This week I met with incoming members of the Unreal Collective Accelerator and worked through 1-on-1 roadmapping exercises for our 12 weeks together.
In one of those conversations, my client told me that he already has enough work committed throughout the year to be more than comfortable financially, so he was thinking about what comes next.
He went on to say that “he knew he should probably” work towards improving his website, build an audience, create some course or speaking material to leverage…
I paused the conversation, and started asking questions. Things like:
- When you’re procrastinating from something you know you “need” to get done, what do you spend your time doing?
- What do you find yourself wishing you had more time for?
- What types of things do you assume you’ll be doing in the next 5 or 10 years?
Through that line of questioning, we got to a totally different conclusion: instead of building out this specific model for his business, we decided to focus on a personal, creative project he’s been thinking about for years.
We all work so hard – and why do we do it? Presumably so that we can live the life we want to live, see our ideas come to life, and have a little peace of mind.
So when you’re already living the life you want to live and have some peace of mind, what do you do?
It may be disorienting to realize you’ve achieved the goal you set out to achieve. But that doesn’t mean you should start doing things that feel like the next step if you’re not interested in them.
It reminds me of the story of the Businessman and the Fisherman. Sometimes your creative work and your business are the same the mechanism for putting your ideas into the world, and so you WANT to keep investing your time into it.
But often, your work and your financial engine aren’t the same. And if your finances are in order, you’ve earned the opportunity to invest time elsewhere.
We’re all climbing our own mountain. Sometimes, we start to think our mountain looks like the mountain we see someone else climbing – and so we start following their path.
But it’s your mountain. You have to make your own path. Don’t think, “I should do this because that’s what people in my position tend to do” – you have more agency (and individuality) than that.
You owe it to yourself to take stock of the mountain you’re climbing and understand why you’re climbing it – what are you working toward?
We only get one shot at this life. Do what YOU want to do, do it your own way, and be wary of advice.