Another barrier to building an inspired business is what I call Either/Or Thinking. Too often, that’s simply a manifestation of scarcity thoughts. Consider conventional career guidance that encourages us to believe we must have a Single Lifetime Career. In this scenario your 17-year-old self may have made a choice that is a terrible fit for your 37-year-old self. Why can’t you have multiple occupations? You can, of course, but if you’ve been schooled in Either/Or Thinking, you may not have contemplated such a radical notion.
One idea-generating remedy for this is to build an Option Bank. An Option Bank, just like the place where you store money, is a repository of good ideas, dreams and goals. Like an ordinary bank, the more you put in, the more you can draw out. This is also the place where you leave employee thinking behind.
How many ways can you think of to make money? How many ways can you have more fun? How many ways can you connect to other people? Bank your answers to those questions and keep adding to the lists. The more options you can see for yourself, the more flexible you’ll be. You’ll find solutions more quickly and build a bigger life.
By the way, your mind is a lousy place to use as an Option Bank. For this you need paper or a file.
$100 Hour Idea: Look in your Yellow Pages for Market Research companies. Get yourself listed in their databases and make yourself available for occasional studies. You won’t get rich doing this, but you will add another fun moneymaker to your Option Bank.
Explore More: Check out One Person/Multiple Careers by Marci Alboher. Not only will you meet people who have combined unlikely career choices (i.e.rabbi/standup comedian), Alboher shares great information about how to take this road less traveled. This is full of stories of folks who have created a life that includes all of their passions.
Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.–John Steinbeck
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