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As part of my commitment to supporting people in finding more freedom and joy in their work and moving away from the slavery and toil many have experienced in their corporate lives, I constantly encourage them to look at their choices through the lens of love.  Loving what you do is a crucial perspective.  Inevitably, in a Portfolio Executive work style, some tasks may not always bring joy, but you can make intentional choices, which allows for doing more of what you love and less of what you don’t.   

Four Key Areas for Loving What You Do: 

1. Taking on New Challenges

When you step out of a full-time salaried corporate role, you will likely have many preconceived ideas of what you love doing and what you hate.  However, it is worth setting aside some of your assumptions and becoming open to brand-new challenges that will take you out of your comfort zone. 

There are several activities that I have chosen to take on, even though I have come to them with fear, reluctance or discomfort: 

• I hated entering a crowded room and starting conversations with strangers, so I joined BNI to learn how to network in face-to-face situations. The training was superb and transformed my confidence. I can now enjoy ‘working a room’. 

• I was fearful of following up on opportunities and bringing clients to commitment.  I chose to invest in Sandler sales training to equip me to remove dependence on referrals.  I now look forward to talking to clients about working together. 

• When faced with a blank sheet of paper, I struggled to write blogs and articles.  However, I decided to commit to writing a regular column for a monthly newspaper and broke out of writer’s block.  I now produce content every week and enjoy the process. 

• I had a deep reluctance to take the lead in group situations. However, I chose to learn how to run CEO mastermind groups, which required leading individuals at the top of their game. As a result, I learnt to enjoy, even relish, the experience. 

I encourage you to write down your personal list of ‘I will never…’s and then challenge yourself to try something new or break free of the curse of ‘never again.’ 

2. Client-Based Work 

When working with clients, taking on tasks or responsibilities that may not align with your expertise or that you don’t enjoy is common.  This can create an unhealthy dependency for both you and the client.  To avoid this, it’s vital to:   

• Pass tasks back to your team or the client’s when appropriate.   

• Coach, mentor, or recruit additional team members to handle these tasks.   

• Consider outsourcing specific activities to trusted suppliers.   

If you don’t continually focus and ask yourself, “Am I loving what I am doing?” you are likely to pick up all sorts of stuff you never really wanted to do but are doing because you are there.  During the first three months, where I recommend you work one day per week for a client to get embedded, you may need to do some tasks you don’t enjoy.  However, this period should set the foundation for passing these activities to others, enabling you to focus on what you love and what aligns with your strengths.   

3. Supporting Your Business 

As a Portfolio Executive, managing your business often involves many activities.  Being intentional here can make a significant difference:   

• Marketing and Awareness: If you love writing or speaking, incorporate them into your strategy.  Write blogs, create podcasts, or produce videos.  If these aren’t your strengths, delegate writing to freelancers or limit speaking engagements to formats that suit you, such as video blogs.   

• Administrative Tasks: These can often feel burdensome but are necessary for running a business.  My key recommendations include:   

• Hiring a bookkeeper to manage expenses, invoices, VAT, and tax returns ensures everything is noticed.   

• Engage a virtual assistant (VA) to handle scheduling, appointments, travel arrangements, and maintaining your online presence.  A good VA is invaluable and can help keep you accountable for non-urgent but essential tasks.  Over time, I have built up a team so that I have backup.   

• Building long-term relationships with freelancers or a team to support tasks like CRM management, website updates and video editing.   

Freelancers can engage in all of these things.  I propose you take on the strategy of building long-term relationships with people that you trust to do those activities as and when necessary.  In that case, management becomes a lot less demanding.  In this modern world of the Portfolio Executive, you need to spend significant time or money maintaining your presence.  I have chosen, as far as possible, to spend money rather than time to do more of what I love.   

4. Loving what you do when you’re not working 

One of the most significant advantages of the Portfolio Executive lifestyle is its flexibility.  With only 12 fee-earning days per month, there’s considerable time available for personal pursuits.  However, it’s easy to let business-related activities consume this time if you’re not intentional.  I strongly encourage you to do more of what you love to do when you’re not working.    

Consider: 

• Spending more time with family and friends.   

• Pursuing hobbies or interests you’ve always wanted to explore.   

• Contributing to charitable initiatives, politics, or community work.   

• Travelling or investing in personal relationships and family life.   

You will need to make these personal priorities intentional.  Setting clear goals ensures you maximise the opportunities with a flexible schedule.   

Conclusion 

The Portfolio Executive work style offers a unique opportunity to make choices that align with what you love in all areas of life.  By being intentional, you can:   

• Love what you do for your clients by focusing on tasks that align with your skills and passions.   

• Love what you do to support your business by delegating or outsourcing activities that don’t bring you joy.   

• Love what you do outside of work by prioritising meaningful personal goals.   

You can create a fulfilling, balanced lifestyle by consciously shaping your work and personal life.   

Charles McLachlan is the founder of FuturePerfect and on a mission to transform the future of work and business. The Portfolio Executive programme is a new initiative to help executives build a sustainable and impactful second-half-career. Creating an alternative future takes imagination, design, organisation and many other thinking skills. Charles is happy to lend them to you.