The office dog – My key perk at work

How a Four-Legged Employee Can Bring You Success Dog or Cat lover which are you? Either way do you wish you could take your pet to work with you each day? As a business owner you get to choose…. Why don’t you let yourself choose what you want while you’re at work? We often believe that the workplace needs to be a place devoid of the things that make us happy. Some people rationalize this belief and reason that these things would cause too much of a distraction and hurt business. The reality is that the exact opposite is true. When we surround ourselves with the things that make us happy, we perform better, are happier, and show more gratitude. Why not bring your dog with you to work every day? When we operate with feelings of contentment and gratitude, people gravitate towards us and envy our success and happiness. bringing the office dog to work with you everyday will make you happy What is the price of happiness? We’ve all experienced it. You suddenly think of your dog while you’re at work. He’s all alone, wondering if you’re ever returning home, and looking infinitely sad. It’s depressing to remember that your dog sits at home by itself for as many as 12 hours of the day. What price would you put on the ability to spend the entirety of every day with your pet?  $20k? $30K? Name your price. I’m not sure I can put a price on it. The luxury of having my dog by my side while I’m at work is literally priceless. Why do we defer our happiness? If you think having your dog at work might be beneficial for both of you, what are you waiting for? What’s holding you back? You could probably bring your dog with you to work today if you really wanted to, but you choose not to. The business you’ve created for yourself gives you none of the things that truly bring you pleasure. Why start a business only to work more hours than you did before? You affect your own reality. How you function each day is entirely your choice. If you don’t have a choice, you have a job. You remember having a job, right? A job is a place where you are told what to do, when to arrive and leave, when to take breaks or time off, when to clock out, and who to work with. You couldn’t wait until the day was over so you could get the hell away from your job. Do you feel the same way about the business you run now? Gratitude Affects Your Attitude How you perceive the world around you has a tremendous impact on how you behave. Find things to be thankful for. The more gratitude you have in your life, the better your outlook and attitude will be. What’s more, as you welcome more gratitude into your life, you’ll notice a wonderful byproduct of your new attitude: people will want to be around you. You’ll connect with the people who surround you in ways you never thought possible. When you finally make the time to incorporate more gratitude into your life, you’ll discover new ways to use your skills to benefit others. How do you perceive the world affects your attitude The Dreaded Commute How many hours of your life do you burn every day on your commute to and from work? How much money would you spend if it meant that you could have that time back every day to focus on whatever you wanted? If you spend two hours each direction on your commute, after a five-day work week, that’s 20 unpaid hours per week. Make the trip every week for a year and you’ve wasted 960 hours on your commute. At $30 per hour, that’s $29 freaking grand!! Keep it up for five years and you’ll accumulate almost $150K in wasted time. That’s a lot of money for the “joy” of sitting in a car, on a bus, or on a train. Making Real Freedom Your Reality Many small business owners build a business they end up hating. Why? I’ve no idea. It seems they feel an obligation to replicate the traditional corporate world. Out of perceived necessity, they work nine to five or eight to six. Why operate on a traditional work schedule if it doesn’t benefit you? If you find you work best with a two-hour nap in the middle of your work day, why not set an alarm and doze off in your office? Work 12 hours a day for four days a week and make every weekend a three-day weekend. Imagine what makes you happy and build your business around it. If you aren’t sure how to go about this process, try reverse goal setting first to help identify the things you don’t want. A man and his dog (and his business) In the future, many businesses will be automated; I imagine each business will have just two employees: a man and a dog. The dog will be there to stop the man from touching anything. The man will be there to feed the dog. The machines will do all the work, leaving the man and the dog free to focus on what’s most important. It’s the business model that I strive to achieve. It sounds pretty good to me. the man and his dog and his business Protecting Your Dream A few weeks ago, I met a guy at the gym. He just started training in our group of four. We got to talking. I asked him how he was able to train at 10am on a Wednesday. Like me, he runs his own business. For the past decade, he’s only worked four days a week. He and his wife wanted to have extra time with their children. They made it a reality. When he mentioned that he sensed a coming sale or merger would bring him back into the five-day work week, I challenged him to reconsider. If it’s worked for him for the past decade, why not just stick with it when you get new business partners? Who says you have to revert back to a five-day work week? Mixing Business with Pleasure My buddy Daniel owns a boutique entertainment agency called Applause Entertainment. Recently, he moved to a new office and bought a ping pong table. The table now dominates his office. mix business with pleasure He loves to play and will drop work at any time to have a game. Prior to picking up a paddle in his office, it had been nearly 20 years since I’d last played. I forgot how much I loved to play. We have regular matches now. When you run your own business, you must take advantage of the pleasures, flexibility, and choices that such a position affords you. These are privileges that cannot be assigned a dollar figure. They should be one of your primary motivations; you must always take advantage of them. A Life Less Ordinary There’s a reason you chose to leave your regular job behind and open your own business. You didn’t plan on having the same experience that you did when you were an employee, did you? What is the ONE THING you will do differently as an entrepreneur that you never did in the corporate world? Blue sky thinking. It’s your vision. Break the rules. Reinvent how you work. Reimagine your ideal, optimized environment. You must create a workplace that brings you joy. Without it, your business may bring you financial success that exists without happiness. Increased happiness at work will help you be more successful. Bring your dog with you every day. Put a ping pong table in the office. Take a nap every day. Your new, utopian workplace is within reach. Reframe your world, rethink your attitude. Your perception of the world around you will begin to change your life in new, positive ways.  

About the Author:

Ronan Leonard is a Mastermind facilitator and Mastermind teacher. Connecting entrepreneurs and small business owners together to create the perfect Mastermind groups or teaching self-employed professionals how to run their own groups. Small business owners are often overwhelmed with to-do lists and need impartial advice to get the right support to help them achieve their goals.