Summary: Whether you're a business owner or corporate worker, there is a simple, golden rule to begin finding more fun, more money with less stress.  FOLLOW YOUR ENJOYMENT, EVERY DAY. In other words, every day, figure out how to do more of what is enjoyable and interesting, and less of what is not.

Work does not have to be sterile or painful.  In fact, if you keep your attention on the golden rule, pay attention to PebbleRanking, incubating future scalable 'methods' to achieve your mission, etc, it is possible to create a working life of more fun, more freedom and more money!  

[Some content around why this is so important... leads to unique passion/genius that stands out, a unique voice, bigger audience, ....it unconstrains your energy, enthusiasm...leading to more success with less 'effort'...because effort is only required when you do unpleasant things...doing lots of what you love doesn't require 'effort']

But do people do it?  Nope.  In fact, usually people end up doing less of what is interesting, and more of what is not!   Because, in the hustle of work and growing a business, it's easy to get distraction by shoulds ("I SHOULD be working harder") and to lose the original, interesting wants (I WANT to work hard, but only on meaningful things and without sacrificing my health or family time"). 

Rather than becoming more stressed with work over time (and thereby diluting our enjoyment of it), we want to keep removing/reducing the stresses and keep our enjoyment and passion for the work unconstrained.

The old work energy was about sacrificing anything just to be successful (defined as being wealthy or powerful, not happy).  PebbleStorm is about sacrificing nothing - achieving even more success through your inherent interests and passions, in tandem with other people with complementary passions.

Quick sanity check: of your work time (although this applies to personal time too), are you spending at least 80% of your time and attention on things you really enjoy?

Benefitting Your Business / Work

If you stay focused on what interests you (instead of what you think will be interesting to others)...

a) More customers will find you, because

    - You'll create an authentic voice that others with similar interests can more easily find (thank you, Internet!)

    - Customers will be more likely to want to work with you, since your company will reflect "interesting-ness" and passion

b) You'll have no problems staying motivated!  (In fact, you might have my problem of needing to do less work because you like it so much)

c) You'll infect the people around you (coworkers, customers, family) with the same positive habits, creating a multiplier effect

These ideas apply to both business owners and people within the buinesses.  Think about your coworkers - would you rather work with someone who's passionate about what they do (which means they'll be proficient) and happy?  Or someone who may be proficient, but has more in common with a gerbil on a wheel trapped in a job they're just sticking to for money or habit?

Figuring out how to do more of what is interesting (every day)...

• What parts of your job or business do you love most? 
• How can you create a situation that lets you focus on doing those things 80% (or more) of your time?
• Be honest with yourself, and separate the things that you intrinsically enjoy every day (such as writing or working with customers) from the extrinsic results (prestige, money, titles)

Figuring out how to do less of what is not interesting...

• How can you create a situation that allows you to do this stuff for only 20% (or less) of your time?
• Can you eliminate it?
• Can you outsource it? (Elance.com!)
• Can you partner or team up with someone who likes to do those things you don't like to do? 
• Can you reframe it / redescribe it to make it more interesting to yourself?  What benefit can you get out of doing or completing something?

Here are some personal examples of consciously reframing things I don't like into things I do:

1. I wouldn't want to sit down for four months to crank a book out.  So I write a blog to create content, and will partner with a book producer or writer in the future to actually put the book(s) together...even if it costs a lot more money, it'll be worth it.
2. I hate doing taxes - there's no way I'm going to do my own, so I pay an accountant.  But my sister, who has plenty of $, actually enjoys doing her own taxes.  Maybe I should hire her :)
3. Exercycling (indoor cycling at the gym) is pretty boring.  By taking an addictive book with me and reading on the exercycle, I don't want to get off!
4. Meditation: meditating by myself is hard - I like the effect, but my mind can be too busy.  By using guided podcast meditations (found free on iTunes), it becomes easy and enjoyable.

