A friend of mine told me quite a shocking story recently. He ran a business from a High Street location … it was Christmas time … The policy was to close the business between Christmas and New Year. He also let all the staff go home at about lunchtime on Christmas Eve.
He had a few things to wrap up so he could shut down for Christmas. It was early in the evening and he was still there.
He was just finishing off doing a few final things, including emptying the till. There were coins and notes in the till and it was on display in front of the large window that he had in the shop.
He was just starting to count the money … when a drunk guy came along and started to prise open the crack between the doors.
… You can imagine what was about to happen!
But it wasn’t that …
He opened a narrow gap and shouted through the crack “It is Christmas, go home!”
My friend said he just felt dreadful: this drunk guy was making more sense than he was!
By the time he got home his family had already gone out partying, so he was left on Christmas Eve because he hadn’t got home as he needed.
He felt terrible!
So he changed things …
Let me ask you a question … what do YOU want your life to be like in 5 years time?
It would be very presumptuous of me to tell you what your life will be like in 5 years!
Of course, I can’t do that because it’s a very personal thing to you. But here is a question for you.
Do you want your life to be the same as it is today in 5 years time?
And, if the answer is no, what would you want to change?
Now, the point is we all have choices about how we live our lives.
You chose to run a business and you’re making choices within that business now about how it is running and so on.
And if you have got that business, the chances are that you’re very busy and you have made sacrifices.
So … there are other questions for you …
Are you free to spend as much time with your family as you would want to?
Are you enjoying the number of holidays that you want to have with the family, or with friends?
Is work your life? Is that your passion or your hobby?
Are you enjoying the life that you have?
We all have CHOICES and so you have to work out and think about what’s really important to you.
But let’s get back to the original question: what do you want your life to be like in 5 years time?
Life isn’t about making excuses because you can’t get somewhere, it’s about having FREEDOM of choices to do, to spend time as you want to. It is about self-development. It’s becoming a more fulfilled person or perhaps a more rounded person who’s really ‘there’ and present with the family.
A different friend of mine runs an astonishing personal development company. He’s got an idea that he calls: The Three Most Important Questions to think about what you want in your life.
The Three Questions to Ask Yourself
- What experiences do you want in your life? Those experiences could be travelling and going to visit fantastic countries or seeing amazing sites. They could also be the experience of owning the house of your dreams or an amazing car. So, it could be ownership as well, but what experiences do you want in your life? To have this you need the 2nd F – Freedom.
- How do you want to grow? Do you want to learn a new language? Do you want to master the skill of marketing? Do you want to become a very inspiring person? What do you need to learn to keep developing? Because if you’re not growing then you are withering and effectively you are dying!
- In what way do you want to contribute? Do you want to support the family? Do you want to have a bigger cause, something perhaps in the town or the country or are you looking to save the planet in a big way? Is there a particular charity that you love and support? This is about making a contribution and allowing yourself to feel validated and having a sense of worth and perhaps significance. We call this the 3rd F – Fulfilment.
Spend some time thinking about those three questions. What experiences do you want? How do you want to grow? And how do you want to contribute? How will YOU get all the 3Fs?
They can set you on a path that says the next five years are going to be remarkable and you are going to achieve everything that you want to achieve.
Maybe through your business and then beyond … so you have all you want in the life that you have.
… That’s the kind of life that’s possible.
For more insights into a life with all the 3Fs follow this link.