How do you find the right way to work for you?
As you’ll hear from Lorna Lythgoe, lots of people start their business for the first time without taking the time to figure out how to create work that works for them!
They end up doing what they think they are “supposed to do” by creating another job for themselves and end up getting burned out!
The whole point of working for yourself is to find the right way to work for you!
Lorna is a positive psychological practitioner. You can learn more about her work at Thrive Positive. She also works as a well-being consultant and coach for Worth-It Projects, an organization based in the UK that supports the positive mental health of children.
Lot of great lessons in our conversation about learning how to find the right work for you:
- How the wide variety of work opportunities Lorna has collected throughout her career has made her more agile.
- What made running her first business miserable.
- Why she’s decided to build her current business slowly.
- How she wove her various interests together to create her first business.
- Why taking the time to figure out what motivates you is so crucial if you want to work on your own.
Life Skills That Matter In This Episode
- Align your habits
- Practice self-awareness
- Build your community
- Managing your energy
How Lorna Works and Thinks
- Wake up time: About 7:00 am
- Core work activities + habits: 1) Living the things that she’s educating people on. 2) Meeting likeminded people. 3) Pacing herself to make sure she has time to rest, play, move, sleep well, etc.
- Ideal work environment: For courses and programs: in an outdoor environment such as in the south of France, in a gorgeous vineyard, with plenty of breaks and snacks. For administrative work: currently, in a Tribe Porty co-working space that looks good, has plenty of nice spaces and amenities, and has people available for conversations.
- Superpower: Building rapport.
- Book recommendation: For people already working on a business, Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. For people just starting out, Pivot by Jenny Blake.
Inspirational Quotes
“Positive psychology is really about getting the best out of your lives as individuals and collectively.”
“Why on earth would I smack my head against a brick wall to do the elements of the business that I kinda hate when someone else could be doing it and relishing it?”
“I don’t believe you have to go to hell and back, but I certainly do believe there’s a lot of value in facing adversity and coming out of it with far greater awareness of yourself.”
Coaching Advice
To help you move forward on your own terms, Lorna shared this exercise:
When you’re coming up with a new business idea, don’t feel like you have to go all-in from the start, start by doing one experiment.
For example, if you like the idea of doing retreats, start by creating a very simple program to run a mini-retreat for your friends and colleagues.
Also try to do it for free or for as little money as possible and put a deadline on it.
Resources + Bonus Materials
Related Episodes
How to Do Everything You Want With Emilie Wapnick (201)
How To Pivot Your Career To Work You Love With Jenny Blake (107)