FOCUS on SUCCESS

There is a LOT of serious BS out there about how to become a success in life. I have come to find most of it is about as useful as teets on a bull - you can get milk; but, you will get beat up pretty bad doing it.

In my case I needed to figure out how to make money without having a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke). I also figured out success to me was a “lifestyle” choice and not a monetary one. I didn’t need to be “rich”, I just want to make enough to cover the bills and have TIME to spend enjoying my life for once.

Everyone says, “Follow your passion!”

Passions are great and nice, but you have to do something people are willing to PAY you to do. Most of the time a “passion” won’t do that so you have to get real. If you are a lucky person who has a passion people are willing to pay you for doing - then you are golden.

My dose of reality was to learn advice about following my “passions” was pretty useless. My passions are spending time with my family and playing video games. Not much of a way to monetize those things.

You have to get to a point where what you are doing for money gives you the time to enjoy your passion. Conversely, some people find when they have to do their “passion” 24/7/365 it is not quite what they thought it would be.

There is a dollar figure attached to the lifestyle you want to live and the sooner you figure out that dollar figure the easier it will be. 

It is essential to sit down and draw out a plan. 

I will be using lawn mowing as an example throughout this post since I know a couple people who built a large empire doing just that. Most people can visualize this better too. Just adapt to your chosen subject.

You will formulate your escape plan from your current life to the one you want to live by following what is outlined in the rest of the post.

F.O.C.U.S.

There are 2 types of FOCUS you need to monetize your time to make your lifestyle goals a success. I will describe both and give details of how to use them.

The first type of FOCUS has the following acronym:

F - Find what you are good at doing

O - Only market what you are good at doing

C - Concentrate ALL your efforts on what you are good at doing

U - Utilize all tools to enhance and improve what you are good at doing

S - Stop and reevaluate where you are and where you are going

First things first, you need to figure out what you are good at doing that someone will actually pay you money to do. The ones people tell you, "You should be in a circus" may not apply here. If you are an artist, writer, house painter, designer, carpenter, plumber, graphic artist, crafter, or any number of things you may be good at and people will pay you to do.

Success will be found in something you can find examples of in real life.

There are way too many things in real life, and online, that cannot be duplicated in real life. I am not saying you couldn't start the next Apple or Microsoft but it is not likely right out of the gate unless you are that special person who can make it happen.

There are also ads you see online about way to make money which you need to forget about. If you could make $10,000 a month in 30 days, I think there would be more rich people out there and you wouldn't be reading this right?

The ultimate goal is to replace yourself

Whatever it is you good at doing, you need to look at it with an eye on something you can “replace” yourself once you get to a point. In other words you will be building something with the idea of not having to be there and doing it all the time.

For example, you are good at mowing grass. You do it yourself until you get to a point of hiring help. You grow it to the point of hiring enough help so you do not have to mow another blade of grass the rest of your life and still make enough money to live your lifestyle goals.

Working the same hours in your own business as you do in your J.O.B. when you want more free time doesn't work. The end goal is to sit on a beach and relax right? You can't do that if you are a "one-person show".

Will your passion drive you crazy?

The funny thing about “passions” are they are usually your hobbies. When you have to do them every day to pay the bills they sometimes get very tedious pretty quickly. Before you did them to relax and now they are not so relaxing.

You need to ask yourself, “Can I do this every day and still like doing it?”

You also need to realize what you will not do. The “line in the sand” so to speak. Things you could do for money but for your own reason do not want to do.

Don't go overboard

Too many people try to do too much and get overwhelmed. They try to advertise a multitude of things and services because they think it will make them more money faster. It doesn’t. It burns you out quicker. So if you are good at mowing the grass - just advertise mowing the grass. Don’t add pruning or trimming or painting the garage and fence starting out.

You need to make sure the customer understands exactly what you are providing for the fee. Otherwise, they can assume you will do something and be upset when they don’t get what they expect. 

Once you get enough people who you mow lawns for and you start to get too busy - hire someone to help mow the lawns. Then you go to your current customers and offer trimming services too. Once you build that up to where you are too busy - you hire someone to do the trimming and so on.

The idea is you have to keep growing your business and adding clients. If you spend all day at a single customers house you will start to lose money and momentum. The pitfall is to lull yourself into thinking you only need this one customer and you are set. What happens if they move or change their mind about your service? You are screwed then.

Focus on your strengths

You need to concentrate all of your effort into what you are good at first and foremost. Build up clients and keep attracting new ones. You also need to spend some time becoming known as an “expert” at what you are good at doing. Take some additional courses and read up on new techniques.

Provide twice the value than what you are charging and you will always have loyal customers and money coming in from your efforts. So when you mow the grass, use a mulcher or bagger and properly dispose of the clippings. Let the customer know where they have bad spots and tell them how to fix them themselves. Give them a “tip sheet” on how to make their lawn beautiful.

Refer them to others who will do a good job at things you don’t want to do. 

