After last week’s post about what do I want the most amazing thing happened the next day, I figured it out. It’s very clear, I’m very definite.
I want it all.
So Tuesday through Thursday I rode high on the cloud of optimism of having decided.
Then I figured out, all is not very well defined. It doesn’t tell you much of anything really.
What is all?
This week all means finishing my Masters in Internet Marketing while shuttling kids to camp and contemplating adding another staff member. Now that my masters is complete wanting it all means stepping back on the scale to see how much damage I’ve done in the “I don’t care what I eat I’m in grad school” mode.
I think one important lesson I’ve learned over the last few years is that wanting it all really means weighing the cost and deciding the sacrifice is worth it. Whether it’s starting a business, going to school or launching a speaking career, there are costs associated. I can want it all but I can’t do everything. Many people have said I don’t know how you have done a full time business, 3 kids while going to grad school. It is very simple, you really have to decide what balls you are juggling that don’t ACTUALLY matter. I’ve had to live in a bathroom that isn’t clean all the time and the laundry is rarely folded. But the sacrifice is worth it.
The other important lesson I’ve really learned this last year is that you really only have today. You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. I know you are thinking duh. But while I knew this I didn’t KNOW this in my heart. Friday will come and it will go, but what have I done today to have it all. Have I spent time with my children or was today a heavy work day? Did today matter in terms of enriching my life.
Live on purpose, so trite so overused, so underpracticed.
It seems like such a simple question. As entrepreneurs, we theoretically get to decide. Often we don’t decide though. We start a business, we begin to get clients, we do the work and we make a profit (hopefully). Mostly we work until we fall asleep to get up and start over.
But do we actually contemplate after the start of our business what we actually want.
If success is a journey, then what we want should define what we want that journey to look like.
Have you ever sat down to just write down how we want life to go. Good health, plenty of money, good relationships. This is a start, but can you measure good health. Shouldn’t there be some parameters?
Today, I went for a walk and all I thought of the whole time was “What do you want?” My mind wandered and wandered. I’m reading Think and Grow Rich for the 3rd or 4th time. I’m pretty sure this demonstrates my rebellion since he tells us to read it 3 times in a row so you can really get the message. The first step on the journey is a burning desire. Napoleon Hill tells story after story of people that got what they wanted simply because they decided.
For now I must be content with the question, as I have no answers. Do you know…..what do you want?
When I embarked on the entrepreneurial journey 12 years ago, I don’t think I thought through what this would mean for my personal development. We looked at the cost of purchasing the business vs. starting our own. We looked at what it would mean for our family, my husband less than one year out of college with 2 children and a third on the way.
Now I know that it has been the journey of a lifetime. Often times our business doesn’t look like a 12 year old company because we chose to spend the first 10 years covering the basics like girl scouts, soccer, basketball and billable hours. Essentially we owned our own jobs.
Personally I’ve had to learn to discover what buttons from my past are glaring for all to push whenever they want, if you heal the button no one can push it. I’ve learned that money doesn’t buy happiness but lack of money earns a whole heck of a lot of unhappiness. It turns out strategic planning is not figuring out what’s for dinner next Saturday.
When I first started public speaking back at the ripe old age of 26, my favorite slogan was, “Success is a journey not a destination.” At that point it was a nice idea, but not a personally experienced truth. Over the last decade, I’ve found that it isn’t just truth it is an absolute essential component to sound mind.
My time on this front porch will be spent exploring what does the success journey look like, from a business perspective, as a parent and a spouse of a loving 17-year marriage. Hope you will join me. – Guest post on Basics Matter.