Introduction
Hi! I’m Max, a professional career coach.
Here’s a question for you to consider – what are the pillars that we must get in place to have an amazing life?
Across the past decade of coaching, my research shows that there are three pillars.
- Career / Business.
- Family.
- Personal Development.
That’s it. If you nail these three areas in life it’s very difficult to have a bad life. But the depth of these three areas is infinitely deep. The pursuit of being an amazing husband or wife is an infinitely deep pursuit, likewise with being a parent, likewise with mastering your emotions, habits, and behaviour. And of course, likewise with developing an amazing career or business, which is our focus for today’s reading.
But do not underestimate the significance of this pursuit. The path to creating your dream career is really the path to self-discovery. Today’s reading will focus on three components that will provide you with a foundation for finding your life’s mission.
Component Number One) Recognise The Finite Nature Of Your Life
“But Max, I’m not here for all this spiritual nonsense, just tell me literally how to find my dream job” – You’re wrong. You do not appreciate the significance of what you have just requested.
Stop for a moment and look around you. You are alive. We are born, we have four thousand weeks, and then you’re gone. How many weeks do you have left? And assuming you have a forty hour work week, spanning over forty-five years, you’re going to spend over ninety thousand hours at work, across your lifetime. Deeply understand the significance of this.
Recognize deeply that you have this one lifetime to create something meaningful in your work. Start to think about your life as it matters! Knowing that your time on earth is limited. What do you want to create?
Ponder this…
Write things down…
Contemplate this question deeply before you move on.
Component Number Two) Focus On What You Can Give, Not What You Can Gain
The greatest joys in life come from giving to other human beings. The human nervous system is wired such that our deepest reward centers in the body and mind are activated when we commit acts of selflessness. I cannot tell you how many ultra-successful clients I have coached who cite extreme dissatisfaction in their lives, in spite of immense material success. And often the way that I will begin to coach these people is by shifting their perspective from being self-focused to other-focused.
Now, you are in an amazing position. Because you have an opportunity to get this aspect of giving right from the beginning.
“But Max, it sounds like you’re advocating for me to become some poor broke hippie who preaches love but has nothing to show for it” – Wrong. Stay with me.
When we go to work, we all contribute to society. A lawyer contributes in a particular way, a social worker contributes in a particular way, a religious leader contributes in a particular way, a banker contributes in a particular way, a McDonald’s worker contributes in a particular way. And the experience of not enjoying one’s work is the experience of contributing to society in a way that we do not find meaningful. That’s why you’ll often hear those famous words “follow your passion”. Because when we find out passion, we are contributing in a way that is meaningful to us.
In terms of financial success, you can achieve this through contributing so powerfully, using all your creativity and your strengths that life is forced to pay you back tremendously.
Here’s an example to think about, I once worked with a client whose job title was a ‘Master Lego Designer’ who worked as a freelance specialist designing company logos and centrepieces for big business offices. At the time of my working with him, he would charge high five figures to design a company office’s centerpiece. And he was booked out with work for months and even years at a time, earning him over half a million dollars per year, doing what he loved deeply.
Allow me to be direct with you, pursuing money over your passion is a trap. When you become masterful at what you are passionate about, the money will come. And if you are in the fortunate position to be reading this today, and you value getting this pillar correctly erected in your life, this is crucial.
Component Number Three) The One Hundred Million Dollar Question
Throughout my time with clients, one of the challenges we run up against is limiting beliefs. And when we get closer to our life’s mission, these beliefs begin surfacing. They may manifest in the following ways.
“I don’t know how”.
“That’s not possible”.
“Maybe I should be realistic”.
Imagine this, you wake up tomorrow and there’s one hundred million dollars in your bank account. And you spend the next year of your life buying all the flashy fun stuff that you’ve always dreamed of, you buy yourself your dream home, you pay off any debts, you travel the world, tick off everything on your bucket list, you’re free.
Now fast forward one year, and you wake up in your mansion, with approximately 85 million dollars remaining, with still decades to go in your life. And all those materialistic itches have now been well and truly scratched. Of course, if you wanted to, you wouldn’t have to do anything – all your survival needs are met. You could live in your mansion and slowly eat and drink your way to death. So the question becomes, what would make for a meaningful life now?
Inevitably, the answer leads to using one’s wealth for the benefit of others. But again notice, that it doesn’t do much good simply by giving money away. Also notice, that with all the financial resources at your disposal, there’s no limit to what you can create. So again, what would you want to create?
By asking the question in this way, we remove any limiting beliefs that may be standing in our way, allowing us to get right to the heart of what we truly want to create.
In conclusion, with this one life, recognize just how precious it is. To wake up each day is a gift. Don’t piss it away by pursuing something that is below your greatest potential.
Often at the end of my articles, I encourage you to reach out to me for a 30-minute complimentary conversation, and each time I mean it from the heart. But especially today I mean it. This is such a crucial pillar to get right in one’s life. It would be an honour to be a part of getting this right for you.
I look forward to our conversation.
Max. Life & Career Coach.
