When you get in the car to head off on vacation, do you decide in advance where you’ll be going?
Duh, Christie.
While it seems obvious in this illustration, it tends to be less so when we apply this analogy to business.
Unfortunately, many of us work hard on our business day in and day out without knowing what “Success” looks like for us. And so we probably aren't headed there.
Success is personal & unique to each of us.
Spoiler: Success is not a dollar figure. It encompasses so much more than just money or our business. It includes impact and lifestyle too. Success is a 3 legged stool.
To be sure our hard work takes us to a destination of success, we first need to define it So let's dive further into that today:
Define your Successful Me in 3 Simple Steps:
Step 1: Vision
We are going to create this vision of Successful Me through a simple meditation exercise.
Don’t check out on me if this scares you. I'd never successfully done this before, but THIS is easy and meaningful.
My mindset coach, Heather Quisel, taught this exercise to me years ago. I still teach it today because, as a CFO, I’m your strategic advisor coming alongside you to help you use your business to achieve your personal vision of success. Obvi we would first need to define success then, right?
Okay, ready, set, let's gooooo:
🌱 Lie or sit down. In a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for a half hour.
🌱 Close your eyes.
Put on quiet music if that helps you - nature sounds work for me.
🌱 Take your thoughts captive.
For me, that means being quiet & catching my little ADHD brain that wanders and telling it to empty for a half hour.
Pay attention to your breathing.
Empty your mind.
🌱 Now that you're feeling peaceful without all the thoughts, imagine you are meeting Successful Me in 5 years.
First, see her from afar.
And then closer and closer until you are meeting her - really envision meeting & talking with your future successful self.
Notice & ask:
❓ Where is she?
❓ What’s her vibe?
❓ Does she travel?
❓ What’s she wearing?
❓ Where does she live?
❓ How’s her family life?
❓ How's her business doing?
❓ What’s her work schedule?
❓ How does she impact others?
❓ How does she spend her time?
❓ And whatever else you want to ask about.
🌱 Stay in this moment for as long as makes sense. Don't rush it. You want to get to know this 5 years from now Successful Me.
Step 2: Capture
🌱 Get out a blank piece of paper (or a new Notability note on your iPad like me!) and write.
Just let it flow. Write what you felt, heard, saw, and smelled.
🌱 Just write and write until it naturally stops.
You'll probably come back to this and add to it later!
This is the future version of you.
The fulfillment of what you want to be.
Your Successful Me.
This is your destination - and if you don’t set it, you won’t head there.
Step 3: Remember
You’ve just honed in on what Successful Me looks like.
We’ll be using that vision of success to help create a business we can use as a tool to achieve that.
Let that soak in.
How cool is it to think that we can use your business as a tool to achieve that Successful Me you just met? As business owners, we control so many aspects of our journey. This is power, my friend.
But just like a New Year’s resolution fades quickly, so will our vision of Successful Me.
Unless we create a way to keep it top of mind.
So how can you keep Successful Me top of mind? Some ideas:
🌱 Write “Successful Me” (I’d sub your own name for Me!)
On your mirror
As your phone's wallpaper
As a screensaver on your computer
On a post-it on your computer monitor
On a note card next to your coffee maker
🌱 Meditate about Successful Me daily - a quick 2-minute version of what we did
🌱 Read your Successful Me page you journaled - every morning, or night before bed, or both?
🌱 Is there a word or phrase that encapsulates Successful Me? If so, incorporate that phrase into your life.
- - - - -
Now that you know where you want to go - Successful Me - you are far more likely to get there.
You have a vision that YOU want to achieve. Isn’t that so much more motivating than just a dollar figure? Yep, for me too.
But now that you have that Successful Me vision, how in the world do you get there? No worries. I got ya. That’s coming up.
4 Steps to Creating a Successful Me:
Define Successful Me (that was today!)
Determine where I am today
Decide on a Route to Get There
Detour when roadblocks arise (because they do - in car trips and in business!)
❓Guess what we'll talk about in next week’s newsletter?
Yep: Step 2 - how to even determine where ya are today (the blue dot on our GPS map - but for business!)
- - - - -
I love this visioning Successful Me exercise - it’s powerful & motivational. All my clients love it too. We do it & refer to it all the time.
BONUS: It allows you to filter out distractions that aren’t moving you closer to Successful Me.
- - - - -
TL;DR:
1. If you don't create a vision of success, you won't achieve it.
2. Success is defined by each of us for ourselves.
3. Success is a combo of income, impact & lifestyle.
4. Create a vision of Successful Me - Vision, Capture, Remember
5. Get ready for next week - Step 2 in Roadmap to Success
That’s it for today, my friend. I hope you found this valuable.
I'd love to hear about your own Successful Me. I can cheer you on. Please DM me on LinkedIn and give me the scoop.
See ya again next week!
Whenever you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
1. Interested in a 2023 planning session or cash flow forecast system? Schedule here.
2. Want to chat about how you can gain peace of mind & confidence with a fractional CFO by your side & on your team? Schedule a call to see if we'd be a good fit to work together.
3. I post on LinkedIn every weekday at 7:15a CST. I'm responding to questions in my DMs from 7- 8. I'd love to connect. Find me here,
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