Before you set a single goal for the new year, describe one ordinary day you'd love to live over and over.
End of year is the perfect time to set the tone for the next coming year.
Tell me if this sounds like success to you.
At 20 years old, I started my first business. In three years, I grew it to a million-dollar brand.
I lived in a big house. I drove a really expensive car. And my closet was literally bursting at the seams with Louis Vuitton. That was what the outside said.
On the inside, I was dying. My body started shutting down, because I'd been working 90 hours a week for six years straight. Every single day I worked. Christmas Day, I worked every year. I traveled 265 nights out of the year teaching. I didn't have friends. I saw my family twice a year.
Still successful? Maybe.
I lost a million dollars overnight. I went from living in a six-bedroom home to living on my parents' couch.
But whenever I was in that dark moment, it was the happiest I had ever been. And I had to step back and ask myself, why? That's because I was actually living. Every night we drank wine, put together puzzles and watched Friends as a whole family.
So that's when I realized that we're doing it backwards. I was living to serve my business. My business wasn't serving me.
By all the world's measurements of success, I had achieved it. But by my definition of success, I had failed.
If you do not define success for your business, your business will define success for you, and you can become a slave to that success like I did.
So my question to you is, what is success?
Why the details matter
First we're going to design your life, and then we're going to build the business to support it.
Imagine five years from now on a random Tuesday. What does a perfect Tuesday look like? What does it feel like?
I can tell you my perfect day. I'm living on a lake on one to five acres. I wake up in the morning, I'm an early riser, and I go and I drink a cup of coffee, sitting out looking at my lake, and you can see the mist over the water in the morning.
And then my husband comes and refills my cup. My two kids (I have one, so I'm going to have another one) come and they snuggle with me on the couch outside, and we watch the sunrise together.
Now when my husband and I are looking at houses - if it's not on a lake, it's not our house, because I've set the definition of success for my life. I know that is my vision, and if it's not on the water, it's not part of the vision.
It's just taking what's in here, in your heart and your head, and documenting it so you have a destination to march to. Because otherwise we're guessing.
Your Perfect Day is a business spec
This is not a wish list.
We're going to put actual numbers to what it's going to take to make your perfect day happen. And that's part of the reverse engineering.
Your perfect day becomes the blueprint for your:
Business model
Pricing
Schedule
Growth strategy
Your dream is the destination. Your business is just the vehicle to get there. Your business is NOT the dream.
Question for you - what would you stop doing tomorrow if your Perfect Day were the priority?
If something is not moving you towards your perfect day, it’s actually moving you away from it.
Try This // The Real ROI Exercise
Write your Perfect Day in detail, from waking up to going to sleep.
Your environment. Where do you wake up? What does your home look like? Who is in your home with you?
Your morning. What time do you wake up? What is the first thing you do?
Your work day. How many hours do you work? What type of work are you doing? What type of work do you NOT do anymore? Where are you working? What type of people are you working with?
Your lifestyle. What do you do after work? How do you feel during this day?
The financial reality. How much income does this lifestyle require per year? How many hours per week do you want to work?
Your business alignment. What kind of business model would support this life?
Most importantly – how do you feel on this perfect day?
Hold on to the feeling of that perfect day. This is your North Star.
Revisit your vision every year. Check in.
Because the goal is not just success. The goal is a life you love living.
The Perfect Day exercise is part of The Founder Life Architect app which launches in less than 30 days. Subscribe to updates on the website to get notified when it’s live!
Follow along for more insights at www.thefounderlife.com.
Your BFF,
Tay