While there are many resources that can assist us in learning, setting goals, getting fit, eating right, building exceptional relationships and all the other things we desire to do to live our best lives, there’s one question we must answer, and it’s one that no one can answer for us.
Why do we want to build our skills at the dealership, for instance? To earn more money? To be able to take on more challenges and responsibility at our company? To become a leader?
These are answers, certainly, but they are not the answers we need to have to really fuel our daily disciplines and activities. Why do you want to earn more money? Why do you want more responsibility? Why would you want to become a leader?
Like a small child, sometimes we must keep asking “Why?” until we reach our ultimate answer. My Theory of 5 mentors and I believe there are two words at the heart of this desire to succeed: Freedom and Independence.
- Freedom — exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
- Independence — freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others
The definitions of these words (from dictionary.com) won’t come as a big surprise — they are basic words we’ve known for almost all our lives — but stop for a moment and really consider them, and what they could mean for your life.
For most of us, they are the ultimate reasons for why we strive to meet our goals.
They are the very reason behind our goals.
“Making more money” is a means to an end. Simply having money won’t necessarily make us happier. Being Free and Independent, though? Now that’s where our lives will change, and make everything we’ve worked for come to life.
Think for a moment and really focus in on what Freedom and Independence would look like in your life and for your family. You would have:
- Freedom and independence from financial stress
- Freedom and independence to live where we want, to go on vacation when and where we want
- Freedom and independence to spend more time with our spouse, our children and other family and friends
- Freedom and independence to say “No” when we want and when we should
- Freedom and independence to stop spending time with people we don’t want to be around
The list could go on and on, and there are details that would be different for each of us, but we can see what a life-changing perspective this is when we get to the heart of why we do what we to in order to succeed.
Money is just a way of keeping score for some people. Achieving freedom and independence is winning the game.
So, what will we do with this newfound insight into what we’re ultimately striving to achieve? We can start to make a map with our true goal in sight.
Planning — What will it take to reach the point where we can feel free and independent? There won’t be one magical day where we reach this point; instead, it will come in stages. If we succeed in our quest in a dealership, for example, we’ll go from performing the tasks our leaders give us, then becoming a leader of a team, and then to leading our company. Each of these levels takes an increasingly complex set of skills and vision.
The only way we’ll build ourselves up, level by level, is by paying attention to what we’re doing. By setting achievable-but-ambitious goals, we can keep track of what we need to do to gain access to the next step of our journey, and we’ll be able to monitor our progress.
Daily activities — In order to build our skills on our way to Freedom and Independence, we need to be constantly in motion, working to expand our minds and abilities to become someone others can look to when they need the job to get done. When we lead, our team will witness us taking steps every day to constantly improve ourselves. We will model the behaviors and the tempo to constantly move upwards.
We don’t do this by taking huge leaps every now and then and resting in between efforts. Lasting success comes from incremental steps and “constant effort” growth mindset. Just as a guitarist doesn’t pick up the instrument once a month and expect to be a rock star, we can’t rest and then expect to see growth in our professional or personal lives. It takes consistent effort each day to take us forward.
Positive mindset — There will be days when we’re tempted to take our foot off the accelerator. By keeping our goal of Freedom and Independence in clear view, however, we’ll receive the discipline needed to keep pushing. Also, with each win, we’ll be encouraged. We’ll believe that our goals are achievable, and that the work we are putting in will reward us with opportunities that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Nothing that we’ve said here is easy to accomplish. Reaching your ultimate goals takes hard work, struggle and occasionally putting your back into the effort when you would rather be doing something else. Frankly, most people are not willing to do what it requires to reach true freedom and independence.
But is it worth it? Speaking for myself and my Theory of 5 mentors, we couldn’t dream of any other way to live.
