How often have you been told to follow your passion? That’s the way to business success! Well, it isn’t. Don’t follow your passion.
Your passion is what you enjoy doing. Your hobby can’t always translate into a full scale business that will support you and your family. It can be a side hustle, and it can sometimes turn into a full time job. But then it won’t be your passion anymore. It will be your job. Do you want to give up your passion by turning it into a job? And will that passion be capable of translating into a job anyway? Perhaps there’s a better way of looking at it.
Find the meaning
The Japanese have a word- Ikigai. Simply translated it means your reason for being. More particularly it’s
what you love (passion),
what the world needs (mission),
what you’re good at (vocation), and
what you can get paid for (profession).
Moving with purpose
Ikigai is the space between those four elements that creates the source of value or makes your life truly worthwhile. It’s your reason to get up in the morning. Whilst it’s got a financial implication, it’s also a mental and spiritual state, which can help us even through challenging times if we are moving with purpose.
Moving with purpose, to us, means velocity. That is, speed and direction. At Hixsons, we develop strategies which are agile and have velocity, which cope with challenging situations such as those we have been facing over the last two years and may still be facing. Velocity, in our terms, includes flexibility so that whilst the overall direction is clear, you, the business owner may want to change direction a little to cope with changing situations, always keeping your goals in view and at a speed which will achieve what you want.
Finding your Ikigai
Your mental state also needs care. We don’t simply mean your mental health, although that’s important. In recent context, that’s meant dealing with depression and anxiety and other negative connotations of mental health. We want to help you find what gets you up in the morning, and in our strategy sessions we specifically ask that question.
Most people’s decisions around their life seem to unfold in a reactionary way, propelling us almost unintended into educational and life paths based more on societal expectations and what is required to survive. We want more for you, not simply to get your accounts done and your tax settled, but your life goals achieved. We’ve talked about how to achieve this before in Success doesn’t create happiness, happiness creates success.
And you should have a better, longer life. Whilst that sounds pretentious, and perhaps outside the normal accountant remit, we can’t see that it’s wrong to want our clients to be happy. So, let’s find your Ikigai, what you love and makes you come alive, what you’re great at and what unique skills come naturally to you, and what people will value and pay you for.
How we can help you
We are all about helping you achieve the best life-work (not work-life) balance for you. We do what you need to keep you on the right side of HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs), answer all your questions, and make helpful suggestions. And always recognising that your business is a tool for you, not an end in itself. Together, we help you plan to live your best life for longer. Helping you find objectives which are meaningful to you, and to be happy.