If you’re anything like me, you find it important to have purpose, passion, and fulfillment in your life and career. (I call it PPF.)
It’s about putting in the time and effort to find that balance between making a good living and doing something that you absolutely love.
Is it easy to find that balance? Hell no.
Is it worth the effort? Hell YES.
I feel very fortunate that I’ve built my career as a professional coach empowering people with the tools to create meaningful lives, careers, and businesses that they truly love.
I’ve noticed a distinction between those who stay stuck longer and those who start seeing major positive shifts in their lives and careers.
The distinction is how they approach their DECISION TO COMMIT to creating the life that they truly want.
People seeking positive change in their lives fall into two camps regarding their decision to commit to what they want:
They either approach it “Kick-ass” or “Half-assed”.
So, the first step to a kick-ass life and career boost is gaining the awareness of which camp you fall into and what you want to do about it.
What is the Kick-ass approach? People in this camp commit to the fact that change is a process, change takes time, and although change is hard, they know that change is absolutely necessary in order to achieve what you want.
The kick-ass group knows that change must start with you. This group knows that if you wish to have changes in your external world, then you must have changes in your internal world as well.
You must change something about how you think if you want to change something about how you act.
The kick-ass group practices Proactive Motivation, meaning they slowly and consistently go towards what they want. They build their dream alongside their current career.
They’re consistently doing something, big or small, in the direction of their big goals.
The kick-ass approach helps you avoid all-or-nothing thinking. Just because you whole-heartedly commit to building your dream today doesn’t mean you have to quit your current job tomorrow.
It’s about planning ahead for what you already know will be some of the challenges of making your dream come true (e.g. a temporary decrease in income, planning how you’ll navigate criticism from others, etc).
In fact, since kick-ass’ers know that change takes patience and a plan, it can actually breathe new life into your current position because you’re starting to make your vision a reality. Your current job won’t be viewed as a life-sentence anymore, but a stepping stone that can help get you to where you want to go.
Kick-ass’ers anticipate what sacrifices may be necessary to achieve their goals, and although it’s going to be hard, they know in their heart it’s going to be worth it.
What is the Half-assed approach? We’ve all been there when we have a vision of what we want, but then actually thinking about what it takes to get there is terrifying, so we lose motivation and keep putting it on the back burner.
It’s easier to stick with what you know, even when you know it’s not working.
Catch yourself if you’re pursuing your goal half-assed.
The half-assed approach usually contains all or nothing thinking. Either you hate your job and make good money, or you become bankrupt trying to pursue what you really what. There’s no planning of the gradual process of what it really takes to achieve what you want.
This type of thinking is focused solely on the outcome, and not on the process.
The half-assed approach practices Reactive Motivation, being motivated to move away from what you don’t want. For example, staying in an unfulfilling job as a reaction to the fear that you won’t have any money if you switch careers.
Yes, I get it. We have mortgages. We have car payments. We don’t want to lose our benefits. We have kids to feed.
The fear is real and legitimate, but those in the Half-ass method succumb to the fear and choose to do nothing instead of facing it head on to find solutions.
The beauty of switching to the Proactive Motivation model is that you can plan ahead for the anticipated challenges, thus making it a little less scary.
The half-assed model leads you to constantly think about changes you’d like to happen in your external world without putting much effort into changing yourself.
The question to ask is not just about what you need to do, it’s about who you need to be in order to take your life to the next level.
Do you need to be courageous?
Confident?
Open-minded?
Positive?
Committed?
Disciplined?
Fearless?
Proactive?
There’s nothing wrong with the half-assed approach; it’s just not very useful or effective to achieve your biggest goals and get to where you want to go.
Making the decision to commit to creating a life and career that will bring you more happiness, freedom, and fulfillment is going to be hard. It may be one of the hardest decisions that you’ll ever make.
And after making that decision to pursue your goals kick-ass, you may very well embark on one of the hardest journeys in your life.
But the truth is that the hardest part is getting started. It’s about getting through that initial hump and to keep charging forward.
How long does it take to get through the hump? It could take months. It could take years. Nobody can tell you exactly what your future holds. You’ll never know unless you do it. But remember that it’s not just about that end result, it’s about how you’ll feel when you decide to finally commit to living life on your own terms and to take decisive action steps.
After interviewing hundreds of people who made the kick-ass choice and decided to go all in, the only regret that they had is that they wished they had made that decision sooner.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs
We all have it in us to be kick ass. So, give yourself permission to let it out and show the world (and yourself) what you’re truly capable of.
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