Examples of negative shoulds that work against you:

• I should focus on this business full-time (but I'm not making enough money at it yet)
• I should be trying to get facetime with my boss' boss (but I hate brown nosing)
• I should not have to have a side job for income (isn't my business supposed to be supporting me?)
• I should be hiring more people so I can have a bigger team (but I'm having problems managing my current ones)
• I should be taking on more projects to show my capabilities at work (but I'm already overloaded)

Reframing them into more positive wants:

• I want to focus on this business full-time (once it's further along and is more sustainable)
• I want a promotion (and realize getting one in my current track will be)
• I want to have a side job for income (so that I'm not stressed about money while I get my business started))
• I want to hire a manager, or get into an individual role (because I don't like managing)
• I want be taking on more projects to show my capabilities at work (but I'm already overloaded)

_______________________

11.12.10 ADDITION

The Golden Rule: Enjoy Yourself

Whether you're a business owner or corporate worker, there is a simple, golden rule to begin finding more fun, more money with less stress.  FOLLOW YOUR ENJOYMENT, EVERY DAY. In other words, every day, figure out how to do more of what is enjoyable and interesting, and less of what is not.

If there was a single Unique Genius rule, it’d be “Enjoy yourself in everything”.  How can you design your work (or other parts of your life) to be more enjoyable?  How can you approach it to appreciate it more, enjoy it more, have more fun with it?   

Enjoyment is your Unque GEnius compass.  It will point you in the direction you need to go, if you keep paying attention to it and practicing it.  

Yes, enjoyment takes practice :)  Sounds funny, doesn’t it?  Almost as funny as “Happiness takes work” - which is also true.  To enjoy work, it takes practice in paying attention to what you enjoy (and what you don’t).  It takes practice in shifting your work or attitude to be more enjoyable, rather than accepting what’s just presented to you.  

You are the creator of your work and life, and it takes practice to not only “get” this, but to live it!  This is why baby steps are so important: you’re really changing the habits of how you think.  

What can you do to enjoy your work more?  Whether it’s in a job you hate, or you have your own business.  This begs the question, “what do you enjoy?”, which can be a surprisingly hard question to answer.  Just go with what you know.  If all you know is that you don’t like working before 10am...don’t schedule or accept meetings before 10am.  

Sandie Samuells was blown away when I said once that “when I do consulting projects, I don’t do working sessions more than four hours long, because it really drains me”.  I think her brain blew a circuit!  “What?!  You can do that?!”  Yes!  You can set and define your own rules on how, when and with whom you want to work.  You might have to start small, especially if you’re in a job, but you can always, always set some new rules up for yourself to help you enjoy any kind of work more.

Let’s say you have an existing job or business today, and that instead of creating a new business, you want to first work on enjoying what you have more.  

Option 1: A “Big Bang”
You’re determined to totally redesign your work!  This feels like a big, unachievable goal, but you’re determined.  You redesign your desk and workspace (whether it’s at home or in an office), to add flowers, music, color and art.  Then you go and change all your meetings around, canceling the worst ones and changing the topics and attendees of the others to make them a lot more interesting (or less painful).  

This takes a lot of energy!  How long can you keep this up? I’m going to estimate, 3-4 days.  It’s too much change for your brain (and your coworkers’!) to process, and shortly thereafter you’ll slip back into old, well-worn habits.

Option 2: Baby steps
You take the approach of making a single small change every day, day after day.  This feels very achievable and friendly.  The first day, you add a new green plant to your workspace.  The second day, you invite a friend out for a longer-than-usual lunch. The third day, you schedule a meeting for 10am rather than 8am.  The fourth day, you change a standing meeting topic into something more fun, such as changing the “Monday Staff Meeting” to a “Monday Hee-haw” (perhaps not the best name, but you get my drift!).  

You keep this up, one small thing day after day.  Do you think that after 30 days, your work would be a lot more enjoyable?  Do you feel you’d be more likely to have “trained” yourself to be able to more easily make even more changes, and bigger changes?  Yep!