Who Do You See In Your Mirror? Survivor, Dreamer or Visionary

What mode are you in, survivor, dreamer or visionary?  As children we see a world with no limits, and try anything.  We'll eat food off the floor, stick our hands on a hot pan, and jump into a pool having no idea how to swim.  Somewhere along the lines we learn fear.

Some kids learn fear early.  Their parents are quick to stop any action which has any risk.  Kids who are raised alone tend to have more protective parents.  younger kids of larger families tend to get more leeway as parents realize, the kids will eventually figure out the hot stove hurts and they'll quit touching it.

As we become adults the same things happen to us.  Our bosses tell us to toe the line.  Banks say they'll take our homes if we don't make the payments.  In extreme cases you might lose your job and not be able to eat.  This is how people end up in survival mode.

Sadly I meet more and more people in survival mode every day.  Some of it is likely my environment so my evidence is strictly anecdotal.  There are all kinds of studies to measure where people are mentally like the index of "consumer confidence".  I haven't seen a "visionary scale" where we measure how many people are in each of the three categories I mentioned.

A visionary is someone like Richard Branson,  Bill Gates or even actors like John Travolta, Henry Winkler or Tom Cruise.  No matter what happens they are always looking forward.  They see more possibilities and are rewarded for it.

At the other end of the spectrum are the people in survival mode.  Survivors are people who worry about getting work tomorrow, or feeding themselves or their family tonight.  They aren't looking at next month or vacation next year.  They are just struggling to survive.

For generations, prophets and success coaches alike have said that it all starts in your head.  If you are worried about putting food on the table tonight, the best you will be able to do is put food on the table.  If you are worried about changing the world, food will happen because it has to happen as you put your efforts into changing the world.

Once you hit survival mode, you enter a very difficult place that usually takes some major event to break you out of that mode of thinking.  Sometimes bankruptcy can shake you loose, yet some people have gone bankrupt multiple times.  As a business owner who has had successful businesses and not so successful businesses, I can tell you that explaining to your family that you are broke can be very motivating. 

I can also tell you it can be very depressing.  I have personally known people who took their own lives when they hit bottom.  When you hit the bottom you only have two places to go, up or out.  Out should never be an option, we should always have somewhere to turn.  Sadly not everyone does.

In the middle are dreamers.  They are doing ok, think big and maybe even talk big but never seem to move forward.  They are always looking at what other people are doing, and trying to emulate their success, all the while staying put.

If you think you are a visionary, ask yourself this, How much better off are you this year then you were last year?  True visionary are much better off.  If you are about the same or only a little better off, you are closer to being a dreamer.  If you answered that you are a little worse of, or definitely worse off, you have slipped into survival mode. 

If you are truly in a visionary position now, you have already done this and know where you are going.  If your are a dreamer, you might have done this but haven't really focused on it.  If you are in survival mode, you haven't even thought about it.

What is "IT"?

"IT" is your vision.  Your vision can't be complicated, and it must be clear.  Last year I had a dozen goals or "things" on my vision board.  One of my personal coaches said to reduce it to three because twelve things where simply too much to focus on every day.  He said my vision board was too cluttered and therefore my mind was getting cluttered.  He was right, I had stalled and fallen back to "dreamer" mode.  It was the same advice I had been giving clients.

I learned as an instructor pilot in the military, it is always easier to see what other people can do to move forward and make great leaps of progress than it is to see what you are doing wrong or what you can do to get ahead.  Using that philosophy, I hire coaches just like people hire me.  The key is to listen to them.

When I trimmed my list down to three major objectives, I hit the first one in just a couple of months and took it off the list.  Then I added another.  I will probably only get six or seven of my original twelve goals completed, but the reality is that a couple of the goals probably weren't that important anyway, and I'll forget what they were when it is time to add them back to the list.  More importantly, I probably wouldn't get more than two done had I not trimmed the list to focus on no more than three at a time.

Spend time asking yourself how you are doing right now compared to last week, last month and last year.  If you are worried about putting food on the table tomorrow, make that your goal, and as soon as you have it figured out, don't relax and don't let up.  Take time to create your three major goals for the year and spend 15 minutes each day thinking about them until you can say you are better off and have accomplished them.  Then do it again with three new goals or objectives.

Always move forward even if the steps are very small and slow.

Put your mind to work while you sleep and get out of survival mode.  It won't happen tonight, and it won't happen tomorrow, but it will happen.  If you are in dreamer mode, pick one big dream, and give it everything you have.  You'll get there.  It might take a year, or it might take ten.  In the words of Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never, never, never, never ever give up."

As I write this I am thirty pounds lighter than I was a year ago.  One goal done....Next.