“You may want your work to be perfect. I want mine to be finished”.

 

Read this in Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic. Something to keep in mind when setting off for your professional dream! ”Work” in this aspect meaning what you do to create your ideal professional life. You know, just by starting you’ve come way further than the majority. Because most of us will think and plan then realize it will never be perfect anyway so better not give it a try. I suggest you shift perfection to progress. I suggest you start now. Remember that once you have, you are way ahead of most of us.

 

Your professional freedom is waiting. Go!

 

When we’re trying something we haven’t done before we have no clue whether it will work or not. That’s the situation whatever change you’re making in your professional life. It is scary to set off for something unknown and could be tempting to stay where you are – after all you know what you have but you don’t know what you will get, right? The brilliant idea might not be that brilliant after all…

 

Well, maybe not. But what if it is and you don’t give it a try? The only way to know is to go for it.

 

That’s the reason you should give it a try.

 

 

No, you don’t need more information to start creating your ideal professional life. What you need is the energy and the commitment to make the change. I know it’s tempting to do some more research, I know we’d all very much like to know whether it will work or not… Sorry to say you’d never know unless you try. The only way to find out is to start taking action. Remember, the goal is not perfection it’s progress.

 

So, what are you waiting for?

 

Read Seth Godin’s blog on how we sometimes hide behind our job (tasks, procedures to-dos, meetings…) instead of focusing on our work; the value creating things you do like no other. Why? When we stick to our job, we stay in the comfort zone with no risk of failure. When we do our work we put ourselves out there, pushing things forward. Which is exactly what the world needs.

 

”When you discover that the job is in the way of the work, consider changing your job enough that you can go back to creating value. Anything less is hiding.” (Seth Godin)

 

Nobody is perfect. Or? Read an article about how to answer ”What’s your greatest weakness?” yesterday. Asking this question implies that we have weaknesses and I wonder – do we really? Yes, we have things we don’t like doing and as a consequence are not good at. But is it a weakness? I’d rather say it’s a strength knowing what you don’t like so you can team up with people loving exactly these things. Yes, we have qualities that don’t match certain conditions. But then those conditions aren’t for us.

 

So might be we’re all just perfect. Perfect for our unique professional adventure.

 

Attended a master class with brilliant composer, producer and Polar Music Prize winner Max Martin yesterday. Lots of ideas on how to write a hit of course, but my biggest take-away was this: He just loves his job. I think this is key to his success and how he’s been able to constantly reinvent himself to keep up with the ever-changing world of pop music. Yes, you have to work hard and spend lots of hours mastering your field of work to be super-successful. But when you love what you do it’s not a sacrifice but a privilege. If you also embrace the concept of being constant beta version, there’s nothing but an exciting adventure between you and your ideal professional life.

 

Work-life balance. Important. Or maybe not? I’d say the best you can do is to forget about work-life balance and start thinking work-life integration. I think a sustainable professional life builds upon doing inspiring work with inspiring people, in a way that supports your desired quality of life. Then it doesn’t matter when – or where – you answer your emails or Skype with colleagues. When you love what you do, work-life integration just makes so much more sense than struggling with balance…

 

I think the most important business advice I’ve ever got is this: My business, my rules. Sounds obvious, I know. But it’s so d*mn easy to start playing by rules made up by someone else. “You should do this” and “you should do that”. “This we’ve tried before and it didn’t work”, “that you can’t do because…well, we don’t know why but you cannot do like that”. And so on and so forth.

 

Sounds familiar? Of course this isn’t true just when running a business. I’d say this is also the most important thing to access professional freedom and create your ideal professional life. Your work, your rules. It’s your game to play, make sure you play it on your terms.

 

Sometimes I get the question how I ended up doing what I do. Might seem like a huge step from building brands to creating your ideal professional life. But there are actually lots of similarities: In both cases it’s about identifying what you stand for, your non-negotiable values and what inspires you. It’s about discovering your unique combination of talents. It’s about identifying your ideal clients or employers. It’s about figuring out how you want to work and find business models supporting that.

 

So might not be a big surprise I do what I do after all 🙂 Maybe the same is true for you?

 

Last two days I’ve been teaching workshop facilitation. One thing that always struck me is that no matter how messy things are in the middle of a process, it always turns into a great solution in the end.

 

During the years I’ve learned to have faith in the process. Perfectly true also when creating your ideal professional life: Take action even though you can’t see the exact outcome. Continue also when everything seems like a mess. Because when you do, one thing will lead to another. And all of a sudden you’ve reached much further than you could imagine. Have faith in the process.