Don’t short change yourself either. Charge a good fee for your services. You can study the market to determine what a good fee is. A strange paradox happens that the more customers pay - the less they complain.

Always do the very best job you can on every job. Maybe offer a “freebie” or coupon and never just lower you fee for no apparent reason just to get the job. You will regret it later.

Evaluate what tools you use and if there is a more efficient way to do something. The less time you spend on making money the more time you can spend doing what you like.

Is is working? 

Stop and evaluate what you are doing, where you are at, and where you want to be to see if you are still going in the right direction to achieve your lifestyle goals. Every thirty days is a good idea so you can make changes swiftly before you get too far away from where you want to be.

In everything you do always ask if it moves you closer or further away from your goal. Just because you can afford to get a new mower, does it make sense? Will it allow you to make more money or not. If it is just something you can do doesn’t mean you should do it.

Don’t get lost in minutia and details. Learn to make a quick decision and trust yourself. If you don’t know something, find someone who has done it and ask them. Aunt Sadie can give some good advice, but if she has never taken the path you are on she can’t help you.

How to get there

This all sounds good right? To live the life you want to live. It will not be easy or anyone could do it right? It can be if you have the right mind set. Your doubts and fears will sink you every time. Making the money is not really the hard part, it is keeping to your plan even when you think it isn't working.

So, for example, you need $1,000 a month to cover your expenses and you charge $20 a lawn to mow. This means you will need to mow 50 yards per month to cover your expenses. The beauty of all of this is if you mow the 50 in the first week of the month - you could take the rest of the month off!

Nice to think about but how do you really get to that point? Where do you get the 50 yards to mow in the first place? You have other commitments, bills to pay, and a family to support right?

You will have to commit for at least 30 days (90 days is better though) to work your plan come hell or high water. This means using your time off from work to get those 50 yards to mow. Take a vacation from your current job and start to build your client list.

Some of the things you sacrifice you will find aren't much of a sacrifice since you won't really miss them. You don't make any money vegged out in front of the boob tube do you?

The short term things you sacrifice will pay enormous dividends n the end. The control and freedom you have is hard to describe but once you are there you will understand. You will also wonder why you took so long to get there.

You will have to sacrifice a bit to pay the price for your freedom. 

To get to the lifestyle you want there are other changes you may need to make. The less you have in expenses, the more money you get to keep, the less you have to work, and the easier you can achieve your lifestyle goals.

This will also reduce your stress level. Making $1000 a month to cover your base expenses is much easier than trying to cover $10,000 right off the bat.

This means taking a very hard look at your life and what you REALLY need to be happy. Do you need to move into a smaller cheaper house or apartment? Sell a bunch of junk you don’t need or use to pay off a credit card bill? Cancel some subscriptions? Stop eating out 3 times a day? Get a more economical vehicle?

These are things you may need to do to break free and start to live the life you want to instead of the life you don’t. It will hard at first, I won’t lie. The rewards come later and you may actually get everything you have and more back if you want.

You may find you like a more minimal living arrangement than what you are living right now. I do know a few people who don’t even have a house or apartment and live in hotels or motels since they don’t have to worry about the minutia of either. They focus more energy on what they want to do and to make enough to sustain it.

It may sound crazy but even Steve Jobs wore the same outfit for years and had a closet full of them so he didn’t have to worry about what to wear each day. To free his mind and energies for more important things.

You need to get to a place where your expenses are less than your income. The quicker you get there the quicker you can start to see results. The quicker you can reap the benefits of your own lifestyle upgrade.

Why be normal?

There is also another thing that happens when you are moving towards your goals. When you break the chains of “normality” and begin your journey to the life you envision for yourself you will run into detractors. Very few will support or understand what you are doing or why.

Everyone has been programmed since childhood to follow the “path”. Get an education, get a job, work 40 years, and retire. This is the biggest scam perpetrated on society there has ever been. Even if you find a good job, there is no guarantee you will keep it long enough to retire. There is no guarantee you will have enough to live on when you retire either.

Any lifestyle deviation from the “path” makes people nervous. They have no concept of running a business or entrepreneurship. Most people you know will give you grief and their opinions on what you should be doing with your life. You will become a lion among the sheep and the sheep get nervous.

That is the crux of it all - it is your life after all.

Nobody else will live it for you but they all have a grand time trying to have a say in how you should live yours. 

You may go through a hard part and then live the life of your dreams. People will feel it is their duty to set you straight. They will try to bring you down and get you back in line with the “normal” way of thinking. They will try to get you to doubt your goals and resolve to live the life you want and not the life someone wants to give you. Some will even doubt your sanity.

This is where the other type of FOCUS come in. It is pretty self explanatory and all you have to do when someone gives you grief and tries to steal your dreams is to smile, look them in the eye, and say, “Thank you! You can really FOCUS!” and walk away.

This is the acronym for the second type of focus.

F - Flake

O - Off

C - Cuz

U - Ur

S - Stupid