You see just before boarding the plane I was Skyping my little sis back and forth, as she was feeling lost in the “passion-infused-hobby-becomes-business” sea. I know the feeling – I’ve been there myself. I remember all to clearly how when I first started “doing what I loved for a living” I lost myself in the love of the work, and at times I lost my mind!

At that time it was my little sis who held my hand and took me shopping for “care food”. We went to her local food store and bought ingredients for a muesli slice, pita pockets and the ingredients for a homemade hummus. She cut up carrot sticks and packed my lunches for three days in advance and gave me the ultimate sisterly advice: “Take care of yourself please”.

And now she finds herself in a similar place. Founding mother of a super-fast growing, heart-based business feeding the foodies of Melbourne.

Its a place that all fledgling passioante entrepreneurs find themselves in in the first 12 months if they meet with early success.

When your hobby (the thing you used to do because you purely loved it) becomes the thing you do for work two things happen:

1. Your life takes on a richness you never thought possible. “I can do what I ask, and get paid for it? ” the disbeliveing conscious mind will enquire. YES!- your unconscious mind gleefully discovers every day. The passion feeds more into the business, and more and more- until the fire burns so hot it can consume YOU- leading to the possibly ineveitable, second phase…
2. Your lifestyle takes a severe hit, as the lines between your business and your life blur and blur until you forget where one stops and the other begins.

All this is fine- unless you are focused to the point of forgetting to eat, forgetting to drink, forgetting to go outside in daylight hours for weeks on end, and forgetting that you have a husband, wife or family who loved you even before you started your business.

Watching both Julie and Julia, and my sister Kath go through all this, I am reminded of that time in my life a few years back where the passion burned so hot I was like a bushfire. Leaving behind a wake of destruction. But like a bush fire, once the fuel is burned out, it slows, and a cool rain will eventually extinguish the embers. And soon enough, irrepressibly, the new life shoots from the charred trees, green-ness descends once more, and the cycle continues.

Are you burning like a bushfire, or a hearth fire?

There is an opinion among Australian environmentalists that it is precisely because we do such a good job of preventing bushfires (a perfectly natural phenomenon) that when they do occur they are so MASSIVE and UNCONTROLLABLE. If we (well-meaning but control-freak humans) hadn’t come along, fires would burn, and burn out, and the cycle of life would continue.

Perhaps it is the same for the heart-based entrepreneur. Perhaps we are destined to go through our fires, our passion burning hot. And then to burn out, and rejuvenate. The trick is catching ourselves before our health and relationships burn out.

And perhaps it is for this reason we surround ourselves with family and friends who care. Like my sister was there to catch me a few years back and bake a muesli slice, it is now my turn to be there for her. To remind her to go take a bath, shave her legs and do her nails. To go have that massage, walk by the river and smell the eucalypts.

I think that most heart-based entrepreneurs will go through this almost ritual cleansing. Don’t freak out if you burn hot for a while. It’s only natural for this to happen when you unleash your passion in a meaningful way. Just make sure you have people around you to remind you that there are OTHER things you love too. Your family, your friends, your yoga, your kung fu, the opening credits of a movie, the way the air smells just before it rains.  If you remember and give time to these things that bushfire can become a hearth fire, that others will come to so that they can warm themselves…

Smell the roses, just try not to singe them!

But times are changing and more and more business owners are undergoing what I refer to as “The Lifestyle Shift”.  They are waking up to the fact that they are the boss, and they should be able to design their business to match their lifestyle.  From the ground up.

If it’s time for you to have more time for yourself, your family, and for your dreams, then read on…

Your lifestyle is ultimately your life’s work. We are all artists, whether we acknowledge that or not. And every day we are gifted with a canvas upon which to create our design. We are now operating in the Information Age, at a time of great wealth and great possibility. Yet seemingly intelligent people continue to operate under old assumptions. Too many people I know “work hard” for no other reason than they thought that’s what they were expected to do. There has never been a greater time than now to design a life the way you want it.

How do you “Design Your Life?”

The first step is a simple one. 

