Focus on Value Creation -Success will follow

In the brief time we all spend on this earth, we all find ourselves involved in a myriad of experiences. Everything from our careers, our personal relationships, to our hobbies all define the people we become. All too often we judge our own behavior against our thoughts, rather than our actions, and this dissonance creates a wedge between the person you are, and the human you want to become. Many of us will look at successful people and claim circumstance to be the culprit. Or worse, sheer luck. That is the only reason that person is better off than me, right?

Living with Intentionality

Most of your life (childhood at least), you spend in an action, reaction state. Very little forethought is placed into your actions, and you coast through your life experiences. Life is more about what happens to you than what you are doing with it. It is almost as if this is a dress rehearsal, and your only objective is to survive. The most difficult thing you can do as a human is to come to terms with your current behavior. You need to develop the ability to judge yourself objectively, based solely on your actions. If you were a complete stranger, what would you think about you? Take a full day and just write down everything you did. Are you happy with it? Proud? If not, do read on.

Shifting the Priority Paradigm

Most of your decisions in life have appealed to some level of Maslow's hierarchy.

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With this general application of the human framework, we can begin to devise what our priority shift needs to look like. We all need to eat, we all need to feel safe, have love, and experience a sense of accomplishment. Thankfully, all of these can be attacked simultaneously with one easy to deploy strategy, The Focus on Value Creation.

What Value Creation Looks Like

The overarching idea is that you align yourself to create the maximum value you can within the experiences you have in life. By allowing this philosophy to bleed into each corner of your life, it will become second nature to just operate that way. If you are a janitor today, how can you create the most value possible in your job today? This may initially feel like a waste of time and effort, but trust that there is a fulfilling sense of accomplishment for doing your very best, regardless of the task at hand. If you have a loved one in your life, spend the maximum energy you can creating value for them. This can be time, food, experience, anything that adds value to their day. By intentionally taking this step, you are becoming consciously competent in your behavior. Take the time to write down everything you have done in a day, again, and ask yourself "did I focus on value creation within each of these actions"? It is really easy to do, when you are intentionally focusing your behavior on doing so.

How This Path Creates Success

Humans are genuinely awestruck at somebody who lives with intentionality. Have you ever noticed somebody working harder than you at a job? Or taking extra steps to satisfy a loved one? We tend to gravitate towards these people, and oftentimes look up to them. Thankfully this approach is relatively easy. For your first 30 days, just keep writing down everything you did that day, assess whether that creates the most value for each action, and intentionally choose to adjust your behavior accordingly. Before you know it, your basic habits will be naturally doing the best you can, wherever you can. Well do you know which college students succeed? The ones that go out of there way to prepare and execute the best way they know how. Do you know who gets that next promotion? Generally it is the person working with more enthusiasm than the rest. Frame your thought process this way.

Who gets X (X being whatever your idea of success is). The person who behaves with intentionality, that is who. The person who prepared the most, networked into the position, and married preparation with opportunity. Success is the output of disciplined behavior, and not the luck or happen stance of one's life. (At least for the majority of us).

Now to Expand the Tool Belt

If you develop true discipline in your own behavior, the next thing you will want to do is include a daily approach to learning new things. This constantly expands your ability to effectively create value, and as a result expands your opportunities to be successful. Try to look around a room and see if there are items you do not understand. How does a microwave work? How about a refrigerator? It might seem like useless knowledge, but by disciplining the approach of learning new things daily, We are rapidly increasing the opportunities to create value, and thus the possibility of achieved success.

Conclusion

GET OUT THERE AND CREATE SOME VALUE PEOPLE!

Review your behavior regularly, live with intentionality, and try to have a great time doing it. The only thing between you and where you want to be is you!