This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 2.
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to Day 2 of the 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge.
Today’s topic is what is your why? Now when I first saw this topic, I thought this is going to be easy because I’m very, very clear on why I run my business.
So I run my business because I like to see people smile. I absolutely love it when I see that someone has learned a new communication skill and developed more confidence.
Just the other day, it was the TEDx Roppongi Event, and after that there was a networking session. There was a student from Thailand, and he came up to me and he said, “Helen, I feel really nervous about these kinds of events and I want to talk to people, but I’m not sure how to go about it.”
So I said, “You know what? A lot of people feel like you.” So I suggested, “Have a look round the room, find someone who’s standing on their own, go up, smile, and start a conversation.” And he said, “Oh, thank you” and he went off.
Then toward the end of the networking session, he came back. He was standing beside me as I was talking to somebody else, and he waited there patiently. And so then when I finished talking to the other person, he said to me, “I went and I spoke to people and it was great. Thank you so much for the advice.”
And he smiled one of those fabulous Thai smiles. I love that. It just makes my heart melt, that kind of thing.
However, that’s not really the topic for today. When I read further about the “What is your why?” It’s actually about why do you want a freedom lifestyle, and so I had to think a little bit more about this.
I went off on my morning walk this morning and put aside my earphones. Normally I’m listening to the latest episode of Entrepreneur on Fire with John Lee Dumas. Love that stuff.
But this time I set aside the earphones so I could just think. Think through this question about why is it so important for me to have a freedom lifestyle?
And I thought I needed to define what freedom means to me. And I came up with three things.
So the first one is to have an outstanding business and that’s a business that makes a difference in people’s lives. It’s also a business that brings in enough income for me to be able to live a comfortable lifestyle.
The second one is to be able to spend time with family and friends. And it’s not just about spending time, but it’s actually having that mental and physical energy to really spend time with people.
And the third one is to have time for myself. That means to be able to keep healthy, to learn more, and also to have fun. I do have quite a bit of fun already, but I think I could have a little bit more.
So those are the big things that are why it’s important for me to have a freedom lifestyle. But that is quite a lot. So then I thought what’s most important? And when I thought about that, it was that I really want to be able to spend time with my parents when I want to.
Now my parents live in Yorkshire, in the North of England. That’s where I grew up. And I’ve lived halfway around the world here in Japan for the last 25 years. And I’m an only child. But I really want to be able to spend time with them.
I do go back from time to time now, and I spend time there, but I’m working a lot of that time. So I want to get my business to a point where it can run without me being there, and I can spend that time together.
So thinking through things today, I’ve had quite a few revelations because that is something that I had actually identified some time ago when I was receiving some coaching sessions myself, but I’d kind of forgotten about it in the everyday busyness of business.
And so I’m glad I’m doing this and that it’s come back to a focal point for me. And maybe it will help me with the things that I talked about in the Day 1 Challenge — to get over those challenges of the shiny object syndrome and the people pleasing. So being a little bit more focused on what is important for me.
I hope that this has been helpful for you — giving you some food for thought, as yesterday as well, and I would love it if you would come back and see what happens in Day 3 of this challenge. I don’t know what the question is yet, but I’m really looking forward to it.
Thank you. Bye!