One of the biggest mistakes I see people make in business is going after things that aren’t even important to them.
For example…
Money is a big priority for most people..
And it might be the most important thing to you (it was for me for most of my life).
However, you might have different priorities…
Like having more freedom and flexibility in your life.
So instead of making $500k and working 60 hours a week, you’d be happier making $200k and working 25 hours a week.
This way you’d have more time to spend with your family…
Or to take care of your health…
It all comes down to what is a priority for YOU.
And I have a simple exercies that I use with people I mentor to help them figure all this out.
The exercise basically looks like this…
You want to rank the four priorities below in order of what’s most important to you…
1. Freedom/Flexibility
2. Money
3. Status/Recognition
4. Fulfillment
I’ll break each of these down so you have a better idea of what they mean.
Freedom/Flexibility
Someone who prioritizes freedom and flexibility would rather make $200k a year working 25 hours a week versus making $500k a year and working 60 hours a week.
They want freedom over their schedule…
They want to be in control…
And while they want to make great money, they’re not willing to run themselves into the ground to do it.
People who prioritize freedom/flexibility usually want to be able to put more focus on other things like being a good Dad, or travel, or not being constantly stressed…
That’s what freedom/flexibility is all about.
Let’s look at the next one…
Money
This money one is pretty straight forward…
How important is making money to you?
Is making $200k, or $500k or $5 million the most important thing?
For me personally, this was always my #1.
I make no bones about that, I’m very driven by money.
Mostly because it allows me to live the lifestyle I want…
And it also puts me in control of my life so I don’t have to take orders from someone else.
So for most of my career, I never had a problem with working a lot to make a lot of money.
I was ok with that exchange.
That has changed for me in the last year or two though.
Money is still important to me, but it’s not number one anymore.
Now I care more about freedom/flexibility and having a more laid-back life.
Alright, let’s look at the next priority…
Recognition/Status
This one is simply being aware of how much your desire for recognition and status is driving you.
Do you want to be known as the best copywriter in the world and get all the accolades?
Or would you rather be unknown and operating in the shadows?
I can tell ya from experience, this one is tricky.
Cause most people will never admit that they’re driven by status and recognition.
Yet, we all are (some more than others).
This status could come in the form of wanting your parents to be proud of your accomplishments…
Or you might want to impress the opposite sex…
Hell, you might even want all the people you went to highschool with thinking you’re cool…
These are all signs that status and recognition are driving you.
And like I said, it’s tricky to admit this.
You have to be honest with yourself.
It’s easy to act like status and recognition doesn’t matter (when in reality it might matter a lot to you).
So that’s the third priority…
Now the last priority is really all about how fulfilling your work is…
Fulfillment
When I was younger, I didn’t care one bit about my work being fulfilling.
As long as I made money, I was happy.
But that’s changed for me over the years.
For example…
When I was running my supplement company from 2014-2017, I was working 10-12 hours a day, and I wasn’t exactly passionate about selling supplements.
I was good at it, but it wasn’t fulfilling.
Contrast that to what I’m doing now, and what I do with teaching things like copy and mentoring people…and that’s extremely fulfilling for me.
I get a lot of fulfillment from helping a copywriter go from making $30k a year to $150k a year.
Cause their entire life changes.
And I love being a part of that.
So the fulfillment priority, really is all about how fulfilling and how happy you’ll be day-in and day-out with what you’re doing.
For some people this won’t matter much…
But for others it will be very important.
So that’s the four priorities…
And to recap they are…
– Freedom/Flexibility
– Money
– Status/Recognition
– Fulfillment
Now what you want to do is think through each one of these.
And rank them in order of importance.
Give this some thought…
And be honest with yourself…
Also, try to challenge your assumptions.
The whole goal of this is to really get clear on what kind of business/career you want to have.
And then every decision you make in your from now on should fit into these priorities…
For example…
If your main priority is freedom/flexibility, then you might not want to take on a retainer client who wants you on an hour-long Zoom call everyday…
Or if your main priority is doing something fulfilling, then white-labeling supplements and selling them probably isn’t gonna be a good fit for you…
So you want to get clear on what your priorities are…
And then make sure that your biz fits into that.
This is a simple exercise, but it’s one that can have a big impact on your life.
So highly suggest you give it a whirl.
Make sense?
I hope so.
Cause that’s all I got for ya today.
Enjoy your Wednesday,
– Justin
If you want to hear more from Justin, he has a private email list for top marketers, copywriters and business owners. To apply to be on the email list simply click the button below that says “apply now”.
