Our “ideal world” can feel so shiny and enticing.

We all hold an image of our ideal life, business, and financial situation. And as humans, we are exceptionally trained to dream, strive for, and consistently compare where we are…to our ideals. In fact, we are wired to do this. It is literally easier for our human brains to see the problems in our lives that are bottlenecking us than it is to see how far we have come on our journey towards our ideal.

It is how our species have survived for so long:

Caveman need food for family.
Caveman do nothing else until food achieved for family.
Caveman get food. Feed Family.
Caveman start over again.

In our world now…it’s a little different, but it’s the same Crocodile brain making the decisions.

Jessica needs clients for goals.
Jessica obsesses until goals are reached.
Jessica hits goals.
Jessica sets new goal and starts over.

This thinking model leaves almost no room for celebration or even noticing how far we have come. It is 100% geared towards the need to remove whatever is holding us back from our ideals, or what we believe to be our needs for happiness.

Do you think Caveman thought…”Wow, it used to take me 9 hours and 4 minutes to hunt and kill a deer when I was 14 and now that I am the elderly age of 22, it only takes me 6 hours and 11 minutes. I have come so far.”

Naw, probably not.

Just like Jessica isn’t saying, “Damn…I am a fucking queen. It used to take me a whole year to make 50,000 dollars and this year it only took me the first 7 months.” Although this thought may drift by on occasion, she is more than likely focusing on the thought,  “When the hell am I going to have my 1st 6-figure year?”

Dan Sullivan wrote a book that I highly recommend, The Gap and the Gain, (linked here). Sullivan talks about this often.  He consistently recommends looking at your past accomplishments, how far you’ve come, and your achievements big and small to fuel the fire driving you towards your ideal. And the more you live staring down the nose of your ideal, the more you lose sight of what you’ve achieved, therefore creating more frustration in your pursuit.

You see, it takes effort to see our accomplishments. Because we aren’t wired to see our accomplishments as a means for survival. For most people, we have to set reminders to notice our accomplishments. Most of us, though, just watch our achievements float past us without much thought.

It’s easier to think:
“I will be happy when…
I have x amount of money
My business hits x employees
I can run 3 miles.”

Then to think:

“Wow, I can’t believe I have made X amount of money this year.
Holy crap, I have 4 employees, I remember being terrified to hire my first.
I remember when I couldn’t even run a mile. Now I am up to 1.5 miles.”

Y’all this is the secret to:

Fueling your desires.
Reaching your goals.
Strong-arming burnout.

It will feel harder to look at your accomplishments than to obsess over your ideal. But you can do hard things, Boo.

And when you begin letting your achievements fuel you, instead of your ideals, you will run so much further and faster on this track called LIFE.  

If this intrigues you, click HERE to tune into this week’s episode of The Hell Yes Entrepreneur where I discuss this in more detail. We hope you enjoy it.

Love,
Becca

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