The Happiness Compass
Three questions. That is the whole compass. I return to them whenever the business starts to feel like a job I gave myself.
If your business is expending energy, why?
A business that is yours should give more energy than it takes. When it starts taking, something in it is not yours anymore: an offer you no longer believe in, a platform you are on because someone said you should be, a client you kept out of fear. The compass does not tell you what to cut. It tells you to look for what is draining and ask why it is there.
If your business feels bad, why?
Not "is it working"; does it feel bad. Those are different questions and the second one is the honest one. A business can be making money and feel bad, and that bad feeling is information. Usually it points at a place where you are doing something that is not on your path.
Business is the rest and the play. How can you make that happen?
This is the needle. Most people run their business so they can afford rest and play later. I want your business to be the rest and the play. Not as a slogan; as a design constraint. If the way you make money is also the way you enjoy your life, the business does not need discipline to keep running, because you would be doing it anyway.
So the question is practical: what would have to change so that working on your business felt like rest, or like play? Start there and work backward.