Do What You Like and Be Happy

I want to share with you today why creating our Business Vision: and why framing it around what matters most to you and makes YOU HAPPY is critical to the success of your business.

Sometimes the most obvious is hidden fro us. So many small business owners are running a business that makes them unhappy and can’t figure out why their business is not profitable or fun.. They just do not see it, but when I come in as an outside business consultant and business coach it is totally obvious. They are doing something they in their heart do not want to do, and wondering why it is not working. We cannot do successfully what we do not like or are just not good at. To be successful we must do something we have a passion for and are good at and enjoy.

Did you know that doing what you love and doing a lot of it is the biggest secret to happiness? Bestselling author and researcher Marcus Buckingham showed that women’s happiness has plummeted over the last forty years—the exact opposite of men. He immersed himself to figuring out what made the happiest women happy. He found that the happiest women tended to focus and work only in the select areas where they excelled in and enjoyed. Happy women worked intrinsically. If a woman loved running marathons or doing yoga, she didn’t waste her time on home decorating or cooking. If she enjoyed studying rocket-science, she didn’t focus on entertaining friends. If she liked doing certain things and was good at them she started a business that allowed her to do more of it. Happy women worked at what they liked. Unhappy women worked extrinsically at what they thought their parents or society thought they should like.

Intrinsic Motivation means a person chooses a behavior simply because of interest or enjoyment. The act of doing the behavior is itself the reward. One researcher defined intrinsic motivation in terms of what people will do without external inducement. When you do behaviors because of intrinsic motivation, you feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement. For me that would be why I write, research, exercise, and shoot photographs.

Extrinsic Motivation means you do something because of factors outside yourself. For instance, you want your parent’s approval, a trophy, or a treat. Or perhaps you want to avoid the disapproval of others. The reason for the behavior comes not from the love of the activity, but from the reward that follows the activity. Being intrinsically motivated equates with maturity, and having a strong sense of self. No longer are you doing a behavior for the crowd’s applause, a parent’s approval, or society’s trophies. You are doing something because it brings you great joy.

Doing what you like is obvious, but so many of us do not do it. We follow an extrinsic path and become unhappy and have businesses that fail. Follow the intrinsic path…do what YOU like and what YOU are good at and you will build a world class business and succeed.

The author Steve Monahan is Founder and CEO of 6 SIGMA MATRIX.com where they help business owners become world class businesses leaders

Seven years ago I survived a terminal illness and was given a miraculous new chance at life. And with that the opportunity to step back and examine our purpose for being here. That self-examination led me to the revelation that the highest good we can do while here is aspire to our highest potential, live each day with passion and show kindness to all we meet.

Steve is a business leadership expert, 6 Sigma and Matrix Management expert and founder of five successful businesses. He is currently Board Chairman of Green Pets America Charities, and a prior Corporate Executive with 25 years of leadership experience at GE Capital, ITT and Deutsche Bank.