Why are you in business, or planning to go into business? It’s a legitimate question.
Are you so caught up in the daily challenges of running and building your business that you have forgotten why you went into business to begin with? You could probably recite a litany of reasons you stopped working for someone else and became your own boss. Things like freedom to do the things you want to do, not having to punch someone else’s time clock, the ability to create and fulfill your destiny, and so on.
At The Dwyer Group®, we believe that your business should not be your life, but a vehicle to provide the means to acquire the quality of life you wish to have. Here’s the rub: Most of us don’t know what kind of life we want to have.
The first question, therefore, becomes: What do I want to have?Your answers would probably reveal the material things that may make your life more enjoyable: a new car, boat, or home; the things you buy with the money you make from your business.
Robert Tunmire has worked for The Dwyer Group since he opened a Rainbow International franchise at age 17. Today, he serves as Executive Vice President.
But, it’s also important to ask why you want these things. If you don’t know, or have second thoughts about them, maybe they’re really not important to you after all.
The second question is: What do I want to do? Maybe you want to travel, spend more time with the family, or provide for the education of your children. Again, ask yourself why these things are important to you and why they will continue to be important in the future.
Here’s another question for you: What do I want to become? Do you want to be the most successful company in town? A better husband or wife? A better father or mother? A better person in general? Why is this important to you and what will it bring?
The philosophy of The Dwyer Group embraces the theory of the Six Areas of Life.
- Spiritual. Your relationship with God or a higher power
- Family. Your relationship with spouse, children, parents, siblings, etc.
- Physical. Your physical health and habits.
- Mental. Your mind, i.e., attitude, thoughts, etc.
- Social. Your relationship with, and contribution toward, others.
- Financial/Career. Your professional development in your chosen field of endeavor, and resulting progress toward financial independence.
I challenge you to develop a specific, written plan for what you want to happen in each of these six areas of life over the next year to 10 years. If you do not, how will you know what you want out of life? How will you know when your business has provided you with the opportunity to acquire the things you want? How will you know what you want to become if you don’t know where you are now and where you will go in the future? How will you know when you have reached your goals if you don’t know what your goals are?
When I was 16 years old, Don Dwyer, the founder of The Dwyer Group, showed me a simple way to progress on my life’s journey. He told me to think about the Six Areas of Life, then write out a few sentences about where I stood in each area. The next step was to write about where I wanted to be in those areas in the next year. And the next year. And the next. All the way up to 10 years from that day forward.
It was tough. I was only a kid, and kids don’t put much thought into their futures. But he explained the reasons for it and I understood that to have a balanced life there had to be balance in all the areas. I couldn’t focus on only three areas to the detriment of the other three. Each had to have positive progress to supplement and support the others. It’s important to keep this in mind as you develop your own plan.
The next step is the clincher. After analyzing all the areas, the question becomes: If this is what I want to happen to me over the next 10 years, what will my business have to produce to provide it? Then, simply design your business to do that.
Never lose sight of why you went into business for yourself. You may not have been conscious of it at the time, but the reasons did include the freedom to be your own boss, to acquire the things that are important to you, and to enjoy a higher quality of life. Your business will give you those things, but you have to know what to ask for. The exercise I’ve described will help you decide what is important to you. Your business can then help you get it.
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