t reach it.
Those challenges can be reframed as to opportunities to see how you can look at that task that you don’t enjoy and appreciate what it does for your business. So reframing those challenges, not making light of them. And there are always going to be some things in your business that you would prefer to avoid doing. That’s okay.
Where you can, reframing and recognizing how it contributes may alleviate some of that frustration, anger, disappointment, tiredness that can be associated with entrepreneurial tasks and bring you more happiness.
Because here’s the thing, at the end of the day when you’re happy, people notice, people notice you. The people notice what you’re offering and they say, “I want more. I want more of that. I want to work with that person more often.” Clients get that good feeling of working with you or buying your product or your service because you’re happy. And that exudes such a different energy than feeling frustrated in your business or frustrated in your life.
Action Item
I always give you some action items, and this week is no different. I’m still going to give you action items even though our topic is quite a bit different than normal.
This is such an important topic to keep in mind. It is something that we only sometimes talk about, but it is incredibly important. So in honor of this week’s action items I’d like you to think about and write down what happiness looks like in your life. What brings you happiness, what makes you have that sigh of joy in your life?
And if you are busy as an entrepreneur, and you probably are, perhaps you haven’t been paying attention to this recently. Go ahead and pull some things that you used to give you that feeling and put those down. You can pull them out of out of storage essentially, and put those down. Maybe you’ll go back to those. Please do that for your business too.
Then this week, be purposeful and looking for opportunities to be happy to bring happiness and joy into your life. We are heading into the holiday season for many people, and happiness can be challenging to find in the holiday season. I want you to be gentle with yourself. Feel all of the emotions that you have. Being happy doesn’t mean you don’t feel intense joy or intense sorrow. It’s okay to feel all of the all of the different emotions. In fact, that’s good. It’s healthy to experience a wide range of emotions and can lead to happiness because you are processing everything that’s happening in your life.
But this week, be intentional looking for those moments of happiness. Jot them down, keep track of them, and then when you need a little bit of a lift one day, look at this list. Notice what you can do. It could be taking a walk outside for five minutes that brought you some happiness. Perhaps it was curling up with a good book, not feeling any guilt about reading it for 30 or 45 minutes, or in my case, an hour and a half, which often happens. So that’s your action item for today.
Conclusion
As I said at the beginning, this episode is very different from our usual episodes. But, still, as I told you, it was weighing on my mind and was front and center as we had so many caregivers, helping us with my grandmother, always asking the same question, “How do you look so young?” “Why do you not look like you’re almost 102?” “What do you mean you’re still walking?” “What do you mean you’re not in a wheelchair?” “Wow, you still have so many stories to share.”
The trick wasn’t a skin cream. It was partly getting outside because she got outside every day that she could. But in big part, it was just truly loving life.
Now, if you do the math, you know that my grandmother grew up during the Great Depression. There often wasn’t enough to eat or enough of anything. And yet she grew up to enjoy life, to be happy in life, and to look for those moments of joy. And that’s what I wish for you this week.
Entrepreneur Resource Bundle
Now, if you have been following the Coaching Hive Podcast the last few weeks, I have been talking a little bit about how something important is coming up, and that is the Entrepreneur Resource Bundle. On November 14th, you are going to want to mark your calendars. I am going to be sharing with you some amazing offers from entrepreneurs around the world who have come together.
We are joining forces to help you build your business. We have all kinds of amazing opportunities to learn from these experts who have walked the path before you put November 14th on your calendar, because it is coming up very quickly, very soon, you are going to have access to some amazing opportunities to build, grow, and scale your business in a way that’s in alignment with you.
So starting on the 14th, Monday through Thursday, you are going to have access to grab these offers, free of charge, no cost. What could be better? I might have said Apple Pie last week, but okay, Apple Pie might be second. It’s a very close second. This Entrepreneur Resource Bundle is really going to benefit you.
It is going to bring you some needed momentum as we head into the end of the year and into a brand new year. So please take time to grab that bundle when it’s available, starting on November 14th. You will be able to get access to that if you follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or if you are signed up for the Coaching Hive newsletter.
If you’re thinking, I don’t know how to find you, head over to:
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/coachinghivelife
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/coachinghive
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/coachinghive
Drop me a message letting me know that you want access to this bundle, and I will be sure that I get you a link personally when it opens up on November 14th.
Final Thoughts
I hope that this episode has been helpful, that it has been a good reminder to slow down to make the most of each day that you have in your business and personally, to choose to find those moments of happiness, knowing that not only is it a benefit to your health and well-being, but it is also going to benefit your business as you grow and scale and create offers and products and services that your clients will love.
That’s all I have for you today. I trust our conversation has provided value as you continue to build your business. Think about what you want to keep as we end the new, as we end the year, and head into the new year and what you would like to let go. I look forward to seeing you back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast, where a focus on mentoring and community removes the overwhelm of building your successful and profitable business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week.
