Finding Your Business Mission Without Losing Yourself

A Guide for Women Online Entrepreneurs

As you embark on your online journey of teaching and coaching, you've probably heard how crucial it is to understand and voice your business mission, what we call in the jargon “your mission statement.”

A lot of the work I do with my mentees and clients is what I call “alignment”, i.e. clarifying your “why” and making sure that the purpose of your business is woven into the fabric of what is really dear to your heart.

That way, you create a vocational business that you deeply care about and that makes you want to show up … even when it gets scary.

But it doesn’t come without its challenges.

In this article, we delve into the importance of differentiating your business mission from your life purpose in order to safeguard your wellbeing, and ultimately creating a sustainable approach to business. And to life.

So, grab a cup of your favorite drink and let's uncover the secrets to creating a heart-led business while maintaining your mental wellness.

Content

1. Whats a Business Mission Statement?

2. Understanding your Life Purpose.

3. The Beauty and Pitfalls of a Vocational Business.

4. Embracing a Heart-lead Business without Over-identification.

   

1. What’s a Business Mission Statement?

If your business was a sparkling castle, your mission statement would be its grand entrance.

A business mission statement is a concise expression of your business's purpose, values, and goals. It serves as your guiding star, providing direction for your decisions and bringing clarity to you, your customers and any future team members.

Think of it as setting your intentions, or making a promise both to yourself and to your audience. A well-crafted mission statement communicates what your business does, whom it serves, and the unique value it offers.

To determine your business mission statement, consider the following prompts:

• What’s the problem, the need or the desire that your business solves?

• How do you specifically solve that problem or fulfill that desire?

• In doing so, how does it make your client’s life better?

• And so, ultimately, how does your business mission contribute to making our world a better place? In other words, what impact do you aspire to make in the world?

• Why do you care? What makes you care about it?

• Who are your target customers? Who are you trying to help? Why do you care about them?

• What is setting you apart from other businesses in your industry? What is it that you can do “better”? (This is your unique value proposition.)

• What principles and beliefs guide your business decisions and actions? How are they similar to your own values? How did you come to develop these values?

As you answered these questions - which I strongly advise you do in the form of journaling - allow your intuition to guide you. Listen to your inner wisdom rather than to the voice of your inner critic and trust that you’ve got something truly unique to offer our world. As you do this, you’ll get a solid idea of what your business stands for, and how deeply connected it is to you.

Remember, it's the combination of your talents, passions, and values that gives birth to a truly compelling mission.

2. Understanding your Life Purpose

So you’ve figured out what your business mission is. Awesome.

But what about your life purpose then? Are these the same?

Not entirely.

While your business mission statement is focused on the professional realm, your life purpose encompasses your overall existence.

Nestled within the depths of your soul, it's the deep knowing of why you are here in this lifetime. It does reflect your values, beliefs and desires for a better world, just as your business statement does, but these are expressed more widely in your life, not just trough your work.

What saddens me is when I meet women who feel desperate to “find” their Life Purpose, as they believe it’s the only way to complete their mission, and therefore to succeed at life.

As we learn from Human Design, some of us are deeply connected to this life purpose (Defined G Center), and others will find this unclear, or they will feel that their mission in life is fluid and ever-evolving (Open G Center). Both experiences are valid and perfectly normal.

Human Design also gives us a lot of information about what we came here on earth to experience and to express in this lifetime, and I do believe that this brings us confidence and determination, especially when we feel a little lost.

However, I don’t believe that a life purpose gets “found” or “fulfilled.”

Your life purpose is always within you. It inhabits you whether you’re aware of it or not. Your life purpose is the role that you have taken on in this lifetime, and as a consequence, the impact you’re making on everyone around you, from the mailman to whom you smiled this morning, to the children you raise.

Even if you didn’t do anything at all, you would still fulfill your life purpose.

While interconnected, your life purpose and your business mission statement serve distinct roles. Your life purpose provides a broader context and encompasses your personal growth, relationships, and overall impact. Your business mission focuses specifically on the purpose and direction of your business.

For instance: Your life purpose may be to inspire others through art, while your business mission may be to provide art workshops and online courses that nurture creativity and self-expression.

3. The Beauty and Pitfalls of a Vocational Business

Alignment is Where Purpose Meets Mission

A vocational business integrates your life purpose and mission statement seamlessly, creating a sacred space where your heart and soul align with your professional pursuits.

This is the business that light my soul and that I want to help you create, solidify and expand, because I strongly believe in the world-changing power of heart-led businesses.

By cultivating a vocational business, you reach true alignment and your passion shows through your actions. No need to fake it till you make it: you live and work with joy and authenticity, “you shine your light” as I keep saying.

