What is happening and yet what should happen?
Why some people don't get their dream
In a conference I gave, I asked the audience: "Why do most people not achieve their dreams?" Not many hands went up. After taking the floor, the few answers I got sounded ambiguous. Among all, we rule out some causes. And from the ensuing discussion we conclude:
It is not due to a low IQ. In the final count, persistence counts before talent. Success comes after trying an uncertain number of "unreasonable" times (many more than "reasonable").
It is not due to fate, or karma, or divine will. The universe is not opposed to anything, it does not evaluate merits, it does not establish differences, it does not judge.
It is not due to bad luck. The universe spares no opportunity and loves acts inspired by love. (Act and you will be lucky, and the more you act – which I hope will be – the luckier you will be. Hard work brings luck, lots of luck.)
It won't be because you don't want badly enough. The need does not ally with the needy. The universe does not understand the language of despair. And in the end, attachment and desperation over the outcome get in the way.
It is not due to unfavorable circumstances. Circumstances are created. George Bernard Shaw wrote: “People always blame their circumstances for what they are. I do not believe in circumstances. The people who thrive in this world are the ones who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they create them."
It is not because someone else's success prevents yours. There is no scarcity in the universe. Quite the contrary, the more people achieve their goals, the clearer the path is. Successful pioneers raise the threshold of possibilities. If someone was able to do it, others will repeat it or improve it.
It's not due to any of that. There we agreed.
In the end, between all of us, we found a primordial cause: “Most people don't achieve their dreams, because they don't translate their dreams into goals, concrete tasks or actions with an assigned date”. And we all applaud.
If there is something that I want you to get clear from this reading, it is this: many dreams remain a fantasy for not drawing up a plan to make them real.
A life of work or the work of your life?
I've always wondered why people don't do something that makes them feel good instead of putting up with tasks they find unbearable. Why do they go every morning where there is nothing for them except a check at the end of the month? They are employed by companies that pay them enough, and no more, so that they do not go to the competition; and correspondingly, they work just enough so they don't get fired. Discouraging.
The story is simple. Start at home; or worse, at home and at school at the same time, when they tell you; “Study hard, look for a secure job and work hard.” And the story always ends the same; men and women afraid to be themselves, to choose the life they would live and economically dependent at the end of a hard working life. The story is sad.
Former colleagues are still stuck in a job where they survive from Monday to Friday. The weekend they take a breath and start again.
Your goal is to make it to the next payroll. They live without emotion, without space to develop their talent. And so the years go by until they earn their well-deserved “gold watch” engraved on the back: “To a lifetime of dedication” —or something similar—. I get chills just thinking about it.
The bad news is that gold watches are no longer given away when retirement arrives. Today, one finds out through the press or social networks.
There are alternatives: you can create or join a project that allows you to recover your true identity. Hold your enthusiasm, I'm not done. Do I mean a job? Of course not, I'm talking about a lifestyle in which the purpose of your life has a place. A job for life is not the same as your life's work. The difference is not in the duration but in the passion. Now yes, you can make waves.
Are you satisfied with your current way of earning a living? This is a question we should all answer honestly. It is surprising to see how many people agree to spend their time doing something they hate, in a sector that tells them nothing, in activities that ignore their values, during exhausting days, years and years. Surprising right? Well, that is the situation, according to statistics, of eighty-five percent of the workforce. Only fifteen percent of employees choose a meaningful job, something that is really worthwhile for them.
Work or live? Why not both at the same time? Ask yourself how to get both instead of one.
For me, enjoying work is essential. Nor do I consider spending time on insubstantial tasks, just as I do not accept insubstantial activities and companies. Self-esteem is also about choosing “where” you put your time.
If you think you've held on too long in a job that no longer serves you, and if you want an occupation that honors your values, at some point you'll have to stop settling for survival. The time will come when you want to make something great out of your life.
You are your projects (whether products or services): "Your Limited Company", your life's work: “A project that is worth it” It gives you meaning, purpose, meaning versus a simple job. “Work” in English is job. Robert T. Kiyosaki in his great book Rich father poor father, points to the acronym: JOB (work) as Jyou EITHERwatch B.roke (almost broken). Makes you think, right?
In DemianHerman Hesse wrote: “Every man has only to find his way to himself. Your task is to discover your own destiny and live it fully. Everything else is just a hypothetical existence, an attempt to escape, a flight to "conformity". I read it years ago and it still resonates with me.
When you defend your personal brand and do what you love, the market will "love" you and express its "love" with great prosperity for you and your business.
Understand this: the world of work is changing rapidly. The model of the employee, in search of a permanent and secure job, dissolves at times. Words like outsourcing and outsourcing will soon be very familiar to all. Temporary Work Agencies are the great employers of the future (What a future!).
Luckily, the era of the entrepreneur, the free agent, the talent focused on service, the self-employed, the “personal brand”, the “You SA” arrives. The era of achievement is here.
This is not theory, it has happened to me. It is happening… in much of the world and right now.
Design your future, offer something that improves the lives of others, enjoy doing it, and the rest are details.
I am surprised by so much effort in defending an obsolete concept (“secure employment”) that does not help the worker to achieve financial independence. Work as we know it is going to disappear. It's already happening. (It's not a rumor. Right now I'm putting a hand on my heart).
On the other hand, we are witnessing a global phenomenon in which more and more people dare to choose the lifestyle they want.
It is a moment of opening in this terrain. Working no longer means a livelihood, nothing more, but fulfillment. Many consciences awaken to their truth.
Parents often teach that work is hard and that it represents the means to earn a living. However, working just to be able to pay the bills leaves a lot to be desired. This quote is from Dale Carnegie; You're bored? Then throw yourself into some occupation that you believe in with all your heart: live for it and you will find the happiness that you thought would never be yours. I have a question that will not leave you indifferent: Where is your current activity leading you?
The “earned income” paradigm, with which we have been educated, does not work if what you are looking for is financial independence. Do you know any employee who is? That paradigm is why so many people work from dawn to dusk and yet are permanently on the brink of ruin. Get rid of such a paradigm.
There is income that does not come from sustained work; or rather, they come from a punctual job. Royalties from any book are a good example. It takes a lot of work to write, but for years to come the author will be earning royalties from sales that occur without his intervention, even while he sleeps! This paradigm is more interesting than the previous one.
If you've embraced the idea (and I don't doubt it), I suggest you think about alternatives to “earned income”—it's a paradigm many are trapped in—and envision sources of “business income”: the direct path to success. Financial Independence. Here is the secret:
Build grandiose paradigms.
The metaphor of the caterpillar and the butterfly is not new but it is still effective. The caterpillar disappears in one reality and is born in another, this time as a butterfly with wings. To fly, they must leave behind their former caterpillar life, and it doesn't seem like much of a loss. We will meet the caterpillar again at the end of these articles.