You don’t need to love your work to be successful as a consultant.
But if the work you do drains you, it might be time to reconsider either what you do or who you do it for.
After all, you got in business to do things your own way, right? Why not build a business you actually enjoy if you can succeed either way?
Here are some signs something needs to change in your business:
- Monday mornings give you a sense of dread about the week ahead.
- You don’t really like your clients overall, for whatever reason.
- You feel drained at the end of every day—even if it wasn’t a particularly difficult day.
- You procrastinate on core tasks that are relatively easy once you get down to them.
- You don’t feel like learning and exploring your area of focus in your spare time.
- Work feels like work—something you need vacations and regular breaks from.
- You’re generally stressed out—during and outside of business hours.
- Your work doesn’t have meaning—it’s just a thing you do for money.
- Your gut tells you you’re out of alignment and that something needs to change.
These are just a few signs and symptoms that you’re out of alignment with the work you’re doing.
You can succeed for a while like this—especially if you’re particular persistent, stubborn, or unwilling to change.
But if you want to be in this business for a long time, become an industry leader, and generally enjoy your life, you’re better off making iterations (or massive changes) until you’ve landing on something that lights you up.
Otherwise, you might as well go get a job somewhere.