The Thought: Financial motivation is enough to get you going but not enough to keep you going (with fulfillment, at least).
The Context: Money and things were the things that I derived my status, security, and worth from. Looking back, it wasn’t a good long-term solution.
Money and material things are an unhealthy external validation that will never give long-term satisfaction.
Those things will be a nice byproduct of the conversation this week.
WARNING: Read at your own risk. I’m pressing into everything we hold holy on the altar of success.
I don’t blame you if you want to unsubscribe after this letter.
One of the richest men to ever live said:
“Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!”
“Chris, are you anti-money and wealth?”
No, not at all. Well, unless it owns you.
Money and wealth have tremendous utility and can do a lot of good. I can’t pay the mortgage payment with good vibes and intention.
We tend to become enslaved to the things (s) we think give us freedom.
I-Was-A-Slave. ugh.
I had big businesses, great income, accolades, peer-“atta boy’s” toys, and it owned me.
How? I needed those things to validate my worth.
Sustained success comes from internal, not external.
We live in a world that values everything external. If that’s the premise of how we operate in business, nothing is ever enough (like the King said).
When we don’t think we’re valuable, worthy, or worthy of love WITHOUT EXTERNAL SUCCESS, we’ll always chase what will say I’m finally worth attention, care, love, and acceptance.
This is anything that gives validation that — “I’m good and valuable.”
Caveat: I’m not saying any of those things are bad. I am saying that we need not derive our meaning and existence from those things (anymore).
The Order of Long-Term Success…
1. Identity: It’s Fixed
When our identity IS, we don’t need anything to validate us. You and I already have innate value and worth. When we live in THAT truth, I won’t seek to find it outside myself.
I can still find joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction in other things, but I won’t NEED it. That’s the key difference.
By the way, I’m not talking about narcissism. I’m talking about health.
Much of my time and effort in building business and achieving success has come to validate ME. 😆
What a human thing to do.
When I love me, I approve of me. I value myself. I say I’m good enough. I don’t need to rely on external things to fill that internal cup. Yup.
A fixed identity isn’t entangled in a business or strategy or relationship or assets or ______________.
Those things are great and OK but do not define you or me.
Everything stems from a healthy identity.
Identity is being.
2. Purpose: Flows from Identity
This is Why I am.
Purpose is what gives meaning and intention to what we’re doing. If identity is being, then the purpose is our doing.
I don’t think my purpose is to be a doctor. Love doctor, maybe. But not a real doctor.
The ancient Japanese process for finding purpose interests me and makes sense….
The simple version is this…
Find:
- What you love
- What you’re good at
- What the world needs
- What you can be paid for
The above intersection might be where you find your “purpose.”
Working from purpose is a key to longevity because it contributes to fulfillment.
From what Jim Collins has discovered in his studies on businesses that last -they meet the above criteria—proofs in the puddin’.
3. Vision: What I see
Vision isn’t, “I want to make a million dollars, bro.”
A good vision flows from “who am I” and “why am I.”
Again, it’s top-down because our vision can grow, develop, and expand as we grow, evolve, and expand.
Not just another million, bro. Haha, I’m having too much fun with the scale-bro rhetoric.
What do you see and feel is possible? Create!
4. Strategy: The Plan to Accomplish the Vision
Strategy is the business, the investing, the diet, the routine, etc. Those things are all flexible.
Businesses, relationships, money, assets, etc., are all things that come and go.
We (read, I) get into danger when we intertwine our identity with those things, so when they’re ripped from our cold, bony fingers, we get burnt up, and not in a good way.
Some of these thoughts I pulled from one of my coaches, Stephen. He says a healthy identity is the thing that pulls us forward. With my experience, I think he’s right.
By the way, I love strategy things. They’re good and important but even more fun when not ruling our souls. 😉
Chris