The Goal is Fun

I met a woman a few weeks ago who runs her own company. She places disabled people into jobs. Clearly, her "work" helps multiple people. She finds jobs for people who really need work and often times have trouble finding them. She fills positions for companies who have openings and open minds. Win-win. I asked her what she liked best about owning her own company. Her immediate answer was, "I am happy every day. I wake up and can't wait to start my day, I'm just happy". I chuckled when she said that because I could relate to her "happiness". When I left my corporate job last year there were many aspects of my life to take into consideration. The number one priority for me was my personal happiness. When I first made the change folks often commented on how relaxed and happy I looked. Although I was glad for the positive feedback, I wondered did I look stressed and unhappy before? I probably did. Surprisingly, no one ever commented on it while I was in it. Perhaps because we all were in the same boat.

Today when I read the following article on the HBR blog it really rang true to me.



While the article outlines 4 "buckets" that make up your "work life", my partner and I follow the two-bucket rule. When we are considering anything in our lives we ask ourselves (not each other), does the event/decision/task we're considering fit into one of two buckets. The two buckets are: does it make you happy? and does it help your business if any way? If it doesn't fall into either bucket the answer needs to be no. Simply no. No excuses.

This simple method makes otherwise seemingly complicated decisions much easier. You also have to consider that sometimes your decision may change as time goes on. What makes you happy today, or could possibly grow your business today will change so you need to be receptive to that fact and willing to sometime change your decisions.

But at the end of the day the most important thing is to enjoy whatever it is you're doing and be happy. Life is simply to darn short to do anything else.