What if, instead of trying to play a ‘bigger game’, you aim to play the ‘right-sized game’?
Striving to ‘play bigger’ has taken me off course many times in my 17 year journey as a business owner. When I look back at when I struggled and lost the most, it was when I was trying to play bigger and chasing the elusive promise of ‘more will fix everything’.
I’m #CallingBS on the concept of ‘playing bigger’.
There are three dangers to blindly following the ‘play bigger’ path that business owners need to know.
Danger #1: What works for them might not work for you
There are no end to programs and coaches who promise that ‘if you follow this simple formula you too can achieve the same success that I have enjoyed’. If I’ve learned anything in my experience as a business owner it’s that:
There is NO one size fits all solution to success.
The business model that works best for me may not work for you. The marketing strategy that works best for you may not work for the next person. I know I’m not alone in having spent thousands of dollars and countless hours of time following a formula that simply wasn’t a fit for me.
Our job is to know ourselves and our greatest gifts, so we can choose a business aligned with our strengths—and to stop trying to be something we aren’t!
To know what we really want, so we can set goals matching our true desires—and to stop trying to keep up with the Joneses!
And to learn from those who are ahead of us on a similar path to success—and who won’t try to talk us into something that isn’t the right fit.
Danger #2: Playing bigger generally brings bigger costs
“It costs money to make money”.
I’m sure you’ve heard this before, and for the most part, it’s true. But where business owners get themselves in trouble is spending ALL the money they have now for the promise of FUTURE money.
Those who make this mistake invest everything in the moment for the potential return of something in the future that may or may not happen. And, if it does happen, they do it all over again, spending more and more money but never actually getting to keep much (or any!) of it.
I spent years in this cycle, and it was a lesson I had to learn the hard way.
The goal is not to make more money. The goal is to keep more money. And this can happen regardless of how much money you’re making right now.
Get clear on your financial goals and commit to how much you want to keep. The key is to balance spending with saving so that every dollar you make contributes to your long term Financial Freedom.
Danger #3: Striving to play bigger can endanger your ‘why’
There’s nothing worse than working your buns off to reach a goal that, in the end, is hollow and meaningless. I’ve seen many business owners reach amazing financial goals only to find themselves burned out, tired and disillusioned. And in some cases, they lost their health and relationships in the constant pursuit of more.
There is no faster path to burnout than to keep doing work that isn’t aligned with your why.
To blindly follow what you see others doing, thinking you should be doing the same thing. To make decisions from a place of ‘well everyone else is doing it so I may as well too’.
Your why is the fuel that will sustain you on your journey to success. If you lose track of your why, you may lose yourself in the process.
The bottom line is this: more for more’s sake will never be enough. That is a game you will never win because ‘more’ doesn’t have a finish line.
You need to want more for the right reasons. Reasons aligned with who you are and what you (really) want. Not what other people want for you or from you.
You need to be specific on the exact amount that fits your financial & freedom goals and that allows you to do the right work to get there.
You need to know how much time and effort you’re willing to put in so you can enjoy the life you have right now—not the life you may have in the future.
I want to acknowledge that this is tough. Stepping outside of the pressure to ‘play a bigger game’ is difficult. Resisting the siren’s call of ‘more makes it all better’ is hard. To simply respond “no” to those who say “but you could be doing so much more!”
You need courage to claim your space and say, “This is who I am, this is what I want, and it’s enough.”
I applaud your courage to play the right game, and I’m right here with you.
This is a sponsored post by Tina Forsyth. The views expressed in this article are their own. To learn more about Tina, visit our Specialist Panel.
Makaylah Rogers is the co-founder of MindShift.money. She is a Thought Leader for her generation, teaching people how to rewrite their “money rules.” With an extensive background in wealth building and personal development, Makaylah’s path has taken her into executive roles in various fields including launching startups, real estate sales and motivational keynote speaking.