Over this past weekend I had one of those realizations that caused me to pause all I was currently doing, as my mind stopped its usual function of processing everything else happening around me.
Some context:
On my way to the XY Live conference last week, I was listening to Adam Cmejla being interviewed on Michael Kitces’ podcast. It was so good I listened to it twice (and a third time since). The amount of wisdom distilled is off the charts, with very real life implications for me and for my firm. After tweeting my delight and gratitude, I found out Adam was going to the same place I was and we met up for a few hours over drinks before the conference kicked off – during which his authenticity and genuineness was confirmed.
One nugget that didn’t necessarily hit me initially through was how Adam described his wife’s desire to not be in the job she was in anymore – and the challenge that required him to scale his firm so they could replace her not-insignificant income. She said something to him along the lines of “I can’t believe that a company that I can’t stand is getting the best of me and the people that I love are getting the worst of me.”
This line – evidently – planted a seed in the soil of my my mind a full 7 days before it burst through the ground in full bloom, wrecking my consciousness on its way towards the sunlight.
It hit me: my firm, Fident Financial, is getting the best of me, and my family is getting the remnants. As much as I talk about Living in Today vs Tomorrow and prioritizing our values, I still have critical blind spots.
|| A huge tangential point here: owning your own business does NOT mean more freedom. It means more flexibility, for sure, but even when you’re your own boss, the demands never cease. ||
Now, I don’t hate my firm. I actually love it – but not as much as I love my family. However, Fident has definitely been getting the best version of me recently. And not so much from a time standpoint (I successfully addressed that a while ago), but more from an energy standpoint. Funny how these things evolve.
I’ve got an overwhelming list of things I need to do in order to address this – most of which include exchanging some life currencies (energy, time, and money all included). And perhaps after I’ve actually implemented them will I share specifics.
My specific intention in writing this, however, is to propose a simple set of questions.
What – or whom – is getting the best of you? And is that what you want?
If it is: what can you do to keep on the right track?
If it’s not: what can you do to right the ship?
We all have finite time, finite money, and finite energy. Let’s put in the work to make sure that we’re using each of them to give the very best of us to those that we want to receive it. Money, after all is a tool – let’s use it wisely.