Getting clear on what you want

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Making significant changes in your business often begins with improving your life in general. Most important is having the confidence that comes from knowing exactly what you want out of life. Once you can define that for yourself, everything else—including your business–can fall into place for you.

There are three simple steps you can take to start making those progressive changes in your work and your life:

1. Keep an Achievements List
2. Keep a Lessons Learned List
3. Have a Statement of Purpose

In our business we are exceptionally busy and we often don’t recognize all of our achievements because we are always focused on the next step forward. So the first step you should take is to create an Achievements List as a note in your mobile phone.

Every time you do something important in your life, put it in your Achievements List. This includes things like making time for your family, having a great day at the gym, or participating in a charity event. Then, if you are having a disappointing day or questioning your abilities, pull up your achievements and remind yourself that you are making progress and accomplishing important things.

Next, you need a list for Lessons Learned. This is where you document things that go wrong and mistakes you make. But this is not a list of failures; this is a list of solutions. After you get through a crisis, write down briefly how you resolved it, what you learned and how to keep it from happening again. Not only is this a reminder for you, but it is also wisdom you can share with assistants and colleagues when they find themselves in similar situations.

Your next note to yourself is a Statement of Purpose based on the often-quoted phrase that the tragedy is not that we will die; the tragedy is that we will live, but allow something important to die within us. Spend some time discovering what is most important to you in your life and write it down so you can see it whenever you need a reminder. This is your purpose. Without it you have very little motivation to accomplish anything.

People feel energized by others who are positive, active and motivated. For your life and your business, you want to have that attractive, vibrant life energy about you. Whatever your age, you have a lot of potentially productive years ahead of you. What do you want to do with the rest of your life?

The book Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly is about fulfilling one’s life dreams. There are exercises you can do from this book that examine your areas of interest, including travel, adventure, creativity, character, legacy, financials, professionals, relationships, spirituality and more, to determine what is most important to you. Once you choose the areas of life that are most meaningful to you, then you can focus your energy on those areas.

This basic life choice was summed up in the movie The Matrix when Neo has to choose between a red pill and a blue pill. Most likely, if you would choose the blue pill you would not be in this business today. The blue pill offers a normal, mundane life. The red pill offers a real chance to live life to the fullest.

Do you want a bigger house than you have now? Do you want to travel the world? Do you want to have a family? Do you want a passive income of 100,000 or more per year?

Don’t be afraid of making money. Money gives you opportunities that you do not have without it. Money allows you to have a positive impact on the world and to support the values you believe in. Money allows you to live a life of significance.

Know what you want out of life. Learn from your experiences. And never forget what you contribute to the world every day. All of this will make a difference in your business and in your life.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Coaching Tip and I look forward to seeing you here again next week.