The Surprising Thing You Probably Haven’t Considered in Your Business Vision
Have you ever wondered where your business is really going?
Like, you kind of wish you had a crystal ball that would just tell you where you’d be in five years now so you can make a plan and get there.
Yeah… me, too.
A couple weeks ago, I was voice messaging with one of my business besties when she said something that really struck me.
She mentioned that she wished that she was as clear about where her business was heading as I am about the vision for mine. That I had a clear picture of where I wanted to be in roughly five years.
This surprised me because I didn’t even realize I had so much clarity.
How I’ve used curiosity to guide my business vision
I suppose it's because it’s just normal to me now. I have processes that I follow regularly for crafting my visions, setting intentions and achieving my goals, and these help me navigate both the near and far-away future of my business.
Then, I started asking myself how I did it.
And one resource came to mind... Elizabeth Gilbert's Super Soul Sunday talk about hummingbirds.
In “The Flight of the Hummingbird: The Curiosity-Driven Life,” Gilbert discusses the difference between passion and curiosity.
She talks about how passion is all-consuming. She calls it a “burning tower of flame in the desert.”
She goes on to say that passion is really demanding: “It’s greedy. It insists that it take everything out of you. Those are the terms of passion. Passion says throw it all in the pot. Risk it all. You want to make an impact? You have to make a huge change.”
And this can be really intimidating, especially if you’re not super clear on where you’re going or if your passion is worth all the risk it requires.
The downside to “following your passion” (and what to do instead)
Gilbert says that:
“In contrast to the demands, the urgency, the greed, the mania that can be associated with passion, curiosity doesn’t do that to you. Curiosity will never strip your life bare. Curiosity will never make outrageous demands upon you. Curiosity will never take.
Curiosity only does one thing. And that is to give. And what it gives you are clues on the incredible scavenger hunt that is your life.”
We can apply this in our businesses in terms of outsourcing, as well. Before you hire someone, the best thing you can do is to be super clear about what you want, what lights you up, what energizes you... Knowing these things is how you can focus on work that you love most of the time.
And, if you don't know what that is right now, that's ok. Gilbert would say to start by noticing like the hummingbird does.
What she says about passion in this video, I believe is also true about the vision for your business.
What happens when you allow your vision to change:
The vision for your business (and your life) should change. It should evolve as you learn and grow.
If it doesn’t, it becomes stale and stagnant. Even worse, uninspiring. Unmotivating. If you’re dead-set on one strict vision, there’s no room for growth or evolution.
Now, there’s a balance here with this approach. We don’t want to be endlessly chasing a goal.
After I saw this video in 2018, I changed the way I approached envisioning my life and business.
Prior to this, I had been trying to FORCE things to happen. Once I shifted to allowing the vision for my business to come to me, things really started to take off. More and more businesses were coming to me for hiring advice.
I was still career coaching at the time, but I had the awareness to pay attention to clues that I could (and probably should) pivot my business.
And that has led to a major shift… private recruiting, mentoring others and developing my signature course, The Hiring Fix, which is all about finding, hiring and managing talented freelancers to support your online business.
Now, I check in with the vision I have for my business every few months to make sure it’s still aligned with what I’ve learned and what I’m curious about, and adjust accordingly.
Letting inspiration and curiosity drive your vision
Usually, if you have a spark of interest in adding a new product, developing a course or creating an offering, there’s a reason that idea has come to you. Honor it and explore it to see if it’s something viable… It may end up changing the course of your vision (and business’s future), and that’s ok!
Writer Kristin Wong offers several fantastic tips on exploring your curiosities before going all in on a new pursuit or endeavor.
My personal favorite is to stop trying to monetize everything. Not every interest needs to support your livelihood.
According to Wong, “Even if you do end up monetizing the hobby, I think it’s important to explore it first and enjoy it without even thinking about money. Allow yourself to be mediocre at it, because if you ever want to be excellent at something, you’ll have to start with mediocre.”
As you start to experiment with exploring your interests and noticing what you love and hate to do within your business, keep in mind that you don’t have to monetize everything.
And more importantly, if you’re curious about something, let that be your guide. Don’t be so attached to a rigid idea of your business’s future that you can’t play with new ideas.
Who knows? A new curiosity could be the guide to your next new business venture that changes everything.
