First, let us ask you a question about your life: “What does “winning” at your job look like?” What does it feel like? Who is there alongside you? Is it about money, notoriety, internal fulfillment, legacy, or a combination?
Here’s another question from a different perspective: “What will success cost you?” What is the cost of making money? Is it time away from your friends, family, or places you want to visit?
The trouble of life seems to be that we are playing games that others set up for us. Their rules, their determinations of success. Even if you love your job, we still suffer from the FOMO of social media, magazines, and media, making us want things we don’t have and caught up in a race towards somewhere we never actually stopped to think about if we wanted to end up at.
Crazy, right? Well this is normal.
Ellen Goodman said it pretty well —
“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to a job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it.“
Ellen Goodman
Time is Money
We sacrifice our time for money. One of my favorite poets, Atticus, also has a great line about this idea.
“What a strange world. We trade our days for things.”
Atticus
What if instead there was a second step: Use money to buy back time (retirement, anyone?).
We live for the weekend, even though the majority of your time is spent during the week. We hate Mondays, which makes Sunday “scary.” We’re burnt by Friday, which makes Saturday a catch up day.
Which day of the week is truly good enough? “Hump day” got a commercial; at least we’re optimistic on Wednesdays (…like this email).
I think the strategy should be to set up games worth playing. The end doesn’t justify the means; the means IS life. Set up your “game” so that BOTH the end and the means make sense, provide fulfillment, and leave you feeling successful. You will not find success without sacrifice; just make sure you’re sacrificing the right things for you.
Your Impact is Your Legacy
In the end, your impact is your legacy…and you should enjoy the process of building that impact. Here are a few things to consider:
- How you choose to measure “success” will determine your focus. Effectiveness is the first step before efficiency.
- Will the people you want to share your success with be there at the end? Keep those that matter in mind, always.
- Is money the ultimate scorekeeper for the job game? Would you do what you do if you were paid half your salary? Would you still do it if you were paid triple?
- Do you have your health? Without it, no game is worth playing.
Tell us how you’re setting up your life for success! Tag us on Instagram in your story with #livebetter.
We love to see people doing life on their terms, always in pursuit of better.
Have the best day ever.