The risk however, is to get so absorbed with your business mission that you start to over-identify with it.

The Peril of Over-Identification: Mental Wellness and Avoiding Burnout

When you start over-identifying with your business, you start feeling that this is not a job anymore, it’s a life-long mission.

You start saying things as “this is what I was born to do,” and soon enough your self-worth becomes tied to the success or failure of your business.

This is a dangerous sea to sail, because in business, you’re bound to face disappointments, mistakes, failed launches and rejection. And it’s much harder to navigate all of this when you take everything so personally.

A few examples

• Sending a sales campaign written from the heart, and seeing just a few opens and clicks, but a couple of unsubscribe. When you over-identify with your business mission, this feels personal, you may feel bitter, frustrated or even betrayed. Yet it’s never about you.

• Working with a client who isn’t as committed to their journey as you are. When you over-identify with your business mission, you really care about your client’s results and so you tend to want your clients to succeed more than they do, which can lead you to self-doubt as they don’t get the promised results. Yet, again, it’s not about you.

• I hate to break it to you, but a big part of small businesses fail. Sometimes it’s due to inadequate marketing. Sometimes it’s poor management. Sometimes conjoncture. When you believe that your business mission = your life purpose, i.e. the very reason why you were put on this planet earth… it hurts a lot more than it should.

In all transparency, this is one of the biggest mistakes that I made on my business journey.

Over the years, I had done a lot of work around intuition, self-discovery and energetic work, and my life purpose was very clear to me at the time (despite my open G center in Human Design): I was here to “heal”.

Of course, that can mean many many different things, but I wrongly believed that this life purpose I had newly found and my business mission were the same thing. In my mind, this was “what I’m supposed to do with my life”.

I stayed attached to this belief for a very long time, to the point that it lead me to burnout, anxiety and many difficulties to let go even when being so committed to my business was no longer serving me. I would give it my all - and more! - because failure was not an option : if I failed, I would not only fail at business, I would fail my life!

I’m writing this today with a compassionate smile on my face. Interestingly, I can see now how this was the vision of someone who still had “to heal”. Someone who still believed that she had to “earn” her life, earn her right to live and in this way justify her existence.

For a long time, this was my only way to be. I remember how my husband told me time and again : “Jessica, you know you'd still be worthy even if you stopped doing anything at all? Like, literally, if you just sat on the couch all day, you would still deserve to be alive". It would make me emotional, but it was impossible for me to believe.

Choosing to press the “minimalise” button on my businesses in order to prioritize my children in 2022 helped me tremendously in that sense, to truly understand that my business mission is one thing, and my life purpose is another.

4. Embracing a Heart-Lead Business Without Over-Identification

Creating a heart-led business requires finding the alchemical balance between dedication and detachment.

While I do recommend you take on your business mission with fervor and passion, please take the time to recognize that your worth transcends the success or failure of your work.

Detachment comes from understanding that you and your business are two separate things. Interconnected, yes. But still separate. As I teach in Money Love - my course on financial awareness and money mindset, seeing yourself and your business as separate entities is essential to the wellbeing of both!

1. Observe and bring awareness: When are the moments when you tend to over-identify with your business? Take an honest look at your reactions, and with compassion, reframe your thoughts and beliefs. You are not what you do. You are not what you earn.

2. Set boundaries: Establish clear boundaries between your personal life and business activities. This will help you prevent overworking and burnout. You deserve daily free time even if you’re driven and dedicated!

3. Practice self-care: Prioritize self-care activities that recharge and rejuvenate you, such as exercise, meditation, and spending time with nature or with loved ones.

4. Seek support: Surround yourself with colleagues and coaches who have a similar approach to business and life to yours, so that you can keep nurturing a balanced life while honoring your needs. (Soulful Biz Guidance is exactly that!)

5. Embrace detachment: your business's success or failure does not define your self-worth. Detach yourself from the results (or lack thereof), from the opinions of others, and focus on the joy of the process instead.

6. Cultivate a growth mindset: Your challenges and setbacks are simply opportunities for learning, not personal failures.

7. Celebrate accomplishments: Validate your own efforts, acknowledge and celebrate your achievements as achievements, remembering that they don’t affect your worth as a person.

Conclusion

As you embark on this journey of crafting a heart-led business, remember the importance of differentiating your business mission statement from your life purpose.

Ambition is a wonderful thing. But you are more than your business, so please continue honoring yourself outside of business too. Nurturing your personal growth and well-being, your relationships and your passions outside of business, just as much as you show dedication in your work.

Embrace the magic of creating an aligned business, allow your heart to lead while finding the balance of detachment . With this balance, you can create a thriving and heart-led business that positively impacts both your life and the lives of others.