Celebrate Your Right to Pursue Happiness

Susan Clements

Executive Director, E-Myth Benchmark

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."– Albert Schweitzer

In honor of Independence Day, July 4th, I am challenging you to celebrate the freedom you have to pursue happiness! The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Here’s a question for you.  How can you pursue something that is simply a decision?

My answer would be––diligently. Pursue happiness, diligently! Design your business to bring you happiness. Begin with deciding to be happy. Choosing to be happy enables you to move through your days without the added weight that comes with choosing not to be happy. You know what I mean; you’ve met “those people”­­­­––the ones that move through life as if everything is a burden and look at every task as if it’s a personal assault on their life. These are the individuals who are waiting for something good to happen and always reveling in what isn’t working or what could be better. They often envy the success of others and feel if only they were successful they could be happy. 

Make the decision now to take the steps necessary to model your business in a way that enables you to joyfully go about your days. Make your business work for you as much as possible. Begin by making a list of what drives you crazy in your business, including the tasks that drain you or the ones you avoid doing. Take your list and identify three items that you want to change or tasks that you want to master. By “master” I mean breaking them down and documenting how they are done so they can be done by someone else, or if still done by you, will be easier to complete. Let’s face it––these items need to get done and if they aren’t enjoyable to you, they will reduce the joy you get from your business. So master them, face them head on, and embrace them with determination and persistence. Get them done, get them out of the way and engage in those things you love to do. If you tackle three of these items each month, at the end of a year you will have mastered 36 tasks in your business and have 36 documented tasks that someone else can do.  Now there’s a reason to be happy and celebrate!

Each of us has a choice, and let’s face it: being happy is a whole lot better than being unhappy. Who likes to be around unhappy people? No one. You have the freedom to create a business culture and structure that is enjoyable; one in which you can be happy every day. I encourage you to celebrate that freedom by being persistent in mastering your business and being mindful of showing up in your professional life with a smile. Being joyful about what you do shines through all you do.  It’s also contagious.

If you’re not excited about what you do, do something else or change the way you think about what it is you are doing. Celebrate your right to choose what you do for a living by being happy while you are doing it. The right attitude and the right action will result in your success. It’s a no-fail recipe.

Susan Clements is Executive Director and co-owner of E-Myth Benchmark, a business coaching company serving businesses in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada, and the UK.  As a business coach Susan has steered client businesses through growth initiatives, sales and marketing strategies, management restructuring, personnel issues, customer service challenges, and action plans for growth and change. Leveraging a personal and professional experience platform of business ownership and management of businesses in both the private and public sector, Susan has designed a revolutionary coach training and delivery system that tools E-Myth Benchmark coaches to actively engage in results based coaching with business owners, leaders and managers leading to greater freedom and flexibility.  E-Myth Benchmark provides E-Myth Mastery Impact™ business coaching, business management and leadership workshops, trainings and seminars.  Contact Susan at www.e-mythcoaching.com or sclements@e-mythcoaching.com.