In his book, Free Play, Stephen Nachmanovitch writes about the joy of playing. He describes play as a state of mind where we focus on the process – the sheer joy of play, and not the end result.

He encourages us to recognize that the act of play in and of itself is the destination. When we play we have nothing to gain and nothing to lose because we have no expectations.

As the leader of my business before I began my workday I say out loud, “I’m setting the intention to play, have fun and be creative in my business today.” I trust that work can be a fun process. I set the intention to notice when my work isn’t fun and then to ask myself in the moment how I can change what I’m doing to make it more fun and playful.

It’s been a lot more fulfilling, and results have been occurring with greater ease. I feel like a modern day alchemist who once had a stack of straw that has now been turned into a pile of gold.

As a leader in your business, set the intention to play, have fun and be creative in your work today and see if it doesn’t make a difference for you and your team.

Here’s to you making an extraordinary impact in your business!

Author's Bio: 

Leslie has over 20 years of experience in leading workshops, educational seminars and empowering small business owners and entrepreneurs around the topic of empowering their teams to double their sales and achieve outrageous results while making an extraordinary impact.

Leslie is an international author whose work has appeared in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and a monthly columnist for “Balance: A Magazine for Montana Women”.

Leslie is a radio personality and former talk show radio host. She hosted her own weekly 2-hour call-in talk radio show called “Living Richly,” and has appeared live on CBS (formally CNN) News Talk Radio. She interviewed experts like 6-time Oprah guest Olivia Mellan and SARK whose national bestsellers have sold more than two million copies, and numerous other authors and speakers.

Award-winning Small Business Mentor and Teamwork expert, Leslie Cunningham is one of the leading experts in empowering small business owners to double their sales, performance and bottom line profits with their employee teams.
She has over 20 years experience in working with small business owners and entrepreneurs and facilitating groups, developing educational programs and building cohesive teams to achieve breakthrough results.