I apologize for the disappearance over the last week. I’m really just going with my gut these days, and not forcing myself to do anything I don’t want to. I didn’t feel like writing last week, so I didn’t.
This weekend I went up to Chicago for a program run by the Strategic Coach called the Unique-edge. The Strategic Coach is a success coaching program for entrepreneurs, helping them work less, earn more, doing what they love. Unfortunately this program has pretty high income requirements (must be an entrepreneur earning over $100,000+), but the program I attended this weekend obviously didn’t have these steep requirements. It was a program designed for 18-24 year olds, looking to understand more about themselves and set a course for the life where they work on their strengths and passion. The basic idea is the key to the Elf (easy, lucrative, fun) life is putting yourself in a position to fully utilize your natural strengths, and putting the work in your weakness areas in the hands of others who are better suited.
It is a very simple, obvious approach to life, but for some reason it is constantly ignored. The general idea seems to be that there are just some things in this life that we hate, but we have to do. My question is, why? Why if you hate to cut the grass, would you ever do it? You can easily pay someone a relatively small amount of money to cut your grass for you, and you never have to worry about it again. Instead of doing an activity that takes time, takes energy, and makes you unhappy, you now can devote yourself to more productive, energetic activities and as a result you’ll be much happier. All that for a few more bucks a week, what a deal!
I’ve been trying for over a year to do EVERYTHING surrounding my startups. I thought I had to do all the planning, all the sales, all the accounting, and all the execution…THEN hire people on once I start to make money. The truth is, I’m terrible at accounting, terrible at organization, terrible really at setting a plan and executing it. I’m just really, really good at seeing how things work, knowing how to improve them, and figuring out how to do it. My time is really best suited to brainstorming. When I’m brainstorming, I’m FILLED with energy, FILLED with ideas, FILLED with happiness, and my tolerance is endless. I could work all the time, 7 days a week, 20 hours a day brainstorming and I’d never get bored. But when I put those tasks on my list, such as accounting or organizing they suck the life out of me. I know they HAVE to be done, and I once thought I had to do them because it’s part of life. But what I’m learning more and more is that, not only do I not have to do them but I’m actually better off not doing them.
Life is way too short to be filled with things you don’t like, that don’t energize you, that don’t make you happy. I used to justify doing things I hated because I didn’t have a choice. It used to say, “well I have to do this because I need the money,” or “I have to do this because it’s part of starting a business,” but I don’t want to say that anymore. I want to fill my world with work that gives me energy and fills me with passion, with people that give me energy and fill me with passion, and with hobbies that give me energy and fill me with passion.
Anyway, I plan on providing a lot more info about what I learned this weekend over the coming days. I’ll also start posting the photos again, that I’ve been gathering/taking.
Life Putting 