I am an entrepreneur and that life doesn’t come easy.
I am an entrepreneur by choice and given that this road is less traveled, has more obstacles, is often misunderstood and it is a grind ‘em out journey, then I must be committed 100% or I shouldn’t even bother.
The fact is, I wouldn’t be where I’m standing if my commitments weren’t big enough to drive me.
Of course, a lot of my drive came from a series of “wake up” calls, which in turn is why I work hard to empower other entrepreneurs globally. I even have a podcast dedicated to it amply titled, Awakeupcall.
See, I realized that wake up calls essentially have more power than most motivational driving factors. Why? Because they force you to look at yourself in a way that reaches your core and asks the really hard questions; the ones we tend to avoid while sitting on autopilot.
And once you answer those really important questions, you will soon realize that those things are the only ones that matter and they will take complete commitment to their cause.
So, why does it matter that one wakes up to the possibilities that are meant for them? Why will it take commitments big enough to drive those possibilities and what is the mindset behind keeping those commitments?
Let’s start with the possibilities . . .
Waking Up
See, today it is more important than ever to wake up to what’s possible because what’s happening right now is certainly not cutting it for most people out there. Yet, at the same time, we now have more opportunities to create the lives we want through technology, networks and automation.
Before I get into how you manage your commitments, let me throw out a few variables at you.
Are you aware that 30% of families in the U.S. cannot cover the monthly bills?
2 out of 3 families live paycheck to paycheck, and most people sustain themselves using the old model of employment.
The average income in the workforce is down 20% in accordance with today’s inflation. Meanwhile, the population is carrying a higher debt ratio for their education, cannot afford increased housing costs or ample healthcare and can’t retire like they used to.
That’s just a few of the problems the economy has generated.
When you combine that with the trends of outsourcing and automating as many jobs as possible, you see why this is happening.
Ten years ago you could be paid $20 an hour to collect quarters at toll booths. That’s not true anymore.
And while we’re living during one of the toughest times in history for people’s well being, we’re also living during one of the most entrepreneurial and technologically advanced times throughout all of history.
Whether by choice or force, more people are waking up to take control of their lives given the transparency that no one else is going to do it for them. The system is broken; it’s been broken; and now people are taking responsibility for their own life’s direction.
Of course, that also takes commitment; commitment to oneself, commitment to see new endeavors and innovative ideas come to fruition, commitment to personal and financial freedom and commitment to creating impact on the world at large.
Your Commitments Have to be Big Enough to Drive You
Why? Because commitments are your driving force; they are your dedication to the cause. Without them, you’ll give up too easily.
See, the way you stay committed is by knowing your purpose and the bigger picture. Why are you doing what you are doing and who are you doing it for?
Your purpose must take center stage because you will face obstacles, road blocks, ups and downs and the unknown the entire climb, and your purpose will be the only true reason you’ll stay committed.
Most people wait until they are forced to do something. That means that, by default, they are in reactive mode.
And reactive mode is not wealth creation mode. You are not empowered to change your circumstances when you are in reactive mode.
It’s a completely opposite way of being than wealth creation mode. It’s like the difference in psychology for a batter who is just “trying to get through the at-bat” versus the one who is going for the home run. It’s night and day.
As an entrepreneur, you know the difference. Maybe circumstances got you to the place where you were looking for an alternative, but you cannot stay in loss aversion state forever if you are trying to create wealth.
Loss aversion and wealth creation cannot co-exist; it’s one or the other.
The life you have today is a result of a combination of these two mindsets and how much you adopted each one into your way of thinking and living.
As an entrepreneur, you have an obligation to get out of loss aversion mode and into wealth creation mode.
That’s what being an entrepreneur is about – giving yourself the opportunity to go into that mode and make your life change through it. You don’t have the right to whine about it once you know it’s out there and you can choose to be in that mode.
The other morning, I woke up on the WRONG side of the bed. I didn’t feel like doing anything. I had cut my finger slicing vegetables over the weekend and had to get it treated; I couldn’t type. So I went to the mirror and told myself: “You can be controlled by your feelings or your commitments. It’s one of the other so what are your commitments?”
At that moment, nothing would have felt better than getting back into bed. I had a million excuses as to why I should do that. The inner dialogue happens to me every day. But my commitments were to get my meetings done today and prepare for the morning WAKE UP call.
I let my commitments dictate what I did in the morning; not the little emotions that would have told me to do otherwise.
As entrepreneurs, we cannot let our feelings dictate what we do. It has to be our commitments. Are you committed to comfort, or wealth? Are you committed to growing yourself? If you don’t have these commitments, there’s nothing to push you over the hump of what your feelings will try to make you do.
Again, your commitments have to be big enough to drive you. For me, once I made the decision to keep my commitments, that’s when I felt the motivation to do it. That’s when the feelings came.
You cannot wait until you FEEL like living up to your commitments.
You have to DECIDE to just do it, and the feelings will come once you do that.
Your feelings will always drive you towards what is comfortable, and wealth cannot be created in your comfort zone. And happiness doesn’t come when you achieve your goals; it’s not circumstantial. It’s a choice.
Happy people tend to make more money and be more successful than miserable people. That’s because they tend to be more productive. And when you choose to follow through on your commitments instead of letting your feelings dictate what you do, you’ll feel better about yourself and be happier for it.
There are no victims. Being in the reactive mode is a choice, just like happiness. Most people don’t realize that they are making the choice to stay addicted to a way of life that is just leading them along instead of the other way around. It’s up to us to wake them up to what’s possible.
As humans, we are programmed just to survive. We create circumstances where we can just survive. As entrepreneurs, we have to open our minds to the next level and not just survive, but seek to excel.
Whether you are an entrepreneur or not, the choice for a good life is yours. A life of abundance, creativity, growth, great health, financial freedom and personal freedom are all yours, but your commitments must be big enough to drive you.
All my best,
