Far too often executives give up their lives as they are building a company, or climbing the corporate ladder.
And for almost all of us who are successful, the reality is that there is a good amount time required in order to gain the success that we desire. Whether success is measured in dollars, or title, or accomplishment, success takes time, vision, focus and a lot of hard work.
But for each of us, a day comes when we truly have a choice – and my sense is that a lot of us are either blind to the choice we have, or choose not to choose.
This choice is to form a new vision of our future, and to decide and take action to begin a transition to this new vision.
In my career & life, I started making this transition two years ago. In my case, the transition consists of two pieces: 1) to migrate my business towards assisting CEO’s in taking their companies to the next level and to assist in achieving a higher rate of growth and higher value for the business; and 2) begin a lifestyle transition that will allow me to spend half of the year in some place like Costa Rica and the balance in the States.
While I’ve got my reasons for choosing the second part of that transition, the point of this post is that all of us transition, either willingly or by necessity. At some point all of us hit an age, or health issue that requires a transition.
I’ve known hundreds of CEO’s in my career, and my observation is that most, a vast majority, don’t get to transition by choice.
I want to transition based on my choices, my preferences. I’ve put in nearly 40 years of good, hard work. And for me, I want to continue working until I die — I enjoy the creativity and challenge of what I do. I’d go crazy trying to play golf or tennis every day as my only real activity. Yet I want to try something outside of the US. I want to live winters where it’s not cold. I want to be on or near a beach – and the ideal setting has me seeing the water at an elevation of 2,000-3,000 ft so the daytime high temp is in the mid to upper 70’s.
I think we can “have it all”.
I’m convinced that we can find that “next thing” that will enrich our lives and allow us to choose the circumstances of our lives.
I encourage you to think about what you would like to see in your Perfect Day. A friend of mine did a video that is a great exercise. I highly recommend taking a few minutes to watch this video.