I found myself in a new space in 2020 concerning my self storage business.
I have never been here before.
I realized I had lost some of the passion for my self storage business.
Have you ever been there?
Not the place to be or claim if one of your accountabilities is helping others get in self storage. But, none the less, I found myself there.
With COVID, the world of staying at home, avoiding people, and watching and managing your business and customers from afar, that didn’t help.
But it really isn’t the source of my loss of passion.
I achieved a big milestone in my storage business and then sold a lot of the projects off due to high offers and partners wanting to realize profits.
But it truly isn’t the source of my loss of passion.
I have some partners who are scared and upset with our team in two projects because they are going slower and not realizing the profit we thought they would.
But it really isn’t the source of my loss of passion.
Could it be the combination?
A valid thought, but what is the source of my loss of passion?
What is?
My age?
No way.
The Real Loss Of Passion
I’ve been trained. I know what to do.
It seems to us that the loss of passion occurs because of all the things in the past.
This is not the case.
The real loss of passion in a person’s life is because there is no Compelling Future Calling You.
I had achieved some major milestones in my self storage business that had been driving me for years.
I had some failures and disappointments that were having me to be cautious.
And yes, I thought I had been telling myself it is time to slow down. I realized that I was telling myself to take less risk (i.e. take some money off the table and not put it at risk).
These are two different conversations.
So, my training has kicked in, and I realize there are three steps needed to create a Compelling Future.
Create A Compelling Future
If you don’t have a specific, Compelling Future calling you, and you want one, here you go.
Step One: Sounds simple but Create Personal Energy.
One needs energy for anything. But to create excitement and momentum towards a new future, or more accurately said, to have that Compelling Future pull you towards it, lots of Personal Energy is required.
So, for me, that means getting off my tail at home and even though gyms are closed again. It doesn’t mean I can’t exercise, do regular yoga, and walk on the golf course and carry my bag instead of riding in the golf cart. (18 holes is between 9 and 10 miles with a 50-pound backpack).
For you, it may be more rigorous or less.
I’m also eating better.
For me, the game is to create more energy, so I am a match for the Compelling Future calling me.
Step Two: Manage Past Failures & Complete Past.
We all have failures. If you don’t, you are not up to much in life.
The problem with failure is not that we didn’t win or succeed. The real problem is most of us (myself included much of the time) don’t powerfully relate to our failures.
We make them mean something about us.
As Thomas Edison famously said, failures teach us one more way not to do something.
Human nature, or more accurately said, a by-product of our human evolution, has us take our failures and put them in our future so as not to have that happen again and experience the negative feelings and emotions that go with failures.
So, our future gets cluttered up with all our past failures. That leaves little room to move and bring forth a Compelling Future.
This may be good in a hostile physical environment where failure equals physical death. But for most of us, we can count on one hand the number of times our physical life was in real danger. However, the reptilian portion of our brain has us experience failure as if it was a life and death situation.
The way for us to create space in our future is to take the past failures out of it.
How?
It can be as simple as writing down four columns on a sheet of paper and putting the following captions on each column.
- What am I fearful of (really!)?
- What past failure caused that fear?
- What did I learn from it?
- Who do I need to make amends to?
I know it can seem like an easy step to avoid. I know it seems every time that anyone else involved with our failures; they were at fault and played a big role in them. Perhaps they did. But that is not at play here.
We are completing our past, so it is not in our future. We are cleaning up our side of the street.
If any of our actions or lack of actions, or ways of being had a negative impact on anyone involved in our past failures; and it doesn’t hurt them or someone else, make amends to them.
Not an “I’m sorry.” Just this is what I did, how can I make it up to you? What do I need to do?
Then be willing to do it.
This single action does more to clear up the past than anything you can do, in my opinion.
So step two is to Manage Past Failures & Complete The Past.
Step Three: Now, create a specific goal for your self storage business that inspires you, stretches you, is measurable, and is in time (by when).
Then, plan.
Stand in the future (the time you will complete the goal) and step backward from this moment to now.
Write down milestones. If they are not hit, adjust, learn from any failures using step two and keep that Compelling Future in place and pulling you forward.
I have never, and know no one who has ever, hit every milestone and had a clear, easy way towards achieving their Compelling Future. If you do, it means it is not that compelling.
Conclusion
The real win for us is not the fruits of the Compelling Future (although they can be nice). The real win for us is who we get to become on the way to that future.
It does not take long to realize money, power, or winning the games of life does not equal fulfillment. Fulfillment, at least for me, is waking up every morning and know I am using that day to become closer to who and what I am meant to be in the world.
