How Will You Know You’ve Arrived?
June 18, 2009
In all situations you’ve been told that it should be a win/win for everyone involved, and you’ve heard that many times. But how will you know if it’s a win for you if you aren’t clear on exactly what your goal is in every situation? In other words if you don’t know your destination, or your desired final outcome, how will you know you’ve arrived?
If you don’t have a vision, followed up with an actual blueprint for your life, how will you know if you’re even going in the right direction, much less arriving? It doesn’t matter if it’s something about your job or your personal life. You have to have a plan, a blueprint for creating your life.
When was the last time you poured out a whole bunch of little pieces to something and decided you’d just put it together without looking at the directions? Crazy, huh? Then why would you do that with your life?
Let me give you an example of how this plays out when two different people are given the same opportunity and they both have their own life blueprint.
Nancy is offered a new job with more money and better benefits than what she’s making right now from her small business she’s building. Now, on the surface you might say, well, that looks like a win. But is it really?
Nancy needs to look at the big picture of how this new opportunity fits into her life blueprint. This new job requires her to work more hours, including some weekends. So is she willing to trade some weekends for more money and benefits which gives her less time with her family?
It just happens that Nancy’s made a commitment in the blueprint for her life and her personal manifesto that:
1) family comes before career
2) after 7:00PM and weekends are reserved for family activities
So her choice becomes clear when those are her most important life goals. Money is not her primary motivation, and this move won’t advance her in the blueprint she has created for her life.
So if Nancy said yes she would very quickly end up being an unhappy, frustrated employee, so this wouldn’t be a win for her or the company. She’d just have more money for the short period of time she could stand the mis-alingment with her purpose. And she’d be no fun at home either.
Because Nancy knows what it will look like when she “arrives” she isn’t distracted by this short term solution that takes her way, way off track from where she wants to end up in her life blueprint.
She’ll pass on the opportunity knowing that staying in alignment with her goals will continue to move her forward and she’s measuring her progress so she knows exactly how close she’s getting.
Now let’s look at the same offer from Mary’s life blueprint. Mary is single, so her vision looks a lot different than Nancy’s. She absolutely loves what she’s doing in her work, but she also knows that to create her life, she needs to be open to new opportunities.
When Mary compares this new offer to her blueprint, she sees that it will give her more money to put towards building the art studio she’s designed for her backyard. That’s a big part of her life blueprint and something that makes her extremely happy and fulfilled.
To make this a reality, Mary is willing to work longer hours and weekends. One of the benefits of this new job with the hotel chain is that she gets discounted hotels rates, and Mary loves to travel to places that she is inspired to paint. To Mary this opportunity looks like a win for her and she thinks a win for the company because she will be a good addition to their vision for success.
Mary checks this opportunity against her personal manifesto and her life blueprint and it plugs right in to where she’s going and it looks like a great next step showing up to get her there even faster than she imagined! And it was so unexpected! Everything she needs is showing up!
Do you see what a difference it makes when you have a vision, followed by a step-by-step blueprint? Do you see where not having this process to go by when making choices could lead you into situations where you have a feeling of emptiness even though it looks good to other people on the surface?
Remember that a great opportunity for one person may be only a good opportunity for you. We all have different goals we want to achieve. Having a clear vision, a life blueprint and a personal manifesto will go a long way to keeping you out of situations that other people think are great for you but won’t be personally fulfilling.
I really want to wave a big red flag for you here.
Don’t tell yourself that you’ll do it anyway even if it doesn’t fit your vision. This will come up at some point. Someone who means well will be pushing you to do something that doesn’t feel right, but will make you look really good.
Don’t give in! Stick to your vision, and you’ll find that saying “no” to opportunities that aren’t a perfect fit will get you where you want to go much faster than trying to make do in a situation that is only partially or not at all what you want and it doesn’t fit your life blueprint.
And when you have your goals clearly in front of you and you know the path that you’re going on and you have your personal manifesto, it is so easy for you to then go ahead and look at whether an opportunity is a great opportunity for you or just a good opportunity and feel comfortable in your soul.
Until next week, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just comment on this post on my blog.
If you would like personal mentoring, send me an email detailing what you would like help with. As your mentor I hold a bigger vision for you than you hold for yourself. When you have faith and a team that believes in you, it gives you courage. When you don’t have to do it all yourself, all things are possible for you. Commit today to go for your dream 100%.
Lynn Pierce, the Success Architect, has taught people how to combine business and personal development to reach the pinnacle of success and live the life of their dreams for over 25 years. In addition, she is also the founder of one of the most exciting annual events for women entrepreneurs, “Empowered Women’s Business Summit“. Now she shares her keys to success and life mastery with you. You can get the first five lessons of “Change One Thing, Change Your Life: A Personal Transformation System”
at http://www.yourbreakthroughtosuccess.com
I would love to have you share your opinions and personal insights on my blog where I’ll also post this article.
http://www.LynnPierce.com
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