When I tell people that I'm a Business Enjoyment Coach, three things can happen.

Some people focus solely on the word “Business” and expect me to go on about strategies, marketing plans and sales techniques. Then they find out my background and assume that every conversation is going to be around cashflows, KPIs and business plans.

And you know what. I can go on about them if you want.

I ran businesses and led disparate teams for over 16 years, so sure. I can talk about it. But come on. 

Boring!!

Besides. Just go onto Google and find an article or a video. Pop onto Amazon and order a book. Pretty much all the information you need is out there.

Sure, there's always something new to learn but when it comes down to it, I reckon you have all the knowledge you need for now.

Next, there are people who focus on the “Enjoyment” side.

They picture a laid back office where the employees play table football in the canteen to 'unwind'. Whilst young creatives hurl a basketball around as they bounce ideas around at the same rate they bounce the ball, whilst cheering on the 26-year-old CEO who's just dived into the ball pool down the way.

Ok. It can be those things if you want, but that's not where I'm coming from. 

The third category of people, those that get it, recognise that enjoyment is a barometer.

Everyone should be enjoying what they do yet, frequently, they aren't. 

The human mind is very good at creating issues, finding problems and introducing stress that isn't actually there.  It leads us to ignore the really good stuff that is right under our noses and forces us to focus on the struggles, the frustrations and the hardships. These can be tiny minor things, that cause niggles.  Or massive blocks built out of deep-seated traumas. But they all stop us from enjoying life.

Whatever stops us from enjoying ourselves, we should be looking to resolve it.

And just to be clear. I do mean enjoyment, not happiness.

For me, happiness is a short term snapshot in time. Today I'm happy. The next I'm sad. Levels of happiness can fluctuate with the wind and the weather and are largely driven by external situations.

Enjoyment, however, is more deep-seated. It's the long term, overarching sense of satisfaction and achievement. A marathon, not a sprint. That inner feeling that, no matter what life throws at me or how I feel today, things will be all right.

True enjoyment comes from within, not without.

One of my favourite quotes at the moment is:

“Joy in the face of darkness is the path to light”

For me, that sums up that ability to hold a sense of what life is really about, regardless of the slings and arrows that are thrown at us.

Yet we are surrounded by so many levels of fear, stress and emotional turmoil, all of which stop us from truly enjoying this incredible life we have.

The other week, I was speaking to a business owner on this subject.  In whispered tones, she confided in me to admit that she'd actually turned down some work because it wasn't something she wanted to do.

Absolutely the right thing to do, but she'd found it hard because she actually felt guilty about taking the more enjoyable path.

And that's the sort of thing, right there, that we need to sort out.

We need to find out what stops us enjoying every aspect of our business and our lives – and to do something about it.

We all have the capacity and the ability to enjoy life. We create our own world and can dictate how we feel.

We only have one life.  So let's make it a good one.