Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello,

StartupNation is amazing. Connecting with others, even by reading only, has been tremendously helpful. I often feel so aimless and clueless about my passions and interests and what to do with them. Apparently I`m not the only one.

I have filled out the online template for my life plan. I`d like to share it with you.

 

I. My Current Status

A. Quality of Life = 80

B. My Reality

• responsible for my financial future
• responsible to my wife
• must pay off school before buying a house
• keep my day job for now
• life is good, my career is picking up

C. Things that Make me Happiest

• my cat
• trips with my wife
• researching/shopping/collecting
• reading/learning/personal development
• time with friends
• new ideas, projects, hobbies
• optimism/true reality
• money to share

D. Things that Make me Unhappy

• depression
• negative thinking
• aimlessness/boredom
• entitlement/laziness
• restrictions/suppression
• fantasy/wishing for something else
• poverty/being broke

 

II. My Ideal Life

• complete freedom of time
• large, automatic, recurring income and profits; owe no one anything
• personally suitable home and home office; no mortgage
• many profitable, worthwhile products helping many; my projects producing results
• perfect blend of work and life; integrity
• others doing for me what I prefer not to do myself; employ others
• the happiest and funnest relationship possible with my wife
• convenient, close to home best friends

 

III. My Loves

1. Discover - read, study, research, shop, collect. learn, understand, comprehend.

2. Demonstrate - create something useful from my discoveries

2. Distinguish - share my creations with others for their benefit and my satisfaction

 

IV. My Skills & Capabilities

• study, read, learn; compile, analyze, organize; writing ability
• develop ideas; work on projects
• facilitate group discussions; put others at ease
• improve on existing ideas, objects, processes
• share what I know; resource man

 

V. My Experience

• trying many hobbies
• computer savvy
• leading a number of small groups
• built cat pole
• learned Autocad
• helped others develop budget
• ran concession stand
• decorated amazing aquarium
• sold on eBay
• cold selling
• seminary studies
• Eagle Scout
• lost 30 lbs in 3 months
• completed and led Dave Ramsey`s Financial Peace University
• graduated Barnabas Journey

 

VI. My Ideal Workstyle

• time freedom
• structured
• resources at my fingertips
• the right tools
• home office
• part-time
• many projects
• work alone
• high, residual incomes
• results-oriented

 

VII. My Manifesto

Today my mission in life to bring honor to God is to daily accept my lot, be happy in my work, express my faith through love, fully experience life with my wife, lead a quiet life, settle down, attend to my own business, work with my hands, earn the bread I eat, earn the respect of others, not be dependent upon anyone, and be generous on every occasion.

 

VIII. My Next Key Moves

• pray for help for 40 days (began 4/1/08, found SuN on 4/7/08!)
• produce a product and sell it
• keep my day job and make the most of it
• improve my health to have a strong back and a 34" waist

 

My Success is - In all things, at all times, having all that I need, I am generous on every occassion.

Thank you,

John

Hi John, welcome to SuN :-D
I read the things that make you happy, comparing them with your 80-score for Quality of Life. Since this philosophy I`m workiing on is founded on quality of life, I thought I`d make a comment regarding passion and love. The two seem to be all rolled up together in most people`s minds.

We`re able to distinguish between two entirely separate types of experience, the one being "tangible" (or concrete), the other being "abstract" (intangible). Tangible things you can drop on your toe and get some physical feedback. Tangible things are those we perceive directly with our physical senses.

Abstractions, or intangibles, are clearly apparent to all of us, yet you can`t drop them on your toe. We know for a fact that written directions to someone`s house are entirely different from sitting behind the wheel of a car and pushing pedals to get to that house. A photograph of a house is not at all the same as the house itself, yet we understand the symbolism of the photograph and maps.

When we value highly something or someone in a tangible, concrete way, that`s love. When we value highly an abstraction, concept, idea, or symbol, that`s a passion.

