There is nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy building a business. We often go into building a business thinking that it has to be hard and super challenging, but it doesn’t really have to be. We are allowed to enjoy ourselves and celebrate the small things that make having a business worthwhile. You are allowed to listen to yourself and take breaks.
In a society that glamorizes endless work, I’m here to glamorize bringing pleasure into your business. In this article, you’ll find out why it’s so important to have pleasure in your business as a woman, as well as how to bring pleasure into your business.
Book Recommendations:
Delivering Happiness — Tony Hsieh
Womenomics — Claire Shipman & Katty Kay
Why You Need Pleasure In Your Business As A Woman
Makes success sustainable: You have more reason to come back and continue working on your business when it brings you pleasure.
Fuels creativity and innovation: When women enjoy what they do, they think bigger and broader.
Brings more authenticity into your business: When you build a business around what you truly enjoy, you attract more aligned clients, opportunities, and partners.
It is counterintuitive to historical conditioning: People have always been taught that enjoyment and happiness don’t matter as much as discipline and hustle. Building a business that brings you pleasure shows that it’s possible to be happy and enjoy life while also being disciplined.
Better decision-making: When women are more connected to what genuinely excites them, they make clearer, more aligned decisions.
Creates a better work environment: Women-led businesses that prioritize joy and fulfillment have healthier team cultures, better work-life integration, and challenge the idea that you have to suffer to be successful.
Ways To Bring Pleasure Into Your Business
Connect To Your Intuition
Connecting to your intuition is an excellent way to bring pleasure into your business, because our intuition knows what will bring the best results. Better results mean more motivation to work on your business and less probability of burnout.
As women, our intuitions are very, very powerful. But technology and self-doubt often dim our intuition. I believe that this is why many women feel stuck in their business. We listen to the world instead of our intuition, which slows our progress down.
I know it can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference between intuition and just thoughts. Your intuition is very calm and centered. It feels like a safe decision — even if it gets you out of your comfort zone, you know it will improve you or your life in some way. Raging thoughts, on the other hand, make you feel anxious. They cause you to overanalyze, overthink, and second-guess yourself.
Journal Prompts For Connecting To Your Intuition:
- Describe a moment when you had a strong gut feeling about something. What was it, and what did you do?
- How do you feel physically when you have a gut feeling?
- What are some activities that help you connect with your inner self and intuition?
- How does your intuition differ from your logical thinking?
Don’t Follow Advice That Doesn’t Sit Right With You
Not following advice that doesn’t sit right with you also plays into listening to your intuition, but I want to go deeper. You may hear advice such as, “Don’t create what you feel like creating, follow trends instead,” or “You need to be sleep-deprived when building a business, otherwise you’re not working hard enough.” These are all limiting beliefs that make building a business unappealing.
You are allowed to go against common advice. Your intuition and feelings are not dumb — they are intelligent too. Just because something is being preached on social media or in the business world doesn’t mean it’s right for you.
For example, I have never wanted a personal brand. It’s not that I’m hiding — I just enjoy my privacy, and I believe the cons outweigh the pros when it comes to fame. But on social media, I would hear people say that building a personal brand is the best way to build wealth.
That didn’t sit right with me at all. And I stand firm in my decision not to personally be on social media. I prefer writing and staying faceless, but that’s just me. You listen to you.
Journal Prompts For Not Following Advice That Feels Wrong In Your Body:
- Am I following this advice because I don’t trust myself, or because I genuinely feel like this will help me in some way?
- Describe a time when you did something that didn’t feel good in your body and how you felt after.
- What is a belief, habit, or thing you avoid just because it’s not normal in society? And what beliefs, habits, or things do you entertain because society approves of them?
Forget About The Results & Money
I know that one of the main reasons you started your business may have been to earn money. And I get that — it was mine, and still is, one of my top reasons for starting a business. But don’t get too hyper-focused on the end result or money.
What happens when you’re too focused on those two things is that you start listening to the world’s advice instead of your own, and you begin getting doubtful over your analytics. When you are building a business that feels pleasurable to run, you want to be able to listen to your intuition’s advice and remove self-doubt wherever possible.
When you forget about the results and money, you create solely for your audience and for yourself. You start to ask, “What would feel good in my body today?” instead of, “What is going to get me the most traffic or views?” Out of those two questions, which would you rather ask yourself?
When you constantly create and play the long game, money and success are inevitable. You just need to trust yourself and a higher power.
Journal Prompts For Forgetting About Results And Money:
- What is one thing I would do in my business if money wasn’t a problem?
- How could I make building my business more enjoyable so I’m not fixated on the end result or money all the time?
- What is preventing me from enjoying the present moment?
Remember That You Are Your Ideal Customer
Don’t forget that in order to have a functioning business, you need supporters. What you produce needs to be geared toward a specific niche and audience. Many entrepreneurs say their target audience is themselves. Some people may think that’s selfish, but I’m sure there are people out there who have similar passions, beliefs, struggles, motivations, and experiences, people who are just waiting for someone like you to start their business so they can feel seen and heard.
For example, I am a tall girl , I’m about 5’9, and I struggle to find pants and sleeves that are long enough to fit me. I remember finding this girl named Takara English, who runs a tall-girl clothing brand named ALTA, and feeling so supported and seen. She is also tall, around 5’10, and she basically created her brand because she knows the struggle of having awkward-fitting clothes. She created a business based on a problem she had, but also ended up creating a solution for many other tall women.
Do you see what I’m getting at? Someone always needs your uniqueness. So start creating for you.
Journal Prompts For Being Your Own Ideal Customer:
- What is something I could create right now that I wish I had back then?
- In what ways do I wish I had support?
- What topics have I always wanted to talk about but feel scared to bring up?
Remove Blocked Emotions
You may not be able to feel pleasure because you have blocked emotions. Maybe you’ve been disappointed in the past with your business and are scared to fully believe in it or have fun with it because you’re scared of being disappointed again. Maybe you refuse to start your business because you grew up with a family that saw a stable job as the only way to be successful. These are all blocked emotions.
When you release blocked emotions, you’ll notice that you can create more easily, feel more excitement, and have more clarity. You can remove blocked emotions by meditating, journaling, doing yoga, or anything that makes you feel like you are releasing something.
Journal Prompts For Removing Blocked Emotions:
- What emotion do you find the hardest to express, and why?
- What feeling arises in your body when you’re triggered? Where do you feel it?
- What activities make me feel the most relaxed and help me release tension or worries?
Conclusion
Bringing pleasure into my business changed my life. I know that success is inevitable because I love showing up every day to work on growing my business. This is why I wanted to write this article today. I want all my readers and fellow entrepreneurs to be excited to wake up every morning and work on their life’s purpose. We all need a little joy and pleasure in our lives.
Thank you for reading, and come back soon! xoxo
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