Three Ideas That Changed My Life
These three ideas got me to think differently about the way I do business and the way I live my life.
I wanted to give you 3 ideas that changed my life for the positive in hopes that they change yours.
Idea #1 Creating Space: A Catalyst for Greater Success and Abundance
Creating space is essential as an entrepreneur. We often struggle to separate ourselves from our business, which can quickly lead to burn out. This kind of mental claustrophobia leads us to feel like we should always be doing in order to reach our goals. My dad always told me that the way you are successful is you outwork everyone. Back when I first got my sales license, he asked me how many hours a week I worked. I told him I was working 60 hours a week. He shouted, “60?! I work 60 hours a week and I’m retired!”
I love my dad and am so grateful for the work ethic he taught me. However, feeling like I was going to have to grind it out my whole life started to feel heavy after a while.
In 2015, I was feeling the burn out. My personal life began to suffer because I was always working and my relationship with my girlfriend Courtney was suffering the most. Around this time, I happened to get in touch with coach Jason Goldberg. I explained to him my issues, how I was always working, and how I was barely spending time with my girlfriend. I told him I wanted to be more present for Courtney and spend more time with her, but when I got home I liked to do business reading and planning
He said something that really made me think: “So basically what I hear you saying is you feel that spending time with your girlfriend will increase the chances that you’re a failure in life.” Well, that couldn’t be right. “Well that’s what you just said” he told me. He helped show me that my belief at this time was that anything that created space in my life was detrimental to my success. Jason, however, asked me a question that would change my life forever.
“If you knew with complete certainty that creating space in your life would allow you to receive limitless success and abundance, what would you do?”
That question floored me. This is how I answered:
- When I wake up in the morning, I won’t look at my phone for at least half an hour.
- Start meditating more
- Walk my dog and not have to listen to a podcast
- Work less
- Move out of the office
- Be present with my girlfriend and spend more time with her
- Eliminate distractions
- Explore passions – surfing, singing, songwriting
- Don’t take my phone out in front of another person
- No work when I’m off
Basically I would work on human Steve more and by doing so, business owner Steve would become more successful. You can’t grow in one area of life and not have that spill over into your business. You can’t compartmentalize the results of growth.
One of the best moves I made to create space was moving out of the office and exploring my passions. Most people don’t do their best work at the office–why was I doing all of my work there? So I moved out. Now, I don’t even have my own desk at our office. I’ve been able to be more productive than ever while working from home.
Additionally, taking the time to explore my passions, especially singing and songwriting, has created a space for me to be more creative in both my work and personal life.
They say that a miracle is just a change in perception. I changed my belief from needing to be working to achieve my goals to creating the space that will lead me to those goals even faster.
Idea #2: What scares you? Do that.
Last year I had an epiphany that everything that’s worthwhile lives on the other side of fear. On some level I always knew that but it started to become crystal clear. Step one is to recognize that if something scares me and my heart says to do it, I move towards it.
I ended up making a bracelet with the phrase, ““What scares you? Do that.” on it, just to remind me to take those risks I might be scared of taking. This simple phrase allowed me to do things like surf a break I was afraid of or hire for a marketing position I didn’t think I could afford. Both ended up building my confidence.
My biggest fear in life is to have regrets. I once heard Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, talk about something he created called a “Regret Minimization Framework.” He used it to list things he would regret not trying and made sure to go after them all.
I don’t want to die without having written all the songs that are in my soul. Or not have an impact on those I love as deeply as I could have. Or play small as to not offend others. I want to go all out and leave it all on the table, personally and professionally.
How Can I Help People the Most?
The goal of my company is to stand out and be different. We aren’t interested in competing on price, we want to create value for our clients and potential clients. I find most companies spend the majority of their time trying to increase revenue, decrease expenses, and hit arbitrary growth targets. Few are relentlessly thinking about helping their customers and team.
So I wanted to play in the blue ocean of intimacy and impact. I even made a game out of it. I identified who I wanted to have a big impact on and I work daily to connect more with them, build intimacy, and learn what they need so I can try to impact their lives in a positive way.
The businesses that stand the test of time are usually the ones focused on helping people, not on short-term gains.
At Good Life, we printed a star and hung it in the north corner of our office. Our north star reads “How can I help people the most?” The team resonates with it and we help keep each other in check when we may be tempted to make a short-term decision that is not in our clients’ or teams’ best interest.
Conclusion
These 3 ideas radically changed my life for the better:
- Creating space as a catalyst to greater success and abundance
- What scares you? Do that.
- How can I help people the most?
Please let me know what you think as I would love to learn from you and continue the conversation: steve@goodlifemgmt.com
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