Are happiness, success and freedom somewhere over the rainbow?

When I was 18, about to embark on an adventure overseas, my grandmother gave me a small book to document my travels.

However, I had other plans for that little book. Instead it became a goal book.

I neatly segmented it into categories and wrote down every goal I could think of.

They included:

• Stand on the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

• Get a decent SLR camera (back then, there was no digital)

• Travel through at least 25 states in America

• Record my own original CD.

And more…

And you know what, I crossed off most of the goals in that book by the time I was 30 (including all of the above, bar the last one, which I completed at 32).

I’ve always been goal-oriented and a bit ambitious, but lately I’ve been examining my motivations and rethinking what it is I want to achieve in the years ahead and why.

When I first started out as a work at home mum, I really just wanted to do something I loved and earn some extra income to help pay for the kids’ activities and the occasional holiday.

But it was through the process of starting up that I discovered my business legs and as I gained confidence and soaked up knowledge, I realised that the sky was truly the limit.

As other women around me were starting to create wealth and experience great success, I jumped on the money-making bandwagon.

That’s not to say I made lots of money all of a sudden. No, my point is that my focus shifted from doing what I loved for the reasons I loved doing it to chasing a rainbow with the promise of future happiness, wealth and freedom.

Recently, I attended the birth of a baby boy as a birth doula (a trained birth support person) and was reminded that what was truly important to me was working with women, one at a time to make a difference for them and their babies.

The joy on my client’s face and the ease with which she found her feet with her new baby, only confirmed to me that this is the stuff that gets me out of the bed (in the middle of the night). It’s what makes me happy now and all the money in the world could never replace that feeling.

In an age where so many gurus sell this myth that if you make more money you’ll be happier and that if you just do this one thing, you’ll catch that rainbow, it’s easy to get sidetracked from what is truly important to you and what makes your business unique and authentic.

The thing is, if you aren’t happy doing what you’re doing now, and being who you are now, that rainbow will keep teasing you from afar.

Now, you know from my previous posts that I believe mums in business have enormous potential, and I definitely believe women should leverage their potential, but it’s worth taking a good, hard look at why you’re doing what you’re doing, because if you’re not doing it for the right reasons (i.e. because it’s meaningful to you), your chances of reaching that pot of gold are slim.

So, take the time to examine your motivations and your business goals. What is it you truly believe in? Are you doing what you’re passionate about? If so, then the sky is truly the limit.