When given multiple options or opportunities and undeniable trade-offs, how do you decide what to do? This week’s video will help you choose what you’ll strive to maximize.
What exactly are you striving to maximize? We’re in Burbank, California.
Life and business are about compromise and making the most of imperfect situations. You trade time and effort for income and outcomes. Every day you give an irretrievable portion of your life for a return, real or imagined. You may sacrifice sleep for productivity or pleasure. And tomorrow, the exchange opens again.
Many trade peace, health, and human connection for money, status, or stuff, so you’ll eventually enjoy what really mattered all along. Some think the more you stress and suffer now, the more noble and sweet your eventual happiness will be. And yet promise always out paces pursuit.
I suggest we break this pattern, and understand yes, money is vital, and a quantifiable measure. Accomplishment is admirable. Yet life is complex. You will never be done, complete, or without some pain and hardship. So, what exactly are you striving to maximize? Here are three options.
1. The Top Line. Driving earnings, productivity, and growth without much consideration for the consequences. The ends justify the means, and eventually it will all pay off or slow down.
2. The Bottom Line. Keeping what you have. Protecting against loss or attrition.
3. Your Lifelines. Connections to your purpose, your principles, and between the most important aspects of your life.
For me, regardless of how much is happening, I strive to maximize my well being, my relationships, and my sense of play. The better I do that, the more I have to contribute.
Productivity and protection are important. You will sacrifice something to attain something else, leaving much undone. There’s no perfect formula or finish. And maybe we can better choose what we maximize along the way, because, in the end, that will be the life you’ve actually lived. Until next week, stay Off Balance On Purpose.