When we were young, we were told to work hard, and if we did, then one day, we could have a big house and the car of our dreams. Though this does hold some truth, it has evolved over the generations. We now live in a society of mixed ideology in the workplace and in general terms of how one should live life. Some people will give their entire life up for a company to feel a sense of purpose. Some people will work the bare minimum of what is needed to survive, the typical 9-5 job mindset. The last type of person is the person who goes after more each day—working multiple jobs or creating new business ventures that can lead to remarkable growth in their life. Regardless of what type of person you identify in the work realm, it is crucial to understand your growth and advancement in your chosen career/field. In this month’s T-U-S, I want to break down how you can work towards improvement/growth in your life.

With the rise in entrepreneurs and overnight millionaires, we are faced with the reality of looking at our actions to see if they are giving us the growth we need to flourish. Nonetheless, it does not matter how you make a living, but rather how you are living. What you do on a given day should bring you closer to your goals. For example, if you want to lose ten pounds but eat a pizza every night before bed, you will not lose those 10 pounds quickly. The following steps will help you begin the process of creating progress toward meaningful advancement in your life.

1. Meaningful Work

2. Monetary Value

3. Hustling Backwards (The Rat Race)

4. Investment (Skin In The Game)

5. Reason For Advancement

Meaningful Work

Meaningful work is the idea that what you decide to do with your working hours holds some value in your life. Many people will take a higher-paying job before they take one that has lower pay. Nonetheless, the jobs in line with our values are not always the ones we will choose first. Our values in life have a direct correlation to how often/deeply we feel happiness.  Money can make us blind at times, and it is vital to get out of that loop. Before I begin down this road of finding your purpose for meaningful work, it must be said that money is not the problem. Though money helps us live the life we want, it is not what wakes us up in the morning.

What wakes us up each morning should be the drive to reach our goals in life. I find that many successful people are more in love with the process of what they do instead of the dividends they receive from their work. An unhealthy amount of people wake up tired, lost, and unmotivated to go forth with their day. The best way to focus our minds in the morning is for our purpose to be directed at meaningful work. Each step you take forward should act as inspiration for you to be more than you are. Just like how your body is motivated to walk to the fridge when it is hungry, your mind can be motivated to fulfill its values.

Finding that meaningful work can be tricky if you are doing it alone. I knew what I was good at in my life, but I kept running in circles until one of my mentors told me what I should focus on. When he told me those words, I was not surprised. I knew I had the talent and the gifts to be a great educator and motivator, but I was running around the idea of postponing my gifts to fill my pockets. Fortunately, today, I have made a living and a great life following his advice. The work I do not only help me want to be a better person, but it helps all of my clients and people I interact with on any given day.

Monetary Value

The monetary value that you want to go after will be unique to you. Some people need more money to live a specific type of lifestyle, while others need very little to reach the goals they have set for themselves. My father told me that one of his primary goals in life was to make sure we had a better life than he had. In his mind, he did not need boatloads of money to accomplish that goal. What he needed was selflessness and the understanding that his children would be his most significant investment. Though this is an ancient form of thinking, I believe that being traditional is a good thing. If more people went back to our traditional values and roots, we would have better marriages and fewer parents in nursing homes.

Though parents tend to do selfless acts quite often, his goal was to make sure we had a chance at attaining a wonderful life. We grew up lower middle class in a not-so-great neighborhood. We did not have power or heat some days, but I would not change that for any level of lavish upbringing. Though he made sacrifices for our benefit, his goal was to bring us along that race called life and make sure we were ready to place number one at the finish line. He could have been selfish and focused on his own goals; his goal to destroy a generational curse was more significant than any amount of money he could ever attain.

My father did not have a terrible life growing up, but it wasn’t a walk in the park, either. After high school, he decided to go into the working force and make a living. He worked in that field for about 20+ years before he was forced to change careers. When he was young, he fell into the trap of working in high-paying jobs that didn’t offer much security. He was blinded by the money, thinking it would always be there. What would have happened if he chose to go after more meaningful work than just a high-paying job? Would he be in a better place right now? I am not sure about that, but I know that his goal is to make sure his children would be in a better situation than he ever was. All of his children have gone out in the world and have accomplished incredible things. Each of us still desires to create more wealth and meaningful change in our world each day.

From an intrinsic standpoint, we must look at the value he gained from sacrificing his victory for ours. What was achieved in his doing that? I believe that no amount of money would make him feel any different than he does now. What makes him the happiest is seeing his children succeed and do well. Though he might not be living the most glamorous life, he unknowingly created something more valuable than the paychecks he receives each week. His monetary value does not have to be high because his goal was not directed toward great riches. I am sure many parents can relate to this because they tend to place their children as priorities in their life.

