The Best Business is the Business of Happiness

• How to Add Fun Back Into Your Business
• Incorporate Happiness into Your Culture
• Happiness Comes from a Positive Mindset
• Work On Your Business Not IN Your Business
  

_____________________________________

‍

When you start your day every morning, what do you feel? Do you feel excited to start your day? Or, do you feel kind of, “blah?”

As business owners, our day can be unpredictable and even chaotic as we deal with the ups and downs of being a business owner. Sometimes our day can feel like we’re putting fire after fire out in our business. It can leave us feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Despite this, the one thing we should always experience is happiness. 

And why shouldn’t we be happy? We’ve freed ourselves from the constraints of having a 9 to 5 and reporting to someone else. We’re working for ourselves while doing something that we’re passionate about. We should be ecstatic to wake up every day and work on our business.

But that’s not always the case, is it?

The problem may be that we haven’t set up the foundations of our business so that we can work ON our business and not IN it. 

Another reason is that we’re too busy chasing success to make our business profitable. The thing is “happiness breeds success.” Success may sometimes bring happiness, but happiness will almost always bring more success. 

Choosing happiness in our life and business will almost always bring success. When we stop focusing on what others are doing to succeed, trying to beat competitors, and trying to find the perfect formula for success, we’re left to focus on what’s important to us.

We put greater importance on things like what’s best for our family, our community, and ourselves, and we pursue those things.

And our team thrives as well. Studies have determined that permitting employees to have fun at work makes them likely to perform better at their jobs.

‍

How to Add Fun Back Into Your Business

• Celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries. Maybe even create a party planning committee
• Encourage dressing up for Halloween or decorating the office spaces for the holidays
• Have a social club where everyone meets up outside of work to celebrate a common interest
• Host a contest such as “best-dressed pet”
• Volunteer together
• Have a competition with a fun incentive for meeting sales goals
  

These are just a few ideas, but go crazy with it. The key is balance. Although you are likely increasing retention by adding fun to the mix, be careful you don’t lose productivity, so do these things in moderation.

‍

Incorporate Happiness into Your Culture

There are a few things to consider when making this kind of shift. The first thing to consider is your current culture. In our company, we have something called our “Points of Culture.” These are the heart of our culture and defines the core value of our brand and community.

The tenth point in our “Points of Culture” covers happiness:

“I view my life as a journey to be enjoyed and appreciated and I create an atmosphere of fun and happiness so all around me enjoy it as well.”

This may be quite the opposite of some of our current cultures of stress, overworking, and maybe even boredom. So how great would it be to have everyone in our business enjoy working, DESPITE the obstacles we may face? Yes, we can have that! 

But, we must do the work to change our culture.

In this video, we discuss three ways you can boost happiness in your business. 

‍

Happiness Comes from a Positive Mindset

Success.com details how keeping a positive point of view can actually improve your life and the lives of those around you.

• GRATITUDE: “Gratitude increases dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain, which are key neurotransmitters that give us feelings of contentment. If we are grateful more often, the happiness-producing neural pathways strengthen, just as exercise strengthens the body.”
  

• OPTIMISM: “In terms of the impact on overall health, one study found that “Optimism may significantly influence mental and physical well-being by the promotion of a healthy lifestyle….” Indeed, overall well-being seems to be influenced by optimism, which can be strengthened by gratitude.”
  

• EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: “Robert Emmons, Ph.D., a gratitude researcher, writes, “When you realize the value of your friends and family members, you are likely to treat them better, perhaps producing an ‘upward spiral,’ a sort of positive feedback loop, in which strong relationships give you something to be grateful for, and fortifying those very same relationships.”
  

• RECEIVING GRATITUDE: “As positive psychology researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D. wrote in her book The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want, “Grateful people are more likely to help others [because] you realize the kind and caring acts and feel compelled to reciprocate.”
  

‍

Work On Your Business Not IN Your Business

These are just a few ways you can work on your business to improve it. For more information, I highly suggest attending our “6 Steps to a Better Business” event. It will cover the foundations all business owners need to know to grow their business and become more profitable.

Another way you can work ON your business is by talking to a business coach. Together we can take a deep dive into your business. Then we'll look at what you're doing now, find the biggest areas of frustrations and opportunities for you. As we identify those, we’ll be sharing some strategies so that you can see what coaching looks like. Reserve your spot today!