Why Enjoying the Process is our Most Important Value

by Joanne Verkuilen, Founder + Managing Partner

Our most important value - Enjoy the Process - drives every major decision.

Most companies have established their values, but it has been my experience that they operate in the background. There is usually a lot of discussion and word-smithing on them - and maybe they go the website or a lucite - but would usually not be discussed again in a meaningful way.

So, I was hyper-focused on wanting our values to have true meaning for us both as a company and to us individually. And I had the huge benefit of starting with a perfectly clean slate.

When Kristin and I first discussed MiddleM's values, we started with the fundamental question of why are we doing this? What is our “why” and how does MiddleM Creative fit into our lives?

For us it was clear: we wanted to do work that we enjoy. To have fun. To work with great people.

So, we decided to make that our overarching, first value:  Enjoy the process.

We want to love what we do, everyday. We want to express our passion, find meaning in our work and create innovative solutions for our clients.

I believe strongly that alignment between joy and how you spend your time is a decision.

I find that when I am in alignment with that part of me that is in joy, I am much more creative, productive and solution-oriented. Work becomes easy, stream-lined and focused.

We don’t buy into the idea that we need to work 100-hour weeks… or that if you aren’t hustling and grinding, you aren’t doing the work. And yes, sometimes we work 100-hour weeks, but only if we are enjoying it and finding meaning in the work.

And what if we get stuck with a project or assignment that isn’t aligning with our inner joy? Which does happen. We regularly check-in as a team, and work to identify why the feeling of the “grind” is back, and help each other to find the pathway back.  It could be sharing the work, it could be stepping away for a bit and focusing on something else. Sometimes there is subconscious worry or fear that doesn’t best serve anyone.

We talk about it, label it, and then work to resolve it. And then get back to our aligning work.

To read more about our values, read Our Values and Why They Matter.