The Business of Life - What Business Are You In?

"Our small business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in superior spirits." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I want to get straight ideal from the beginning of this post that when we are talking about the 'business of life,' we are not talking about a store, an insurance organization, a bank, an on-line advertising and marketing firm, or any other conventional 'business.' We are utilizing the word "business" in a big picture way, though analogously to what we feel of in home business.

Read by way of the following suggestions (and if you've printed this article, highlight what connects with you and how you feel of the enterprise of your life):

Your "business" can be defined as:

• Your (numerous) personal and professional occupations, dealings, endeavors, or other pursuits in which you are engaged
  
• Your rightful or proper concerns, affairs, activities, or interests
  
• Your distinctive and special tasks, duties, or functions
  
• Your calling

So, take a few minutes now and feel about what your life's small business is...at least presently. It would be most beneficial if you actually wrote down some suggestions.

Next, give some thought to the reality that all "businesses" provide something. What does your "business" present (and keep in mind that every time I'm saying small business, it's in quotation marks - given the way that we are utilizing it). So again, what does your organization present?

• Support?
  
• Hope
  
• Friendship
  
• Adore
  
• Instruction
  
• Prodding
  
• Encouragement
  
• Questions
  
• Prayer
  
• Facts
  
• Companionship
  
• Honesty
  
• Peace
  
• Truth
  
• Beauty
  
• Solutions
  
• Techniques
  
• What else?....

What would you put there? Take a few moments and write down those words that you believe you can confidently state that your life's enterprise provides...

Do you notice the types of words that came up for you? Had been they similar to the examples I gave? Did any of them surprise you? When I began working on this post and realized the kinds of words that exemplified what we're certainly about in this home business of life...I was a bit surprised. Of course, this underscores my continuously reinforced belief that writing is a way of studying what we know and is normally the only way to figure out what we know...

So here is the question, given what you are indicating is your 'business'...are you succeeding or failing?

May perhaps I make a prediction? Of course I can't hear you if you're saying, "No," so I'll go on.

You are succeeding and you're failing.

If you are living, you're succeeding.

And you are failing. That's just how it goes. Laurence Shames says:

Success and failure. We feel of them as opposites, but they're actually not. They're companions - the hero and the sidekick.

Success AND failure. Note the use of the word "and." Erase the word 'but' from your vocabulary as much as you can. You are succeeding and you're failing. Next time you or a person around you says, "Well, yeah, I got that accomplished, BUT I didn't do properly on this." I do not want to launch into a entire piece about the use of the word "but," BUT I hope you can hear the distinction. Listen to your own and others' language and see what a difference the word 'but' vs. 'and' makes.

You are succeeding AND you're failing.  Don't forget, our quote for this article is "Our organization in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits."  Failure is part of the deal.