As an entrepreneur, the line between your personal life and your professional career become ever-so-blurry. In my opinion, the concept of a work/life balance doesn't really exist if you have your priorities aligned and are pursuing your passion while keeping focus on the things and people that have brought you to your current precipice.
Here are a few of the philosophies that I have uncovered and subscribed to over the years which help fuel my day-to-day life and purpose.
Good Vibes, Good Life (via Vex King)
To achieve a sense of peace, we need balance: balance between work and play, between action and patience, spending and saving, laughter and seriousness, leaving and staying. Failing to achieve a balance across every area of your life can leave you feeling exhausted, among many other unpleasant emotions, such as guilt.
“Self-love is the balance between accepting yourself as you are while knowing you deserve better, and then working towards it.” – Vex King: Good Vibes, Good Life
The Infinite Game (via Simon Sinek)
In finite games, like football or chess, the players are known, the rules are fixed, and the endpoint is clear. The winners and losers are easily identified.
In infinite games, like business or politics or life itself, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers in an infinite game; there is only ahead and behind.
The leaders who embrace an infinite mindset, in stark contrast, build stronger, more innovative, more inspiring organizations. Their people trust each other and their leaders. They have the resilience to thrive in an ever-changing world, while their competitors fall by the wayside. Ultimately, they are the ones who lead the rest of us into the future.
Minimalism (via The Minimalists)
Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.
That doesn’t mean there’s anything inherently wrong with owning material possessions. Today’s problem seems to be the meaning we assign to our stuff: we tend to give too much meaning to our things, often forsaking our health, our relationships, our passions, our personal growth, and our desire to contribute beyond ourselves. Want to own a car or a house? Great, have at it! Want to raise a family and have a career? If these things are important to you, then that’s wonderful. Minimalism simply allows you to make these decisions more consciously, more deliberately.
Start With Why (via Simon Sinek)
The work world is tough: wake up, go to work, deal with the boss (or if you are the boss, deal with everyone), make money, come home, manage personal life, go to bed, wake up, repeat. That's plenty to deal with every day. Why get fancy (and waste time) by trying to also understand why you do what you do? The answer to that question isn't fancy; it's simple.
Discovering the WHY injects passion into our work. This is not a formula for success. There are many ways to be successful (by traditional metrics); however, the Golden Circle is a tool to help us achieve long-term, fulfilling success.
4 Pillars of Meaning (via Emily Esfehani Smith)
Many psychologists define happiness as a state of comfort and ease, feeling good in the moment. Meaning is deeper. The renowned psychologist Martin Seligman said meaning comes from belonging to and serving something beyond yourself and from developing the best within you. Our culture is obsessed with happiness but Emily’s research found that seeking meaning is the more fulfilling path. Studies show that people who have meaning in life are more resilient, do better in school and at work and even live longer.
In an attempt to find out how can we each live more meaningfully Emily spent 5 years interviewing hundreds of people and researching psychology, neuroscience and philosophy. She found that there are 4 pillars of a meaningful life and we can each create lives of meaning by building these pillars in our lives.
Belonging – comes from being in relationships where you are valued for who you are intrinsically and where you value others as well. True belonging springs from love and you can chose to cultivate belonging with others.
Purpose – finding your purpose is not the same as finding that job that makes you happy. Purpose is less about what you want than what you give. The key to purpose is using your strengths to serve others. Purpose gives you something to live for the ‘why’ that drives you forward.
Transcendence – those rare moments where your sense of self fades away and you feel connected to a higher reality (could be church, art, writing). One study had a group of students look up at 200 feet tall eucalyptus trees for 1 minute, afterwards they felt less self-centered and even behaved more generously when given the chance to help someone.
Storytelling – creating a narrative about the events of your life help you understand yourself. Our lives aren’t just lists of events; we can edit, reinterpret and change the way we tell our story. People leading meaningful lives tend to tell stories based on redemption, growth and love. Reflective thought on your life can help you change your story, embracing painful memories can lead to new insights and wisdom.
Startup Mentality (via Forbes)
Envision the work environment of a newly minted startup. It’s a place full of smart, relevant banter and out-of-the-box thinking. It empowers a group of experts, thinkers, and collaborators to utilize their talents to bring an idea to life. It’s directed by a leader who fervently believes in the mission and knows how to inspire people—but it’s also driven by the team that supports and innovates on a daily basis. And most importantly, its mission-driven culture supplies innovators with the tools and connections they need to succeed. Because their goal is to bring a brilliant idea—the kind of idea that can change the world, because it’s relevant, creative, and fills a niche—to life.
Fast, intense, and incredibly purpose-driven: that’s what a startup looks like. Now, think about your own office. You might work for a small, family-owned company, or a large corporation. But chances are, your work environment is not very much like a startup. It’s probably steeped in meetings, routines, and schedules. It probably hasn’t changed much in the last few years. In fact, even though you may have a company mission statement, your leaders and colleagues may not display behaviors that back it up. That kind of stagnant workplace environment stifles creativity and innovation—in fact, it fosters a mindset of "let’s just do it the same as we’ve always done it." If you want teams making a difference daily, you need to take some pointers from startup culture. Here’s where you, as a leader, can start.