As business owners, we are always thinking about and creating bigger goals for our future, grand visions of what our life looks like when its perfect.

A place of freedom where we are much happier and have the time and wealth to do the things we want in our lives, all while having a business that self manages, and self multiplies.

So, in a nutshell, a future with meaningful forward consistent improved progress and income with fewer constraints, obligations and drama. Our version of VICTORY.

But, too often, business owners use this future vision of perfection as a measuring stick for their progress, comparing where they are with their vision of Victory, leading only to disappointment and unhappiness.

As a younger business owner, I was driven forward incessantly by a growing frustration of not achieving my bigger goals fast enough, running impatiently towards my version of Victory and away from not having the things in my younger years.

Assuming that by trying to traverse the void as fast as possible, the place in between where I was and where I wanted to go was the key to growth and happiness.

But when I finally made it to what I thought was my Ultimate success Multimillion-dollar homes, 7 cars, bikes, a boat, and trips all over the world, I did not feel any different; I just felt like normal and was still in the void.

In reflecting on this, I’ve realized that the excitement of chasing ultimate success and the vision of achieving it was far more powerful and motivating than actually reaching and achieving it.

With every new purchase, that short rush of adrenalin and dopamine hit quickly made way to feeling normal again and no real, measurable difference of the quality of my life than before.

I’m not saying having nice things and aiming for our goals isn’t a good thing; on the contrary, it’s required.

But reaching your ultimate success is as achievable as reaching the horizon; the horizon is a concept that helps your brain to see ahead of you and gauge distance.

In the same way, the vision of success gives you a mental image of what you’re aiming for while remaining like the horizon technically unreachable.

It’s a useful but dangerous tool for motivating because firstly, getting there is technically impossible and secondly, using this kind of motivation and willpower does not last.

That’s why business owners often get motivated and excited about a vision of the future but run out of momentum because their will power tank runs dry trying to bridge the void, so they stop trying and look for easier options and distractions to try and fill the void quicker.

Now there are two ways to measure your progress toward your ultimate goals:

  1. By looking ahead from where you currently are toward your ultimate life and focusing on the size of the void and how far you have left to go.
  2. By looking back from where you currently are to where you started and seeing the progress you have made each day on your former self and how far you’ve come.

The first way leads to unhappiness; because you’re measuring the distance of the void towards the horizon of your ultimate life, the second to leads to happiness because you’re measuring your consistent momentum and forward progress.

If you’re a goal-orientated top performer, you’re guaranteed to be unhappy because you’re always comparing your achievements against your ultimate life, and you never measure up and bridge the void.

The failure to reach your ultimate future life neutralizes your sense of achievement and momentum.

Even though from an outside perspective, it looks like you’ve done remarkable things, you don’t feel a sense of accomplishment because your still in the void.

When you measure against your ultimate life, no matter how great your progress is, it always makes you unhappy because you feel like you’ve failed.

You see only the vision of your ultimate life still on the horizon because it’s a moving target.

This is “The Void”, a permanent distance between your actual achievements and your ultimate life.

There’s always a void between what you hope to achieve and what you can achieve and focusing on this void always leads to disappointment and frustration.

Not only are you left feeling a sense of failure, but it’s also impossible to have a Self-Managing Self-multiplying business if you’re always in “The Void”.

This sense of failure stops you from rewarding yourself for your own progress, making it less likely for you to reward your team members for their progress. If progress doesn’t make you happy, it won’t make anyone in your business happy.

Persuasion starts with persuading yourself by comparing where you are with how far you have come by transforming mistakes into opportunities and using your progress and wins to springboard out of the void and set yourself up on a permanent victory streak.

 

The best way to do this is by using the 5 X Formula.

Measure today’s performance score yourself out of 10 against yesterday’s performance with your goals in mind.

Wealth Liberty Number, your business and profit performance.

Health Liberty, Number, nutrition, exercise, mental health.

Time Liberty Number, guilt-free, unencumbered time.

Purpose Liberty Number, meaningful forward progress & results.

Connection Liberty Number, Investing in your team & relationships.

You’re always creating your ultimate future ahead of yourself while you measure your progress backward from where you started.

When we can take to time to measure our progress and wins, we can focus more on increasing what matters and less on the void; using the 5X formula will increase and sustain your energy and performance because you are not relining on willpower and motivation.

Your able to extend your abilities and progress because moving forward and making improvements always feels good, like you’re winning because you’re not competing with others or unrealistic goals; you’re only comparing your improvements with your former self.

If you do this for a month, I guarantee you it will propel you forward faster and expand your results like nothing you have tried before if you do it for the rest of your life you will always win.

With respect and admiration Glen

empirebusinesscoaching.com.au