What Does it Mean to Be a Life Entrepreneur?

Connecting the sabbatical experience to being a Life Entrepreneur makes perfect sense to me.  Think about it from this perspective….

I have often related a theory about the decades in our lives:  In our 20s, we try to figure out who we are; in our thirties, we work really hard to build our careers and fit into society (this is maximum people-pleasing time); we turn 40 and we start to wonder what it is all about, and if we really want to do this for the rest of our lives.  At that point, the questions start to become at least as important as the answers.  This is a decade of re-thinking, re-evaluating, and we start to realize around forty-five that it isn’t so important whether people like us, it is more important that we like ourselves.  At 50, we question whether we even like them (!), and how  they fit into our lives, and start getting much more serious about how we live and with whom.  At 55 and beyond, we care less about what others think at all and set about truly creating the life we would love to live.

These periods are not actually set in stone, just markers, because I have seen people move through them faster, based on the amount of self-work they are willing to do.  I’ve had clients in their thirties who were already well into the re-thinking and re-evaluating period, and some in their fifties who were just discovering that they had choices about how to live.  The point of this is that self-awareness is a process and the more aware we are, the more effectively we can move through the process.

So, being a Life Entrepreneur means consciously creating as we go.  My tag line, Master the Business of Life actually expresses the essence of this:  my primary business is the business of being Margery Miller, and the amount of time, energy, effort and strategic thinking I apply to that endeavor determines my success ratio.  If I walk around waiting for something to happen to me, if I worry about whether people like me, if I focus on what I don’t want instead of what I would love to experience–those are all ways that I could thwart my success as a Life Entrepreneur.

It means that in order to have a fulfilling life, I pay attention to all seven areas, Spiritual, Mental, Vocational, Financial, Familial, Social and Physical, and create my life with a goal of empowering ALL seven areas, not just succeeding at being a consultant, or coach, or making a lot of money, or having certain kinds of relationships.  The Demartini work focuses on breaking down the myths we carry in all aspects of our lives–not just the ones we think are most important at any moment.

I believe that being a Life Entrepreneur opens up myriad possibilities of how to get the most out of what is called the second half of life.  We have a lot of years ahead and “retirement” just isn’t attractive or even now possible for a majority of people.  So what do we do?

We can appreciate the synchronicity of having a global economic collapse occur at the same time a vast number of people on the planet wake up and realize there has to be more to life than getting by or making it through the day, or stepping on and abusing others to fulfill the hubris of greed and power.  We can thank technology and the internet for creating a global consciousness–and connecting people who may never meet but who are starting to think differently by being aware of each others’ existence.

We can start designing our lives and adapting to the constant changing world we live in by understanding that living life fully is an inside job.

Margery Miller, owner of PeopleBiz Inc. is a coach and business consultant and is currently writing a series of blogs encouraging people to see themselves as Life Entrepreneurs. For more information see margerymiller.com, or write to her at margery@peoplebiz.com.