If you're not nurturing your personal life outside of work, chances are, you'll end up lacking on both fronts. How we spend our free time and how we work are typically at odds with each other. When we overprioritize one aspect of our lives, it causes an imbalance affecting all areas.
When it comes to running a business, it's an all-hands-on-deck operation that requires copious amounts of time and energy, especially if you're starting on your entrepreneurial journey. But what many forget along the way is tending to their well-being.
Being an entrepreneur for the past 10 years, I've learned that maintaining a healthy work-life balance may not be what you think. Rather than keeping the two completely separate, combining them strategically can become the perfect recipe for success.
Oftentimes, people try to separate their personal life from work when instead they should be integrating the two. As entrepreneurs, we should seek to create purpose-driven businesses, and one way to do this is by viewing your life as your greatest masterpiece.
Don't Disregard Creativity
To further understand the concept of perceiving our life as our greatest masterpiece, I sat down with the founder and CEO of Rosalind Business Group, Rosalind Panda.
As an artist and business owner who uses creativity in all she does, she encourages other like-minded entrepreneurs to do the same. Trust me, the result will speak for itself.
By applying creativity to everything you do, in turn, you're not only benefiting yourself but also others. But to see your life as your greatest masterpiece, there are a few things you have to incorporate that also lend to your business.
Leadership Roles
Leadership should be a skill every entrepreneur masters to foster a driven and dedicated team, but to become a great leader, you must first set the foundation of leadership in your personal life.
What I mean by this is showing up in every area of your life. Doing so will not only change the way you manage yourself but will also inspire other people around you. For Panda, she emphasizes the importance of leading yourself with purpose and inspired action to ultimately lay the framework for success.
The act of looking outside of ourselves to solve issues has become overly normalized when in reality, we should first look inward. Everything you've accomplished up until this point is what encompasses your life masterpieces. Your life as a whole can be optimized to level up your business, you just need the right mindset and perspective to do so.
Defining Your Purpose
Defining a purpose should be one of the first steps of entrepreneurship, as she writes in her first book, Let Self Become The Leader. Whether she's painting or running her business, she wants to produce a sense of self-awareness for her clients and help them realize what their purpose is on earth and the alignment of their actions within it.
It's necessary to define what your contribution is to the world for both your business and personal life to create a healthy balance. To see your business thrive, you need a purpose backed by your actions and a strong consumer base. If you're not catering to your consumers' needs or benefiting their life in some way, you will quickly fall off the map.
Let's say, for example, you have a passion for writing poetry, and whenever you produce a piece, your goal is to influence the readers' perspective positively. When it comes to your business, rather than treating it as a separate entity, behave as if it's another hobby with a similar goal. Now you've defined a purpose -- positively impacting others' perspectives, regardless of what you're doing.
When you incorporate your passions and hobbies into your business, you facilitate a purpose-driven organization. And what's becoming increasingly evident is the need and demand for more of these companies.
When you are lost in the ups and downs of life, think beyond yourself and from a perspective of what your role is in life. What is your contribution to the world? See the big picture and ask yourself how you're using your creative design ideas, gifts, and the tool of creativity to bring a positive difference to your community, society, and the world.
My advice to entrepreneurs everywhere is to blend your personal and business lives together. Your greatest masterpiece is your own life, so I encourage you not to neglect or ignore it. Find inspiration in yourself and apply it to everything you do.
BY SEAN KIM, CEO, RYPE@HEYSEANKIM
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