A Question I Strongly Dislike

I am curious how you feel when you get asked THIS particular question.

Lately in meetings and networky type events I hear it getting asked quite a bit.

“So what’s your END GAME? Where do you ultimately see X going?” (Fill X in with whatever business venture, career choice or creative project you are currently working on.)

When they say END GAME, I secretly want to ask them if them mean what I will be doing with my business the moment before I die.  END GAME. THE FINALE. NO MORE AFTER THAT.

I know that is not what they are getting at, but it certainly sounds dramatic:)

If hearing this question makes you nervous, uncomfortable, dumbfounded or stumble for the right words, I am hoping today’s post will help you out a little.

It’s easy to beat ourselves up for not having the ULTIMATE VISION, The big KAHUNA LIFE LONG GOAL.

Particularly when you hear people sharing big goals like “I want every single woman on this planet to experience my life changing tools. I want to I want to be a household name. I want to be a New York Times Best Selling Author.”

And if those goals feel really authentic to you, then yes, fabulous! This is wonderful. I love when we are given and can feel really clear, BIG dreams!

However, if you find yourself stumbling to come up with the “right” answer to this question and when you finally do answer it you don’t believe a word you are saying, please don’t worry.

Not long ago I sat in a meeting with a big Hollywood agent who said, “Your plan should be World Domination. And every thing you do with your business should be moving you closer to that.”

Whoa. World Domination. I figured I better get busy!:)

Look, I get what he was saying: Play to win and dream really big. And I am ALL for that. I love to dream big.

But sometimes if you dream too big, too soon, like as in World Domination, it will just make you want to stay in bed and hide. Because it can feel… well… exhausting and slightly inauthentic.

This has nothing to do with your LACK of vision or more importantly the future of your success.

It has been my experience that more often then not, we get access to, or we are able to see our bigger dreams only once some of our smaller dreams are accomplished.

I like to say that life and achieving your goals is like trekking through a wilderness path with a series of big mountains.

You set a goal that you know isn’t going to be easily reached.

You trek up that goal mountain. You do everything you can to get to the top. And eventually you get there. You accomplish what you set out to do.

And it is not until the MOMENT you are standing at the top of that mountain that you have a BRAND NEW perspective on what is possible next.

You can look back and see what you have done. You are a new person as a result.

Most importantly, you literally have a new vision of what is ahead.

You see things you couldn’t possibly have seen when you were at the bottom of that mountain, before you accomplished that goal.

In fact, had you already created a world domination plan that was to take you across the entire terrain, you would likely find that from the place you now stand, the plan MUST change.

And likely, you now see a clearer route.

I don’t know about you, but I find that comforting. It makes me feel like I don’t have to have it ALL figured out today. I don’t really have to know my end game. Today.

When I ran the first Shrink Session teacher training a few weeks ago, I had no idea if I would even enjoy teaching other teachers. Truly. I was nervous.

Turns out, I loved mentoring these amazing young ladies. And because of that, I can now make a plan to do more trainings.

But what if I hated it or it didn’t translate? My teacher training world domination plan would have been all for not.

When I shot the first Shrink Session videos a year and half ago, I finished the shoot and was quite emotional.

Why?

Because I saw something for Shrink Session that I had never seen before. The vision for it had suddenly expanded tremendously!

But it took me choreographing, producing and going through a long and intense shoot before I got that new and expanded vision.

I have been living out that vision this past year and as I accomplish each goal, the vision continues to expand.

And my guess is by the end of the year, Life will be kind enough to show me what’s next.

My suggestion, and take it for what it’s worth, is the next time someone asks you your ultimate vision, end game or world domination plan, honor where you are today with it.

Maybe you can just see the next 3 months. That’s great. Share that.
Maybe you can just see the next week, that works too. Share that.

Trust that your current vision is getting you to the next precipice. More will be revealed once you get there.

And if world domination IS truly your end game, then please be super gentle to all the people you meet along the way. ‘Cause world domination is no joke. Or is it?:)

If you have thoughts on this topic, I’ll be hanging out over on the blog. Would love to hear what you think. Last week post sparked some eye opening discussions, so thanks for contributing to that.

Love
Erin

P.S. Do you live in Chicago? I’m honored to be teaching a fundraising class for a charity that is near and dear to my heart, Bright Pink, an organization that raises awareness and provides education around breast and ovarian cancer.

The class is Friday May 9th at 9:30am. Would love to see you there! You can sign up or are welcome to donate if you can’t make it by clicking HERE.