Remembering the Real Reasons Why You Work
Yesterday I was meeting with a potential client. I asked him what he wanted to accomplish, not just for his firm, but for himself. He looked a little taken aback when I first asked the question, as if he had forgotten that there might be a reason – especially a personal reason.
Many of us forget that our businesses exist to feed the rest of our lives – not the other way around. What is it that you want from his life? What is the reason you’re working? What do you want to make money for? Is it to feed your family; to provide for your children’s education; to allow you to take vacations to places you’d like to see; to live in a certain place? Do you want to make money so you have the freedom to pursue your other interests? Do you want to build a reputation in the community or to volunteer your time for an organization or cause that is important to you?
Sometimes it helps to take a step back and remember that work, your firm, your practice, isn’t all there is to life – it’s a means to an end, not the end itself. Reminding yourself of the real reasons why you’re working and what it is that you’re working toward can be helpful in keeping you focused and motivated. It is those reasons that can keep you going when you just don’t feel like doing the day to day tasks that need to be done to keep the business moving forward.
As I suggested to a client today, sometimes it helps to keep visual prompts of the real ‘ends’ in your office or someplace where you can see them on a daily basis – a photo of your family, pictures of your dream house, souvenirs from your travels. When times get tough and we get discouraged, or we’re starting to get sucked in and feeling like the practice is running us instead of the other way around, these things can ‘ground’ us.
Having a visual trigger can help us make decisions and take action: if we’re really doing this to support our family, perhaps spending time with the family is more important than spending one more hour at the office. Perhaps the work can wait – it’s never going to be ‘all done’ anyway. It can remind us of what we look forward to, and maybe prompt us to actually schedule that vacation.
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What are you really working for?