No One is Coming to Save You

I feel like some people are waiting for someone to wave a magic wand and fix things for us. It is so empowering when you make the decision that it's on us, and we will make our future exactly what we decide to be. So today I want to go over an exercise that I've done hundreds of times in my life, one that maybe you've heard before, maybe you've done a variation of it, but I want you to have complete clarity in this shifting world again, the world is opening back up. It may never be exactly the way it was, but I know this. A lot of people are going to be left behind, and a lot of people are going to thrive. And what's the difference? Two things. Having the tactics, the tools, and the ingredients that show you how to thrive, to create success, to impact the world, to be a part of an industry that's a revolution, that's growing, you need those tools and tactics. But we also have to go upstream and anchor in those reasons why. So we have an emotional attachment, or else we'll just give up and just wait for someone else to fix it, and then you'll lose ownership. I don't think that's acceptable to any of us. So before we get to some tools and tactics, let's go upstream a little and let's talk about this clarity exercise that I've been doing for over a decade, hundreds of times, and I want to give it to you. And it starts with you being completely honest with yourself on where you are right now in history. Where are you after Covid? Where are you that the world has changed? Where are you with your confidence? Where are you with your income? Where are you with your career? Where are you with your happiness around those things? Where are you with your relationship? Where are you with your health, your connection to a higher power? There's lots of things we can use this tool for to get complete, honestly, get completely honest. Because let's just say it like it is. All change starts when you're brutally honest, that you're disturbed by standing still, you're disturbed by inaction. Think about it. That's how we move. That's how the rocket gets off the ground, is being disturbed with leaving your life the way it is. So unfortunately, you're like, oh, now I'm listening to this podcast and I'm going to get disturbed. Yes, because if you're agitated, you move, right? So let's pick your career, your income, what you do for a living. Where are you with that? Are you happy with your career? Are you happy with the business that you started, are you happy that you started the business, but it's not really going where you want? Listen, we all make decisions for one of two reasons. We're either moving away from something painful or we want to move towards something pleasureful, right? We either have to get out of this job or we lost our job, or it's just toxic, or it's not making me the money I have to move, or life's okay. It's not bad. But, you know, you have another level. You know, God designed way more for you than you're doing. And the inaction of either one of those should disturb you either away from the pain or towards the pleasure. So at any time, you could stop and write this down or come back at another time or type it in your phone. If you were being completely honest about your income, your career, what you do for a living, starting the business, or not any of those, if you were completely honest, where are you? Because all change starts with a starting point, right? All directions on your gps. You need the starting point. Where are you is the starting point. Now that the world has shifted, sometimes things like Covid pull back the curtain and make us really analyze our lives. And we don't want to go back to who we used to be. I get it. I see it every day. Okay, the next thing, if you know where you are now, then we have to decide, where do you want to go now? Right now, where do you want to go? That sounds like an obvious question. I want more success. I want more happiness. I want more joy. If it's not defined, if it's fuzzy, fuzzy targets don't get hit. We need a definitive plan. We need to know exactly what our compelling future is. We need that lighthouse to drive towards. And what is that for you? Most people know what they don't want. That's just the true story. Most people know what they don't want. They're avoiding potholes, they're driving away from problems, but they're not driving towards where they want to go. If you and I jumped in an elevator together and I said to you, hey, it's a year from now and it was the best year of your life, what's that look like? Where do you want to go? Would you be able to literally, in four or five sentences, tell me where it is you want and where you want to go? Or would you go? Wow, good question, Dean. Let me think about it. Because that's what 90% of the people say. I've been asking people for over a decade Good question. Let me think about it. How do you know? How can you get to where you want to go if you don't have your GPS on where it is you want to be? So here's what you do. Let's pretend it's a year from now and it's been the best year of your life. Not looking forward through the year, it's a year you're looking backwards and like, oh, my God, I feel amazing. I look amazing. My confidence, my courage is through the roof. I'm vibrating, my cheeks are rosy. I'm alive again. What had to happen for that to be the case? How come? How much money are you making? What industry are you in? Did you quit something? Did you start something? Did you scale something? Right, of course. You should do this with your relationships, your life, your health, relationship with your children. All of that matters. But pick one for now, where are you if we're going? Career, income, what you do? Starting scaling the business. Where are you with that? It's a year from now, it's the best year of your life. Are you in the information industry? And you're selling products, 100 of them a month, making 10, $10,000 a month. I don't know what it is or are you impacting lives? You're really changing those that need it. You're selling yourself through service. You're helping people go faster, or you finally got that company off the ground, or that invention is working, or you're leading a team. I don't know what it is, but you do. So stop this video, stop this audio at any time you want and really decide. If it was a year from now and it was the greatest year of your life, what does it look like? You can bucket it. Career, income, your business, you could do health and life and love and happiness and your relationship with God, you could do all of them. But this really helps us create the bridge, right? We're on one side of the ravine. That's where we are. Our next level of where we want to go is on the other side of the ravine. Now, before we get to how to get over there, we have to build the enthusiasm, the energy, the stamina to not quit until we get over where it is we want to go. So if we know where we are and then we know where we want to go, the next most important thing and the most important thing to shift your life is why do you want it? Why do you want to have more freedom? Why is it that you want to sell more courses, sell more training, start the business, scale the business make more money. Why? Is it just to have financial freedom? Not usually. Is it just to have money in the bank? Not usually. Is it just to get the Lamborghini and the Rolex? Not usually. It's always way deeper than that. You don't know it until you feel it ding. Your heart to your heart goes. Oh, it crunches, it aches. You feel it. You feel a ping. When you feel that, you know you're in your true why. For me, when I dug into this decades ago, I realized my true why was that I didn't want to go backwards. I didn't like being broke as a kid. I didn't like wearing hand me downs. I didn't like, go to school sometimes and not have lunch money and pretend I wasn't hungry. I didn't like watching both my parents work hard. Three jobs, my mom, three jobs, my dad, two jobs. To not have anything. I'm not going back there. I don't like it. I didn't. I. I did. There was nothing good about it. Money was the, the thing that ruled my parents. I feel blessed that by the time I was 32, I retired both my mother and my father. Well, what a blessing I was able to do that. But I don't want to go backwards and I'll fight for that. I also want my kids to have choices. I don't want two entitled children. Three entitled children. My little one, Luca, is a year old right now. I don't want entitled children or brats, but I want my kids to have choices because I didn't feel like I had choices as a kid. So for me, it doesn't mean this is your why. This is my why. This is the one that dings my heart. But my main reason why I want next level success and abundance and impact the world and make a difference is because I want to be in control of my life. I'm not a control freak. Meaning as a kid, I moved 20 times. By the time I was 19, my mom was married five times, my dad was married four times. It was always chaotic. I was never in control. Had new friends, had to go, had new step family, had to go. New step granddad I really like, but we gotta go. We're moving. They're breaking up. We gotta get out. We got evicted. I didn't like all that. So as an adult, nobody tells me what to do. And no one's ever gonna.