Read This If You Think You Should Follow Your Heart

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At some point, you were probably told "follow your heart and the money will follow."

Please take a second to file this under "well-intentioned, bad advice."

Just because you love making scrabble jewelry doesn't mean it's something that can earn you a living making.

It's not your fault. It's not the scrabble jewelry's fault.

What we're talking about is a Venn Diagram (yes, another one).

You're looking for the overlap in "stuff that makes money" with "stuff that makes an impact in the world" with "stuff I enjoy."

You might not get all of them right away, and that's okay.

You just have to get them in the right order.

Here are some definitions of different overlapping zones of this imaginary Venn Diagram that may help you in your exploration of this:

A Hobby.

A hobby is something that costs money. It's generally something you love to do and something you want to get better at. It may not have any market value, but it probably has some intrinsic value to you because it feels good when you do it. This is something that might only be in the "stuff that you enjoy" category.

A Job.

A job is something you do to make money. It could be something you know, something you do, or some combination of those two. Either way, the idea is that by trading your time doing a job, you get a predictable income, which is generally regarded as a pretty sweet gig. This might only be in the "stuff that makes money" category. If you look hard, you might find one that overlaps in all 3 categories.

An Enterprise.

An enterprise is a totally separate entity. It's bigger than a person or a job. It contributes profit in excess of the work/job transaction. It's one of those "more than just the sum of the parts" kind of things. It's usually a bunch of relationships and work all pooled together for a common vision. By doing this, the enterprise creates more profit than any individual or job could have on its own. This is really hard and you need a lot of things to go right for this to spin up and become sustainable. Some of those things are in your control and some of them aren't. Either way, this might not be in any category, and it might be in all 3.

So, what did we learn today?

There's a chronological order to this:

1. Start with something that makes money.
2. Then find something that makes money and also makes an impact.
3. Then find something that makes money, makes an impact, and is something you enjoy.

We also learned that these things don't even align neatly with hobbies, jobs, or enterprises!

The point I'm making here is that while "follow your heart" is a strategy for gaining fulfillment, it might not be an adequate strategy for creating a life.

So, perhaps, better advice might be:

Follow your heart, but follow your brain, too.

2 Minute Action:

Do you have a hobby, job, or enterprise?

Then realize that no job, hobby, or enterprise in the world is going to make you happy.

That's on you.

So, now what does "follow your heart" mean to you?

Let that sink in for 2 minutes and let me know what you come up with.

Taking 2 minutes to define this is going to increase your chance of making it happen.

This Is Your Business

I post this every year because it's important.

I don't really see a future where I'm not thinking about it.

When you're all finished with Christmas movies and presents and throwing away all that wrapping paper, and when you finally go back to work after the holidays . . .

Remember why you're working on anything at all.

Here's an excerpt from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol that reminds me why I'm working so hard:

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Business!"

"Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

It held up its chain at arm's length, as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the ground again.

"At this time of the rolling year," the spectre said "I suffer most. "Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!'

Thanks for reading.

I hope you had a rejuvenating and reflective holiday.

With self-reflection, focus, and empathy, we can help others and live a life of purpose and fulfillment.

We're all counting on you.

Why You Should Ask Yourself This Question 5 Times

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It turns out, there's a quick and effective technique that experts use to solve problems. What's great about this technique is that it works for business problems just as well as it works for personal problems. It's a simple question but you have to ask yourself this question 5 times.

Ask yourself this question 5 times:

1. Why are you doing all of this work?
2. Why is that?
3. And so why would that be?
4. Why might you think that?
5. Why again?

Seems ridiculous to ask yourself "why?" five times, but understanding the WHY behind your work is important.

This is the fastest way to move from surface curiosity to a root cause of a problem. This technique is well known in productivity circles like SixSigma.

One of the things I love about this is that it requires no math and it will help you call out the relationships between the problems you face.

It will also support your motivation, a constant daily battle for each of us. Here's a post I wrote about using the 5 Whys to solve business problems with a few extra tricks thrown in.

Sure, you don't need a great "why" to make money or do the things you want, but you do need a strong "why" if you want to live a life of social impact and purpose.

Audit your "why" and you will increase the chances of living a regret-free, purpose-driven life.

Audit your "why" in other areas of your work and life and you will get down to the real issue you need to address.

2 Minute Action

Ask yourself "why" 5 times.

You might be surprised at what you find.

If you have trouble doing this by yourself, enlist a friend to help push you.

No excuses.