One of my goals was to have 1 million dollars in the bank by the time I was 30.
At 34, I can now say…that didn’t exactly happen.
I’ve created goals in my life, in my business and now I’m beginning to realize and re-evaluate the purpose and real meaning behind these goals.
My real journey with what I’m doing now, didn’t even start until I was 28. Leading up to that point I was working my tail off for somebody else and wasn’t exactly enjoying what I was doing. At that point it was more about survival than anything else. But when I started my business, my game plan had just been put in place and I was just beginning to enjoy the direction my life was taking.
Then when I turned 30 and came face to face with the fact that I didn’t hit that goal – I really beat myself up about it. Even though this was simply an arbitrary goal I had set, I was incredibly hard on myself for not achieving it. The reality was since I started working on my own business at 28, that only gave me a two year window to reach this goal and that simply wasn’t going to happen.
[Want to hear more? > Listen to Project Life Episode 016: One Million Dollars in the Bank]
Then I came to the realization – why does it even matter that I didn’t hit that one million dollar goal? So I didn’t have one million dollars by the time I was 30, so what? Why does it even matter, what difference does it really make? My problem was I treating it as a sprint, when it’s actually a marathon. The business I run now is a marathon, to the full extent of the word. I have been running our business for 7 years now and we make a profit every year. With the goal being to continue to scale the business, reach more people and generally, grow. Now I know the income will grow and the bank account will grow but the question is – what if I never hit one million dollars in the bank? What then?
Gaining this new and different perspective about the reality of life and business, has created a beneficial mindset shift. I get to see my daughter and wife every day, choose my own hours, and live life on my own terms. Of course I have other goals that require extra capital but it’s honestly not the end of the world if those never happen either.
Have you had a dream that you’ve beat yourself up about not achieving? Let me know in the comments!
Mike Watts is an entrepreneur, speaker, husband, and father.
Before becoming an all around badass by radically reinventing his own life, he used to work for Phillip Morris. Today, he shows business owners how to expand their choices, do less and create the financial lives they want.
