business, creativity & synchronicity

This may come as a bit of a shock, but building a business is a creative act.

I grew up thinking "business" meant serious, corporate, life-numbing overwork. It meant MBAs, resumes, suits and cubicles. Blech. But now I'm running my own business I see that it can be... well, it can be whatever I can envision it to be. And it can be a lot of fun.

What's the creative part? So much of it, really. What's your business about? What's its name, its personality, its colours? Imagine where you'll be in 10 years. Imagine your ideal client. Create a webpage, a business card, a logo, an article. Get an idea and ask yourself 'How?' You play, you plan and then you take a risk and see what happens You start with nothing and based on your own vision and efforts something comes to life - creativity!

There's a real movement towards authenticity and fulfillment in all aspects of our lives, including work and business. Tara Joyce has written about the new phenomenon of the innerpreneur, someone who has "realized their purpose/life work and has started a business to pursue it." Jenn has created the Right-Brain Business Plan. People like Molly Gordon talk about authentically developing and promoting your work. New models of how to do business are showing up everywhere.

I'm currently working through The Joyful Business Guide by Laura Howard West. I'm going to share with you an exercise I'm doing this week that you might find fun and interesting too. It doesn't just apply to business. You can do this for any project or for time period.

Exercise:

Decide on 3 feelings/emotions that you'd most like to experience while you develop your project/business/month. Then start collecting synchronicities, taking note of anything that crosses your path that reflects these "infusion qualities" as Laura calls them.

Of course, I had to break the rules and come up with 5. These are the 5 energies that I would like to experience as I develop my business:

1. Sacredness
2. Creativity
3. Beauty
4. Confidence
5. Prosperity

My childhood "MBA" view of business sure didn't involve sacredness. But my Jamie Ridler Studios vision of business sure does!

I'll be collecting signs of these and share them with you next week. If you decide to try this too, let me know. I'd love to hear what you experience.