If you’re like Kenny Chapman (that’s me!), you have a driven mind.
Our mind goes a million miles a minute and is constantly coming up with new ideas.
This can propel our business forward, but it can also send it crashing into a telephone pole.
If you’re like me, we’ve had our fair share of “Why did I do that?” moments.
Some of you can relate to asking yourself these questions going, Holy smokes, here I go. What am I doing?
I’ve got this crazy ADHD, XYZ, or whatever this driven mind is going on.
I want us to kind of take a step back today and really get some clarity on slowing down your mind and harnessing that energy to avoid those moments.
All in all, slowing down your mind and reflecting on your motivations around security, lifestyle, and fulfillment, will help you harness the actions your driven mind pushes you toward.
Let’s get some clarity, my friends.
Why Do You Do What You Do?
I was recently in a coaching session with one of my life architecture clients and me, and we just had this phenomenal kind of a deeper conversation about some of the why’s behind what we do.
And I just wanted to share some snippets today with you.
As part of my role and goal with this blog and my brand is to share those of you that don’t have the ability to work with me one-on-one or to work with a great team over at the Blue Collar Success Group.
I want this to be a conduit of information.
When we think about it, you know, there is a reason behind everything that you do.
My job with my one-on-one clients is to help them uncover that so we can realize it and interrupt the subconscious pattern.
At the end of the day, we think:
Oh, great. I think I’m going to do this. I plan that I’m going to do this.
That’s my conscious mind.
And then suddenly, my subconscious mind gets involved and goes:
Okay, cool, cool story, bro. Glad you think you’re going to do that. But here’s what we’re really going to do.
It takes over on autopilot. It’s like the cruise control on my car, right?
This is your driven mind. It spins on its own.
The Driven Mind Is On Cruise Control
It’s like you’re on cruise control.
You know, sometimes it’s great when the road is flat, but what happens when you hit a hill.
You go down and hill, and it lets off a little, doesn’t it?
And then when you go up, man, it kicks in.
But it’s not very efficient when things go wrong.
The same is true with the subconscious. It’s like:
Oh, I’m going to take a little break. I’m going to; I’m going to just chill out for a minute.
And then, all of a sudden, the subconscious goes:
Oh no, we’ve got a program to run. I don’t care if it’s good, bad, destructive, incredible; whatever it is, I’m going to run this program.
Sometimes we don’t feel like that subconscious is a friend at all, do we?
I want you to think about this client of mine, an amazing human being, and we were talking about why I do things a certain way, a certain form.
That’s what I just want to jump on and share with you today.
The Thousand-Foot View
When you think about yourself and why do you do certain things, that’s almost like stepping out to coach yourself.
If you’re able to go to a thousand-foot view and look down on your situation, you can see the building that you’re in right now.
You see your head and your brain and working and all the things.
You and ask yourself:
What am I doing?
Why did I do that?
I want you to get clear about this now for me.
I know that I’ve done a lot of things for a lot of reasons. Over the years, it generally had to do with trauma, with pain, with certain challenges.
Back in the day, I drank a lot and had an unhealthy relationship with drugs and alcohol.
I know that there were voids I was trying to fill, and I was a high performer.
You know, I was writing books. I was creating content and doing all these things to help thousands and thousands of people in the world every year.
But I was still trying to fill this void.
There was some reason behind that.
Now, today is not to talk about addiction, but I will tell you that why you do certain things are tied to the way that you’ve done certain things and the programs and the neuro associations that we create in our brain.
So as leaders, when we take a step back and go, huh, why did I do that? It can change the game.
Is Money The Root Of Your Subconscious?
Well, let me ask you this.
How much of what you do pretty much on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis is tied to money?
How much of what you do, the decisions you make, are tied to money in some way, shape or form?
What you think is that a big part is a not very big part, is it?
Nah, Kenny, I don’t really think about money very often.
You need to get clear on this. Pay attention to everything around you. Business and products and money are there every steps of the way.
From about retirement, pharmaceuticals, reality shows, TV people, or the Tik Tokers, or the Instagram influencers that are telling us:
Oh, Hey, here’s a product that I happen to use.
Whether it’s TV shows that we watch that subtly place products that we don’t even realize are part of an advertising deal.
I’m going to challenge that even further and say you probably think about money a lot.
At the time that I’m putting this together, we’re wrapping up 2020 and starting 2021.
Many of you have done a lot of budgeting, and you’ve gone through different things.
And you know, you’re thinking about money.
The budget represents money.
When you think about tools in the business, a lot of things tie around money.
When you think about growth strategies, a lot of things have to do with money.
As you think about return on investments as a leader, you’re an investor in your time, your team, your, or your organization, whatever that looks like, a lot of times it’s measured in money.
And that’s what I want you to think about today. It’s the measurement.
Money Isn’t Such A Bad Thing
There’s scripture in the Bible around money, which I could have a very good conversation with you about my perception of what those verses actually mean at a certain level.
There are certain things that get interpreted like code books as well.
This is what it means to me.
This is what it means to this pastor.
It’s what it means to this religious leader.