Wake up to the fact that YOU  ARE THE BOSS.  Your life is the way it is because you let it be that way- either by your actions or non-actions.   You are tolerating it, or fostering it, or forcing it to be just how it is.  Most of us get so busy just getting the work done that we forget to take stock and remember who’s in charge.

You started your business.  It is a direct reflection of you.  So isn’t it time to take responsibility for your deepest desires and start making it JUST HOW YOU WANT IT?

My greatest wish for the world is that everyone lives a life of self-expression. By that I mean that one’s life is an expression of that unique identity within them. It honestly breaks my heart when I speak to business owners who describe their lifestyle as anything less than awesome. As business owners we are in pole position to craft our lives the way we want to. For heaven’s sake, if the guy or girl running the show can’t have it they way they want it, what hope is there for anyone else? I think it’s just that we get lazy. We get lazy because questioning our assumptions and making changes in the way we operate is actually harder to do than work 70 hours a week! 

So what can you do? 

Take a half a day for yourself.  Get out of your routine.  Go to a place that conjures up “the sacred” for you.  That is different for everyone.  For some its a church, for some a park, for some a bookshop or the Virgin Megastore!  Wherever you feel connected to your creator, the universe or your higher self.  Spend a couple of hours just hanging out with yourself, and then in that space – ask yourself one simple question:  “is your business supporting your lifestyle or eating away at it?” 

Make no mistake- if it is not actively building it up, it is wearing it away slowly through attrition.  There is no middle ground here.

Commit to taking one action this week that will allow you to reclaim your lifestyle.

For more information go to: www.Shiftlifestyle.com/Laws

Well, we’re back?!  Three weeks away feels like it was a lifetime.  As you probably know by now the last three weeks we’ve been cruising across the Atlantic and partaking of all things holiday-ish with our good friends Andrew and Daryl Grant, Paul and Mary Blackburn and numerous members of both the Shift Speaker Training Silver Program and the Million Dollar Masterclass.

It’s remarkable how such an extended time away from the office, with consistently new experiences, changes one’s perspective on life and business.  I won’t reveal all the details here, but suffice to say Greg and I have some big plans for this year.  This will mean loads of extraordinary opportunities for you.  The first of these will be this Thursday on my postponed “ABCs of Increasing Your Income from Speaking Webinar”.

I know that some of you waited on the line for me, and I didn’t arrive last Thursday.  SORRY!  You see my plane out of New York was cancelled, so we had to wait for HOURS in Washington, which meant I was mid-air while you were hanging around in the gotowebinar waiting room!  So, because I wasted your time, I am going to give you a gift unlike you have ever seen on this Thusdays webinar. The webinar is free to register, so if you’re not yet registered- make sure you’re on this week.

Click here to register for this “not to miss” webinar!

Check out some of the happy snaps from the cruise. Obviously there’s heaps of them, so I won’t overwhelm you.  You can check out my Facebook page for more.  But here’s a sample to get you started.

Love,

Jo

I’m so proud of my sister!  She’s pursuing her dream “Lifestyle Business” and it’s really flying.  Check out this article in the Herald Sun and her TO DIE FOR brownie recipe.

My sister, Kath Clarke, in the Herald Sun with her amazing brownie recipe

Check out her blog: http://frankfoodandme.com

It’s been a big week here in London for the Team.  Last weekend I spoke at “The Millionaire Bootcamp for Women”.  It was a very successful weekend with some fantastic feedback from the participants.  It was also a great  opportunity for me to connect with some friends- some new, some old.

At the Bootcamp I invited the first people to join me on “The Lifestyle Shift Accelerator” Program. The response was awesome- so I can’t wait.  This is a new program I’ll be running in January next year. It is not just for speakers, but for any business owner who wants to make a life, not just a living.   So keep your ears out for more information about that one!

With only 8 days to go til the Presentation Profits Intensive in London- we’re getting super-excited here in the office.  Can’t wait to re-connect with all the inspiring European speakers we’ll have there!  If you haven’t got your ticket yet we have around 11 places remaining. 

Check it out here:

www.ShiftPresentationProfits.com/uk

Cheers,

Joey