Act Your Wage

You may be familiar with Dave Ramsey's philosophy of making your money work for you by living on less than you make, in other words "act your wage." During a meeting with a client earlier this week, she commented, "I wish my entire sales team would act their wage. They all set big goals at the beginning of 2012. Most are on track but others haven't been putting forth the efforts necessary to accomplish them." Now that puts 'act your wage' in an entirely different light!

I want to clarify that I'm not saying to spend beyond your means to create an exte
al image of success. The focus is on your mindset. You may be aware that you have an internal self-image that is stored at your subconscious level. Your self-image literally creates your 'normal' or how you know yourself to be, and its operating 100% of the time. Setting big, hairy, audacious goals (kudos to Jim Collins for coining that term) beyond your current 'normal' can cause procrastination. It can also create a mental ping-pong match in your head between your conscious and subconscious mind. Maybe you've had that experience, and I certainly know I have.

In the past I would look at someone, admire what they had achieved, and then catch myself thinking, "yeah but I could never do that because ....”Armed with new information, and a desire to turn my passion into a business that I love, helped me shift my 'normal' in numerous ways including: turning my fear of public speaking into being a keynote speaker. Changing my attitude about social media from it being a waste of time to using it to create key relationships. Resisting any kind of change, to embracing and moving through it at lightning speed.It took a lot of work, a huge mindset shift along with mentors and coaches to show me the way. The result was that as my ‘normal’ expanded far beyond what I ever imagined, my confidence to tackle even greater challenges grew with it.

Getting married in 2011 created a new adventure: learning how to run my husband's plumbing company. Seven years ago, the thought of this would have made me run screaming from the room. Now I look at it as an opportunity to acquire new entrepreneurial skill sets that I can also delegate when needed. Really understanding the plumbing business also helps me to be a better PR person for my husband at the networking events I'm already attending for my business. Besides the title, Chief Results Officer just sounds good!

As we're nearing the end of 2012, it's the ideal time to reflect on your yearly goals. Which ones have you achieved and where have you fallen short? Confucius said it well, "When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps." Creating goals and taking action steps are essential, but in order to achieve even greater success requires adjusting your 'normal'. What characteristics do you need to embody to achieve your big hairy audacious goals and your ultimate life vision? As you are working through the process, trust yourself that you are on the right path. Consider all of the knowledge you already have, and knowledge you're gaining every day. Use it to fuel your passion. Making the adjustment from where you are to where you ultimately want to be may not be easy, but it's always worth it. You can do it when you act your wage!