What To Do After you Have Sold Your Business

So you’ve just sold your business. Perhaps you have a good idea of what you’d like to do next, or maybe you’ve never even considered the matter. Either way, you’re now in a privileged position to reinvent your life, and it’s important to choose your next move wisely.

Living a happy life is an easy goal to aspire to, but a difficult one to achieve. In his 2014 book Happiness by Design, LSE professor Paul Dolan gives this problem some serious thought. His conclusion is that a life worth living contains an optimal balance of purpose and pleasure. Here are some ways to achieve this.

Create a Life to Reflect Your Values

One sure-fire way to create purpose in your life is to ensure that your career serves your values. At first glance this seems obvious, but think about it: although you built up a successful business, what was your motivation? The usual answers to this question are because you had an idea and wanted to see how far you could take it, or to become rich, or because you were good at something.

These are all great reasons, but they’re not necessarily ones that will enrich you on a deeper level. Paradoxically they tend to control you, impelling you to keep running after an end goal, which isn’t as substantial as you imagined it to be. But when you decide what your values are and use them to guide your work and home life, you’ll experience an on-going sense of satisfaction that can’t be matched by goal-chasing.

Surround Yourself With Like-Minded People

This can be the most important factor in helping you live the kind of life you want to lead. But don’t fall into the trap of simply settling for agreeable company: the idea is to make connections you find inspiring or which present you with positive challenges. And bear in mind that you’re not a mediocrity, so you shouldn’t hang out with people who are big on groupthink.

Finding like-minded souls isn’t easy. The great news is that in the internet age it’s possible to connect with an inspiring network even if you live in a remote part of the world. But be sure not to neglect your real-life relationships, even if you’re an introvert. A regular dose of the right kind of company is a valuable and sustaining experience.

Check in With Your Feelings

The more intellectual among you probably view the mention of feelings with understandable scepticism, but emotions aren’t necessarily a distraction from rational thought. Learn to interpret them wisely and they can be a reliable indicator of whether you’re living according to your values.

For example, when your values are violated it’s normal and healthy to feel emotions such as frustration or anger, so don’t rush to get rid of them by venting. Think about the situations or people that gave rise to them and then make a truly informed choice about how to respond.

Remind Yourself to Be Mindful

Building a satisfying, meaningful life demands constant reflection and goal-oriented action, and being frantically busy is the enemy of both. Whenever you’re too busy you’ll have a tendency to function on autopilot and may end up squandering your energy on busywork.

To keep your life on target it’s a great idea to start and end each day with a period of reflection. In the morning, think about what you can do to serve your values over the day ahead, and in the evening reflect on how well you’ve achieved this.

Sing When You’re Winning

Like most high achievers, you’re probably programmed to be critical of yourself. All the more reason to develop the habit of patting yourself on the back when you get things right. Serving your values imbues your life with ample amounts of purpose, but it’s important not to overlook the second ingredient of happiness: pleasure.

You’ve already considered getting enjoyment – and much more – from your like-minded friends, but it’s often the ability to give yourself a boost that really matters. So whenever you feel you’ve scored a winning goal in life or at work, celebrate. Don’t wait to be prompted by others.

If a happy life is one featuring a good mix of purpose and pleasure, implementing these suggestions will put you on the road. But don’t forget that it’s your experience of life as you live it that counts the most, and not the goals you achieve along the way.

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