Blog #215
When you’re going on vacation, you probably don’t jump in the car and start driving. Most folks typically have a destination in mind and have likely done some research, packing, and preparation. In fact, just getting in the car and hoping that things will work out seems utterly ridiculous. And yet, that is how most of us lead our lives. Often, we act in a reactive nature to life, not in a proactive approach to thinking about where it is we want to go.
I believe the lack of clear direction is a result of the amazing age of abundance in which we currently live. For virtually every generation that came before us, the opportunity to identify a target for the future was extremely difficult. Usually, the only opportunity people had was to focus on survival and taking advantage of what came along. Most individuals are not familiar with how to begin to identify dreams, goals, and the steps needed to achieve – it can seem like a foreign concept. Though many people have started dreaming and setting goals (e.g., a new house, car, career, or so many of the other things that society and the media sell us on what we “should” want), after some time, even these achievements can fall short or feel hollow.
I see this with all sorts of folks, from the new college grad to the empty nester: they have a strong desire to find what is next in life. Discovering one’s Life-Changing Goal, or LCG, can feel extremely scary, yet unbelievingly powerful. Once you know what you want, you can start walking down the path of figuring out how to get it. The attached video will guide you through this discovery exercise.
In the last two blogs, I outlined The Balance Wheel and ways to identify your strengths and possible weaknesses. With The Balance Wheel results in mind, your next step is to complete the LCG exercise. This activity was designed to help you funnel your thinking to truly define your Life-Changing Goal. Once you know this, you are better equipped to clearly define where you are going.
Now, you have a destination; from here, it is just a matter of breaking it down and building your road map to success.
The attached LCG exercise will take you through these five steps:
- List five things you would do if money was not an issue
- List five things you would do if you had all the time in the world
- List five things you would do if you knew you had a defined expiration date
- List five things you heard about yourself (what would others say at your own funeral, for example) that positively impacted the world
- Combine these lists and narrow them down to one or two items (this helps to identify potential themes)
In my experience, people have literally dropped their pens and started crying while doing this exercise; they had remembered something they wanted to do as child, a dream that had been pushed away because it was “stupid,” “childish,” or “impossible” – negative reasons from outside influences. This is your time to dream big, be silly, go for broke, and find what really lights you up. When you discover what it is and then define what success looks like for you, on your terms, you will become unstoppable.
If you are interested in learning how this process works and to access the video and LCG exercise, please click on the following link: https://aspiringsolopreneur.com/tools-welcome/. If you know someone who is struggling, please forward it on to them – in some cases, this activity really opens people’s eyes. Keep in mind that the results may take a little time to process, so it is perfectly fine to take a break from the exercise and return to it later.
In our Aspiring Solopreneur Success Camps, we start with The Balance Wheel and LCG exercises because it is important for each participant to clearly define what their personal success looks like before their journey begins.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this exercise and about your LCG.
By the way, mine is this: By July 2028, I will have introduced 1,000,000 people to a new way of thinking, which will positively impact 100,000 lives or more.
Maybe you are one of those people.
Keep Smiling,
Kris