Measuring Success with Your Own Yardstick: Undoing the Mind Scramble of Misinformed Success Gurus

Answer this: Do you REALLY want to be a millionaire?

Yes, of course you’d love a lot of money.

But do you want to do the work, take the risks, sacrifice the free time with your family and friends, to become a millionaire?

It’s a serious question.

Because we see $1,000,000 as an end goal, but forget the sacrifices we need to make to get there.

I know there are a lot of promises out there from coaches who are sure they can teach you to become a millionaire.

I don’t doubt them. I’m sure they can teach us to be a millionaire.

Yet, despite the thousands of people who take that course, how many are ACTUAL millionaires?

The reality is, working millionaires are made not born.

And most people work their asses off to collect $1 million.

Which isn’t bad or good.

But the question remains, Is it for YOU?

Personally, I could live on $300,000 a year, even $200,000, heck, $100,000 isn’t shabby.

Most Americans don’t even come close to making $100,000 in a year and they seem to do OK.

You need to weigh the  costs and benefits of trying to make a lot of money.

Yes, it is possible to make big bucks. Yes, you work long hours. Yes, you need to hussle. Yes, it can be exhausting and you don’t see your family much. But you have a lot of money.

OR

You can make very good money (I’d say $100,000 – $200,000 is very good money). And have more time to spend with your family, do things you love to do, see your child’s soccer games.

Of course, you still need to work and you won’t be sipping mai tais on the beach every day (but maybe a week out of the year), but you don’t need to be working crazy hours and driving yourself nuts trying to meet an enormous money goal.

But maybe, maaaybeee you value your time more than the money.

Maybe you want to make less than $100,000/yr and have lots of time to take care of your kids, or elderly parents, travel, volunteer. Maybe you have a day job and want to make an extra $10,000 to take a kick ass vacation this year.

This is the place where we start to talk about defining success on YOUR TERMS.

We live in a culture that tells you that $1 million = success.

I blow raspberries at that idea.

Success = you reaching YOUR goals.

But even the definition of our personal goals gets muddy.

Sometimes we confuse other people’s goals for us, as our own.

Ever have a parent suggest you become a doctor? Yeah, me too.

So we need to spend some time doing what I call, “Undoing the mindscramble of the misinformed.”

Since you were a little kid, people had expectations of you. Maybe you heard loud and clear who others wanted you to be. But maybe it wasn’t clearly spelled out.

Still, you know when people are pleased with your choices and when they disapprove.

Since we all want to be liked we adjust our behavior and thoughts to align and match those around us.

So, if you are in a professional circle of people who are striving to be millionaires, you will think that goal has value, too.

So how to undo the mindscramble and get clarity on your own definition of success? So glad you asked..we’re discussing that in my next Psychology of Business class and it’s FREE. Sign up here if you want to learn more about doing success on your terms.