Looking over your list of things that make you happy, I see that most of them seem to be related to tangible things or people:

• my cat  -- physical
  
• trips with my wife  -- physical
  
• researching/shopping/...... -- physical
  
• collecting  -- could be abstract
  
• personal developmen  -- abstractt
• time with friends  -- physical
  
• new ideas  -- abstract
  
• , projects, hobbies  -- physical
  
• optimism/true reality  -- abstract
  
• money to share  -- physical

So think about this: A passion and ideas usually can take you through years of life, hold your interest, and spin off all sorts of different physical actions and events, experiments and triumphs.

Physical events---those that you love---usually are momentary; they don`t expand. In other words, money is money. You can have more of it, but the concept doesn`t grow. However, building a business to get money is an "idea." It continually develops, evolves, expands, and changes. But "building a business" rests on an "idea," which is an abstraction---a concept.

What if you were to separate out those tangible things in your life from the intangibles---the conceptual things you can only perceive in logic and imagination? I`ll propose that if you focus on those, you`ll find it easier to come up with an Idea that will inspire you, energize you, and get you fired up to start a business. Maybe?

Many people make someone else or something tangible their passion. It`s a sort of "passion once removed" way of living. It ultimately creates a type of dependency, where you`re sort of pulled along by other events. I think you`ll find that when you make your own passion, it increases your sense of self-reliance, fulfillment, and independence.

Two people can certainly work together on the same passion, but it`s best when they`ve each, independently arrived at the same passion. It`s not as good when one person has the passion, and the other gets caught up in that one`s passion.

Welcome to SuN and I hope that as you explore the site you will be encouraged and inspired to face the challenges that we have all faced in building and maintaining our businesses. Best wishes on your business!


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Take each day, mold it and make it yours.......

http://www.solutionshealthnwellness.com

Craig,

1. Personal development and continuing education
2. Productivity and achievement
3. Financial peace and prosperity and generosity
4. Efficiency and systems
5. Completeness, total gathering of information, comprehensive endeavors
6. Form and function; beauty and practicality
7. Quality and craftsmanship
8. Status, prestige, power
9. Frankness, honesty, optimism, integrity

Alright, how about considering what`s the hoped-for end result of having a passion. Presumably, it`s to create "some thing," right? Keeping to the abstractions and intangibles, let`s also separate out "things" (entities) from their qualities and characteristics (attributes).

If you look at your second list of nine topics, how many of them specify a "thing?"

1. Personal development and continuing education -- process
2. Productivity and achievement -- attribute
3. Financial peace and prosperity and generosity -- attribute
4. Efficiency and systems -- attribute
5. Completeness, total gathering of information, comprehensive endeavors -- attribute
6. Form and function; beauty and practicality -- attribute
7. Quality and craftsmanship -- attribute
8. Status, prestige, power -- attribute
9. Frankness, honesty, optimism, integrity -- attribute

Each of these characteristics applies to all sorts of entities. For example, suppose your passion is for jazz music. The music is an entity (in the formal sense), and "jazz" is an attribute---a type of music. But additionally, if you play that jazz elegantly, it will have beauty---a characteristic. The form of the song will lead to how practical it is to play it with varying numbers of instruments.

If you are highly creative, frank and honest in your music, then you also would gain status and prestige as a result of that jazz, the type of music that you play.

It seems to me that the reason you`re having trouble formulating a passion from the above list is that you`re sort of staying only with the results of that passion---the characteristics of your self as you engage an idea.

If you like language, then consider an entity is a "noun," where an attribute is an "adjective" or adverb. What "thing" (noun, entity) can you think of that offers an option to apply the characteristics of personal development and continuing education? You could, for example, be a surgeon and have a passion for medicine--the thing.

The difficulty here, also has to do with language. We tend to think of  "efficiency" as a thing, but it isn`t. It`s a way of doing---an attribute of your style of doing things. Another way of looking at it might be the Cosa Nostra, "Our Thing."

Medicine, music, architecture, engineering, athletics, all are entities in the sense that the field is your "thing." To do something is just that...doing and acting. How you do it is to "be" a particular way---an attrbute.

So you wouldn`t "do" frankness, honesty, optimism, completeness. Instead, you would "be" frank, honest, optimistic, complete.

Boy Craig, what a way to explain it. I`m going to continue looking for a concrete passion.