Many people have dreams and ambitions for what they want for their future, their organization, and their life. They know exactly what their end game looks like — but when you look at the commitments they have and the decisions they’re making, it doesn’t seem like the two are aligned.
For example, If someone says they want financial freedom and then you see them making frivolous purchases with the money they could be saving, it makes you wonder: How committed are they really?
This same scenario can apply to the way many business owners have chosen to respond to the COVID crisis over the last several months.
The decisions that many are choosing to make (or not to make) have been met with a variety of excuses: “I had no choice, my circumstances were different, my situation was different, things were different in my market…”
All of this is self-deception.
When it really comes down to it, the act of making a decision is a decision in and of itself.
You can say you want an amazing culture and an aligned team, but it means nothing if the decisions you’re making and actions you’re taking do not reflect that goal.
So how can one remedy this?
The first step is coming back to knowing thyself and really having a clear gut check.
A Chinese Proverb once said, “The best time to plant a tree was a hundred years ago, but the second-best time is today.”
If you have not written down what your ambitions are — and you’re not truly committed to them today — perhaps you should change those goals and find ones that you can commit to.
Where you are today is the byproduct of all the decisions that you’ve made up until this point, but where you will be tomorrow is going to be a by-product of the decisions that you make going forward.
The most important thing is just saying whatever it is that you’re putting out there, whatever ambitions that you say you are committed to, and making sure that your decisions are directly supporting that.
Remember, you didn’t get here by accident, and you didn’t get here overnight.
You can control the things that you’re going to do day in and day out that will lead to a brighter future, but that’s only going to happen whenever you first get started.
If you agree or disagree with anything Michael said here, he wants to know about it. Text him at 404-531-7691 to share your thoughts.
