Duct Tape Marketing

There is a popular notion that suggests it is somehow healthier to create a clear separation between your business life and your personal life. That unless and until you can accomplish this separation, you will by some means become imprisoned by this thing you do to make a living.

Just look around and you will see that there is plenty of evidence to support this claim. It is not hard to find business owners whose businesses have sucked the life right out of them. This thing that they created to give them an opportunity for more freedom has done just the opposite and they now find that they experience little joy in the day to day eroding of what was once a bright shining vision.

But that’s just the way it is. That’s business. I mean that’s why you’ve got to leave your business and everything to do with it at the door every night before it takes over the rest of what you have, right?

Well, what if you began to think about what you do to make a living as what you do to make a life? What if this thing that consumes more of your time than anything else you will ever do in your life became a glorious way to express who you are?

See, it is entirely possible that the primary purpose of a business is to give you and the folks that work in your business more life, more freedom.

But, the missing ingredient here isn’t separation; it’s connection.

In order for your business to be a source of greater life, you must first understand what more life and more freedom really is to you. You need to discover what joy and happiness looks like to you and only you. You need to uncover your unique purpose – and you must connect that purpose to your business - for that is the soul of your business.

Everyone has a unique purpose in life but for so many it has become covered with layers and layers of doubt and fear. Can you remember what led you to start your business in the first place? Do you recall your favorite thing to do when you were, say, 10 years old? Your search to reconnect with what you want (or wanted) your life to be about is the most important search you will ever lead.

If you can uncover, connect, and hold a meaningful purpose for your life then the way in which your business communicates how it is different, the way you dream of making a difference in people’s lives, the way in which your business adds value to even one person’s experience is how you communicate, implement, and live your unique purpose through your business.

This connection of your life’s purpose through your business will then automatically let you begin to attract the clients and opportunities that you need to further enrich your life and live your purpose more deeply.

In your search to reignite the flame of purpose in your business, let me leave you with three questions.

Answer these three questions honestly and you will begin the journey to the soul of your business.

1. What do you want in your life?
2. What don’t you want in your life?
3. What are you willing to give-up in order to have the life you want? (Don’t limit yourself to material things here. Many need to give-up fear of failure or that voice that tells them they are not good enough)

Be patient and keep searching your heart. When you choose to listen to and follow your heart, even in the chaos you will begin to hear the faint clamor of harmony.