Your business is a vehicle that helps deliver you to the world! Not the other way around.
I once met a business owner who introduced himself with the name of his restaurant. It actually took me a few times to get him to tell me his first name!
In American culture, we are trained to identify with what we do. When we meet someone the second or third question is usually “What do you do?” Our culture tells us that our work and our profession define who we are.
As an entrepreneur, your business is certainly a big part of your life, something created out of our deep passions and skills. Your business can reflect your personality, your creativity, your care for those around you.
But have you let your business define you? What if you need to radically change your business? Or even close your business so that you can pursue something else? Will that change your identity?
As we head into the fall, I would encourage you to reflect on your identity and the things that make you uniquely you and also reflect on the role that your business plays.
- TAKE TIME TO REFLECT: Spending time away from your business, by yourself, with friends and family, can help you remember that you have value and worth apart from what you produce and what you do. Take time to reflect on what makes you uniquely you, and the gift that you are outside of what you do.
- ASK YOURSELF WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO YOUR IDENTITY IF YOU WERE NO LONGER RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS: How would that change your concept of yourself? Your relationships? While your goal likely is to continue to grow and build your business, it’s important to have this posture so that you can be open to the things that might need to change in the future so that you can follow the opportunities that present themselves to you.
- ASK YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO HELP YOU SEPARATE YOURSELF FROM WHAT YOU DO: Ask them to hold you accountable to regular periods of rest, to time with them focused on something other than work, so that you can remeber who you are and not lose yourself in your business.
Do you have other strategies for avoiding letting your business define who you are?
Contact me below to share your questions or thoughts.