Finding your monetary value is figuring out how much you are worth. When my mentor asked me that question, I remember giving him a less-than-favorable answer. If you want to achieve great wealth in life, you have to put a price on your head. You have to figure out how much you are worth and then build from that. If you go through life having an inflated sense of worth, you will take minimal action to be more than that. The truth can hurt, but it is the key to progress. That is why people flock to people like Dave Ramsey for money advice. They need him to tell them how dumb they are with money and hold their hand to get out of the mess they created for themselves.

Monetary value essential is how much you believe you are worth at any given time. You have to understand all your skills, education, experience, knowledge, wisdom, and assets to determine what you are worth. Simply going through this process, you can get a realistic understanding of where you stand in the world. If your number is some preposterous number that can’t be validated, you should reevaluate your thinking. My worth steadily increased each year due to all of the experience and education I sought out consistently. I am sure that you heard the phrase “Invest in Yourself.” That phrase is one to follow to gain an accurate monetary value.

If you choose to get that monetary value from working multiple jobs or setting yourself up with the skills and mindset to end up on top, then that is your choice. I will tell you that many people are not ok with feeling uncomfortable. They avoid things that are too challenging or that they do not like. To be more than you are, you have to get used to being uncomfortable. That means you should seek out and embrace those painful moments and become better from them. If you can do that, then you will see your monetary value rise. Whether you are doing something you love or not, you will see monetary growth in your life.

The Rat Race

The Rat Race is the idea that you are working each week for a paycheck with very little money left over. When you are finished paying all the expenses, some money should be left over to invest and enjoy. Being in the rat race is you living at or below your means. Suppose you are trying to live above your means while in the rat race; then you will be steadily sinking into a hole that can be difficult to get out of. In the end, you will not be closer to financial freedom if you stay in this trap. If you are the type of person who is constantly without or has a scarcity mindset, then there is a chance you can be in a neverending race. To get out of that race, you must take deliberate actions to produce great wealth in your life.

The creation of wealth alone will not simply take you out of the rat race. For example, if you made a million dollars a year and your bills were a million dollars, then there is a high chance you are working just for the next payday. Simply cutting or curbing your spending habits will not be enough to get you out of the race. What needs to start to change is how you view money, time, and your habits.  When it comes to the rat race, many people change their lifestyles and think that is enough to get out on top. I believe the main problem with people “being stuck” is that they have bad habits and lack the knowledge on how to get out of dead-end cycles. Many people mimic how their parents live and justify that as the standard because it is how they grew up. That misconception of how your life was to how it can be today has to be adjusted to help elevate you to new heights.

Hustling backward is another form of a rat race that was common thinking where I grew up. Hustling backward means that you do things to try and get ahead, but it doesn’t produce the results to get you there. The best example I have found is if you work for Uber/Lyft and you have a car that you rent each week for work. The car costs about $500 per week to rent. If you work the whole week, you will make about $800 per week. The math shows that you made $800, but you spent $500 on the rental car.

The $300 you take home does not include the money you spend on gas for the week or the food you eat. The amount of money you will bring home is far less than $300. The idea of hustling backward is that you do things to make money, but you end up spending money, and the return you receive back is less than if you would work a typical 9-5 job. Now, I understand that having a career in taxi service is not all like this. I know many drivers who can make six figures a year giving rides. The example is to provide an example of how people bleed money unknowingly. I call this mistaking movement for progress, A.K.A Hustinling Backward.

Money will not always be a factor when hustling backward. You have to ask yourself, “What are the long-term results of me doing this?”. If you are killing yourself at work and not even making a dent in what you owe or how you want to feel, then you need to come up with a new plan. If you have been doing it for years to no unveil, it may be time to modify your actions to get better results. If you keep trying to do the same thing repeatedly and you are left tired and hopeless at the end of it, then there is a good chance you are overextending yourself for no reason.

The difference between working hard and over-extending yourself is that one builds you up while the other breaks you down. Many people misinterpret working hard to mean over-extending themselves. These people will work all day, every day, and have no time for the simple pleasures of life like sleep or being with family. Before they know it, their whole life is gone, and they have nothing but the bags under their eyes to show for it. So if you are ragged and at the end of your days, you have to ask yourself, “Am I working hard, or am I over-extending myself?”. You can work hard every day and bask in the good life, but if you find yourself over-extending constantly, you will be left empty, drained, and burned out.

