Prepare for change when you grow your passion

When I first started growing my business I had no idea how my life would change. I wasn’t prepared for change. I was so focused on developing my passion and my idea.

Change happened. I was so focused on growing my passion into a business, that I lost sight of things which were

important to me. I lost touch with some close friends which surprised me. My husband isn’t one for keeping in contact with people, and I thought that others would do the sorting out and arranging to keep meeting up.

In my experience it didn’t happen. I’m the organiser and if I didn’t organise something, it didn’t happen.

In hindsight I’d prepare for change in a very different way. I’m not saying I’d consider every single relationship and decide if I wanted it to continue. Some relationships have a natural time span. I’d like to have had someone with experience of setting up a business and growing it around a busy life to have had a word with me to get me to think about what was important. If I’d have thought about it at the time, I probably would have spent a bit more time on continuing some friendships. I certainly found I spent a lot of energy with my regrets when I realised what had happened.

I don’t want that for you.

Prepare for change in your life

Whatever your passion and whatever your idea for developing it and taking it forward into your community or industry, I’d like you to prepare for change.

None of us know what’s in the future for us. We only know who we are and what we’d like to do with our passion and ideas. If you spend more time developing your passion, then you will naturally spend less time on something else. What will you give up that is currently part of your life?

One of the best ways to prepare for change is to be aware of the now. You’ll have heard about the power of meditation, and mindfulness. Simply being by yourself in quietness listening to yourself. If you’ve not experienced it, I know it sounds weird. However, it’s such a good way to help you stay focused on what’s important to you, you won’t need to lose anything in your life as you’ll be constantly be prepared for change as you’ll be following your heart and soul. There’s a good article here about the power of the mind.

When you spend time allowing yourself to focus on you and what’s important, any change which happens you know is right. You won’t have to fight it, or pretend it’s a good thing as you’ll know it’s the right thing for you. I encourage clients to start with 10 minutes a day. If you need help with starting this, then the Headspace app is a great way to start. You don’t need to think about anything, or know what you want to achieve in those 10 minutes. It’s just about connecting your body and brain together and allowing your senses to spend time talking to each other.

Once you’ve spent this time, you simply know what’s right and important for you. You don’t need to question things or spend more time or energy talking things through.

Create boundaries as you prepare for change

One of the hardest parts of developing your passion and ideas for your business or enterprise is about how this will fit into your life. That’s where boundaries come in. You may like to be free and easy and take things as they come, but think about it. Will being free and easy ensure your passion reaches more people this year? I’m not saying it won’t. It’s more unlikely without the boundaries for your changing life.

As you create your boundaries think about the following:

• How long do I want to spend thinking and working on my passion each day/week/month?
• What may be the activities which I can’t do anymore when I start to spend more time developing my passion?
• Is my passion a core part of my life which I can’t separate out? It’s just a part of me?
• When will I create time off from thinking and doing things around developing my ideas?
• When is my family and friends time?
• When is my relaxation time?
• When is my meditation or mindfulness time?

I find it helps you achieve all you want when you create a checklist of things you want to do each day or week, even if you can’t fix a time to do it. With your mindfulness time, it’s often helpful to tag this on to something else you already do regularly – getting dressed each morning. For example, why not sit for 10 minutes after you’re dressed being mindful before the day ahead?

How will you prepare for change as you explore your next steps for developing your passion and ideas? Leave a comment below

If you need help working out how to prepare for change, or even if you want to change things in your life to follow your passion, book an explore call. Talking things through with someone else helps you get your thoughts in order.

This article is part of my first book: Passion is not enough – Why running your own business takes more than just being passionate about ‘your thing’. If you’d like to hear more about the book and it’s publication, please join the list here: