I go through a season of being overwhelmed, discouraged and ready to give up my business at least once every year. It’s not that my business has really changed, or that my life has changed (much) or even that I’m failing. I’m just over the battle. I’m tired of burning the midnight oil. I don’t want to market anymore, I don’t want to do customer service. I don’t want to do anything but find a new hobby — and one that pays, ideally. (Of course, the whole point of a hobby is that it DOESN’T pay…but that’s another post entirely.)

I find myself in this place and wonder, how the heck did I get here!? At what point did I lose perspective?

I was talking to a friend the other day about a project she’s working on that is just crazy awesome. She feels alive, she sees her calling in life and she’s on a mission. The dreaming, the planning, the strategizing – she’s taking everything and putting it into perspective and that perspective is giving her a fire and a passion for what she’s pursuing.

I KNEW I was meant to do this business – what happened to that calling?

it reminded me of how easy it is for me to lose perspective and how quickly I go from being passionate about my business to ready to throw it all away to pursue something else on a whim.

Not because the calling has disappeared, but because I’m sick of what I’m currently doing.

Instead of working on how to get my business back into perspective, I’m off in lalaland dreaming of becoming a mommy-blogger talking about herbal remedies for headaches and teething babies. It feels good to dream, sure. But..is this to be my life calling even if it seems fun for a time?

Does any of this losing perspective stuff ring a bell?

You’re on auto-pilot and burning the midnight oil trying to balance all the activities of life and business that this season brings. You don’t get a chance to be introspective about your business or worry about its deeper meaning. Who needs introspection – give me sleep, please!

You get so preoccupied with maintaining what you have and focusing your energy on growing and growing that you find yourself stuck in a place where the joy of business is gone, the desire to serve your customers is waning, and you’re brainstorming NEW business ideas that will bring you joy.

With the right perspective, you can find that joy again.

You remember why you are doing what you are doing, and you get that fire back. You know what you need to do next and you regain the desire to dream of how you can do things even better. You look at your business and you are in love with it all over again. You were made for this.

Your business plan is the physical connection to your unique business perspective. It’s a dream and profit blueprint created when you take time to see the BIG picture.

When I sat down with my business plan (which had been tucked away for a little too long, obviously!), I was reminded of why I do what I do. And where I want to take this little business of mine.

How do you regain that business perspective? With a balance of introspection and practicality.

Not an airy fairy woowoo business plan that never gets you beyond making vision boards of being on Oprah’s Life Class.

Not an all-numbers, 100% hardcore plan that makes no allowance for your unique situation — it’s all about the PROFITS, woman!

Obviously, you have to pursue money when you have a business. But it’s the not the money goals that keep everything in perspective. You can be making good money at what you do and still lose perspective.

Think of Sam Walton when he came up with the idea of Wal-Mart. He wanted a discount/variety store of American-made products that could match foreign competitors’ prices. In the hunger for growth, he hired a marketing team and the perspective got lost in the desire for more.

What mattered the to the Walton family at founding — American-made products sold at lower prices for the American family — got twisted.

Somehow it became ‘Foreign crap, and who cares who buys it? It’s cheap! Prices are rooooooolling back!’

The founding principle of the company is GONE — and who cares about the American family, anyway?

Profits are great, but let’s add some meaning to them as well. You need to have a motivation of why you are doing what you are doing AND you need to remember what that motivation is when times are tough and you are ready to throw in the towel.

I don’t care if you use my business plan or you create your own. I just want you to create one that is not only about numbers – but about the heart of what you are doing and why you are doing it.

And then, I want you to revisit it regularly. In the good times (keeping record of milestones and celebrating them) and in the hard times (the reminder of what fuels your fire).

Please, do yourself a favor and spend some time after the chaos of the holiday season spending some introspective time with your business.

If you’re inclined to let me help you create a business plan — Happy Place will be just $74.50 on 11.11.11. That’s half off regaining your perspective on business, if you’re interested.