Investment – Skin in the game

When you invest in someone/something, you are giving more than just time and money. People fail to realize when they are working towards something, focus and brainpower are used in the process. There is a thing called decision fatigue, and we all have a certain threshold for how many high-value choices we make in a given day. That is why after work, many people head home and sit on the sofa and watch television until bedtime. Now, I am not saying you are one of those people, but if you are not putting more into your life than what you are right now, your investment is not maximized yet. The value that you can bring into your life is what you hold yourself accountable for. If you want to lose those extra pounds or fill that piggy bank, it is essential to realize what must be given in exchange.

In most of the world, the most common way to show meaningful intent is with money. If you want to get in shape, you hire a trainer to help you get there. Trainers can be expensive, but since you have some “skin in the game,” you are more likely to fulfill your promise to yourself to get in shape this year. The same can be confirmed with business workers when hiring a mentor/coach to help them progress through the levels of advancement in the company through promotions. Regardless of the area, if you put in money that you appreciate, then there is a higher probability that you will reach your goal.

Skin in the game means that you have something on the line to lose. In the above cases, you hire an individual or team with money to help you reach a specific goal. Whether you value time or money does not matter about getting skin in the game. You will either lose time, money, or focus when investing in yourself, but what you gain in return has the potential to be greater than what you put out. To have a healthy lifestyle, a prosperous career, a solid relationship, or simply financial freedom to live and do whatever you want. You have to give something up to gain something in return. Monks call this emptying your cup. If your cup is full, then you have to empty it first before you can receive more.

I offer much of my content for free online because I know many people do not have the funds to receive high-quality coaching advice. I charge for my time when people realize that they want to get to where they want to be. My focus is typically on growth and progress, so working with clients does not take away what I want out of my day. I believe that you can get to your dream life with no help. However, how much longer will it take you to get there? That is why working with a coach or mentor is so powerful. They can get you where you want to be much quicker than if you were left to your own devices.

The Reason For Advancement

You developed a plan for your life because you have a goal to be someone and to one day arrive somewhere in life. Life is meant to be lived to the fullest each day. How often can you say you live life fully? I know for me, it is something I am constantly working on. I make sure to present myself with a day full of betterment. I want to be better with my health, relationships, career, and understanding of what I want out of life. I choose to advance further in my life because I have a goal that needs me to arrive there. Purpose senses that we should all have within us. There is something that only you can do in this world, and it is shameful how many people refuse to let it out for the world to see.

When you set out to reach a specific goal or provide the world with advancement, you reap the benefits. You might not have the reason forefront in your mind, but you will realize that your actions provide a purpose. Our minds are flexible to a certain point, but most of the things you do in a given day are direct thoughts. You get to make choices in your life that will push you forward instead of holding you back. In turn, you can make choices that might not serve you. As long as you understand when it is work time and playtime, going out with friends does not have to be labeled bad. I think the problem and one of the main reasons people fail to reach any great stride of advancement are that they live in the future.

When you start to ask yourself what you want out of life, you can begin to reach for significant advancements. What is your reason for living? Not many people think about that. They just know that they were born on this earth and will go back to the earth one day. What about the part between being born and dying? Many people are not choosing to live the life they were meant to and settle for whatever comes their way. People have so much more to give at any given time. All it takes is to find and unshackle that potential. If you are having trouble getting to that point, then seek out a coach or mentor to help along the way. There is nothing wrong with seeking assistance if you need a hand to get up to the level you want to be on.

What you want out of life will vary on where you are financially, mentally, and perhaps spiritually. People tend to want to advance in these areas because they are not satisfied with life. Change does not happen to people who are content where they are. People have to get fed up with what they have to bring about the change they want. The reason is that change is not easy, and a person needs a strong motivator to get them where they need to get. The reason for your advancement will be personal to you, but I know that it should include you or your loved one being better off. Whatever better off looks to you, it is your choice to move toward that achievement.

In closing, working towards advancement can be an arduous process. Many factors have to be looked at to find what meaningful work you were meant to do. If you have not found out your purpose in life yet, start working on that today. After you understand what you are supposed to do, then go out and get what is yours. Do not be afraid of the process. It can be slow at first, but those will be the sweetest moments of the journey. Start to work through these steps and identify where you are in each of them. Understanding where you are is the first step in getting where you want to be. Take time out today to find out where you want to end up in life.

Until then,

Michael Rearden

CEO of Reven LLC.