My friend, what does money mean to you?
And what does the measurement of it mean to you?
Because it is tied to a lot of why you do what you do.
And when you say no, it’s not! then I want to challenge that.
I want you to challenge that.
I was talking to my client about this situation.
As we were getting a little bit deeper and a little bit deeper, we really asked:
Why am I making these certain things happen?
In our digging, we reached a realization, and this realization happens with many of my clients.
Ability, money, and mindset matter. And your money mindset absolutely matters.
Changing The Way You Think About Your “Why”
How you think about money creates the program that you run.
Your motivation and everything around that is in some way tied to money.
I’m not saying money is the be-all and end-all because it’s not.
But you need some honest clarity about how money affects your life.
I want to share that with you here today.
We’re in this deep conversation; we’re in this coaching session.
As I’m thinking through, and I’m taking notes, and I’m listening intently and going through the description of what had taken place with the decisions that were made, were being made, were being questioned, and were being challenged, here’s what I realized.
I want you to think about this today.
Three Motivating Factors In The Driven Mind
There are three things that really can motivate us.
- Security
- Lifestyle
- Fulfillment
Obviously, there are many motivating factors in life, but I really want to focus on these three because when it comes to business and life, these 3 are central.
Security
What motivates you around security?
As a business leader, this is super important.
You must get clear around this.
If you have a certain relationship with your craving with your motivation for security, that 100% is going to be involved in the type of a business that you create, is a type of a department that you create, and is a type of team that you create.
It’s going to be completely tied to your level of pain.
I mentioned in my last blog that we shouldn’t scale into pain, so check out life design theory and how to marry your personal and business intentions.
Being secure may mean less pain than taking a risk and putting myself out there and challenging cash flow and borrowing money or whatever the case is.
And yet, you’re telling yourself that you want to grow.
You’ve got to check this out for yourself, and guess what?
There’s no wrong answer.
This is you.
It’s your life.
What’s your security? What do you consider secure in life and in business?
Be honest, and you’ll notice your actions align with this.
Honoring Your Design
In the last post I wrote, we talked about designing your life through the business.
Now let’s just honor that design.
If you want to stay small because that represents security, maybe rethink that, though. Or at least, be honest.
I’ll remind you of my mentor, Keith Cunningham that wrote the great book, The Road Less Stupid, and he talks about there’s nothing more painful or riskier than running a small business.
I’ve run “small businesses” my entire career, and this guy says it’s far easier, far more comfortable to run eight-figure companies.
I haven’t had that opportunity yet.
Why? Because I haven’t designed it.
That’s why.
There’s a functionality of security that you’re after.
Why do I make that decision, Kenny?
Well, what does security play in?
Where is security tied to it?
We will do certain things that don’t logically make sense, or we understand like they don’t make sense, but it fulfills a level of security.
Lifestyle
Then we look at lifestyle.
You’re going to do certain things, make certain decisions based on your lifestyle.
You might not want to take a different position, move across the country.
You might not want to add a line extension or build a different type of business model because it’s going to impact your lifestyle.
And you don’t want to “work that hard.”
You don’t want to jump back in whatever.
That’s all good.
I create lifestyle businesses, and that’s the whole point of me creating business.
It’s my creative expression.
But if you’re wondering, “why did I do that?” or “why is my driven mind pushing me here?” it’s partly because of your lifestyle preference.
Honest reflection will reveal this, and then you can intentionally push yourself or control your behavior.
Fulfillment
The third one that we’re talking about here today is fulfillment.
Security and lifestyle are driving motivations. For me, I want a freedom lifestyle.
It’s being able to work with the people that I want to work with. It’s the ability to fire a client, anytime that they are telling me that they want to grow, but they actually don’t want to grow.
But it’s the fulfillment that really changes the game. It’s feeling fulfilled that satisfies your life and gives you the sustainable motivation to keep changing and growing and challenging and stepping into your greatness.
I’m not in this for the money.
I’m in this for the human experience of changing lives.
I don’t have children, but I impact children every single day with what I do.
I hope something today resonates with you where you go home and think about what truly fulfills you.
Your driven mind pushes you that way, but your conscious mind may not understand it.
This is why you need to slow your mind down and reflect on your motivations.
What does that fulfillment look like?
Is that tied to security?
Is that tied to lifestyle?
Final Thoughts
The main thing I want to leave you with here today is the fulfillment part of what we do as leaders are massively important.
My friend, it’s so critical there.
I consider myself retired right now, even though I run multiple companies.
Not because I have to do it to go earn a check.
I do it because I love it, and that’s retirement to me.
That means that I’m being fulfilled right now.
I’d be even more fulfilled if you signed up for my email list, bought my book, or contacted me for a coaching session. How about that?
It’s a joke, but all kidding aside, why is this fulfilling?
Because this is my creative expression based on the design that I’ve done in my businesses. For you, what’s your design?
What’s driving your unconscious mind?
- Security
- Lifestyle
- Fulfillment
There are no wrong answers.
There are only right answers.
And the right answer is your answer.
Until next time, make it a better-than-fantastic day!
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