The Shortcut: Creating the Life You Want

Ep: 191

What if the path to creating the life you want was easy?

We fill our plates with so much work and so many responsibilities that we rarely take the time to ask ourselves if “more” is actually getting us closer to our goals.

Why can’t you start creating the life you want now?

Today on The Bridge to Fulfillment, Blake reveals why the pursuit of “more” is often taking you further from the life you really want. She shares a simple shortcut that will help you achieve anything you want in life now.

In this episode, you’ll learn why you’re hardwired to want “more”, and why that contributes to making you feel like you can’t have what you want today. You’ll discover how to make clear decisions with less effort and lower risk, while also giving yourself more options in the process.

There is a shortcut you can choose to take today if you’re ready to live the life you want.  

Don’t wait for some mysterious day in the future to arrive…

It’s time to stop chasing more & get closer to the life you actually want NOW.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Why we’re always wanting “more”. (1:31)
  • The consequences of living a life without clarity (4:50)
  • When the solution to the problem is hiding in plain sight (7:10)
  • The shortcut to getting the life that you really want (10:00)

Favorite Quotes:

  1. We overburden ourselves because we’ve chased too many things. We have so many commitments and priorities and we have so little time and space to really enjoy the life that we want.
  2. What if it was easy? The next time you are faced with the challenge, just ask yourself this. And then seek the path with the least effort, least risk and most options.
  3. Everything we say “yes” to is a “no” we have to say to something else.
  4. The fastest way to get to what you want is to be able to fall in love with the process.

Additional Resources: 

Rather than hoping the grass will be greener, identify what the RIGHT next step is. 
We can help you do just that. 

Get clarity on where you are on your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optional paths to get there, and the right next step to take.

Start your complimentary, Personalized Career Fulfillment Plan by going to www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan

Want free resources to set your job search up for success? You can get them by going to: https://thebridgetofulfillment.com/mistakes

Transcript

Blake Schofield 0:05
Hi, I’m Blake Schofield, founder and CEO of the bridge to fulfillment mom to three, USA Today top 10 professional coach and former corporate executive who got tired of sacrificing my life for a comfortable paycheck. My mission is to expand women’s perspectives and empower them to achieve greater impact at home and work without sacrifice. This is the bridge to fulfillment. One of the biggest mistakes I see that we do that really stops us from truly accomplishing what we want in our lives and getting where we want to go is focusing on more, instead of focusing on the things that will get us closer to what we truly want in life. This is a concept that I learned from my mentors, Dan Nicholson and Nick Peterson, this concept of really making choices from a place of getting closer to the life that you want, instead of just chasing more. Well, this can be really complicated. And it might seem like a really high level topic. But if you’ll bear with me for a few minutes, I’m gonna help you understand why and how this can make such a significant impact in your life. Did you know that our bodies are actually like hardwired to chase more the belief that the next thing, whether it’s the next job, or the next house, the next pay raise will finally make us happy. And we do this literally in every area of our life. We’re chasing the accumulation of more things, whether it’s more education, more knowledge, a new iPhone, right, that next promotion, whatever it may be, we spend our lives seeking more. And what I really realized is you get to a place in your life, when you realize that all of the chasing of all of the things didn’t actually accomplish what you wanted. And in fact, I think sometimes we overburden ourselves, because we’ve chased so many things, that now we have so many commitments and priorities, and we have so little time, and so little space to really enjoy the life that we want. And what I see most commonly is we start telling ourselves, Well, I will just do this thing and this thing, and then I can finally have what I want. Because I’m gonna phone call earlier this week with somebody who was sharing with me that they’re not really passionate about the path that they’re on anymore. But if they just grind for the next two years and do x, y, z, then they can finally do what they want. And my question really was like, Why can’t you do what you want now? And right? Why are you doing all of these things that are actually taking you further from what you want, you’re gonna work harder and slave away more doing work that you don’t love, in order to hopefully eventually in the future, half the time with your family, and do the things that really light you up and excite you. And so I share this topic of closer versus more. Because it’s been really impactful in my life. When I really came to understand this concept, what I realized is my whole life I had been chasing more. And I hadn’t realized it because it was just the way things were. It was formed to them a lot of beliefs that I couldn’t have what I wanted right now that things had to be hard or painful or take a lot of work. And then it couldn’t truly just be easy. Yesterday, I wrote a post on my Facebook page, because it was something that just really came to me and I want to share it today because it feels really relevant. Given the topic we’re talking about, I’m gonna pull it up to make sure I don’t say it incorrectly. And I truly say it as I said it yesterday. What if it was easy. The next time you are faced with the challenge, just ask yourself this.

Blake Schofield 4:06
And then seek the path with the least effort, least risk and most options. So I’m going to combine a couple of concepts for you today. Because I think that they both come together really beautiful, this idea of actually thinking about how can I get closer to the life I want? And also when I make decisions, how can I make decisions from a standpoint of least effort, least risks and most options, and together that can create really amazing for momentum in your life. And so as we talk about the idea of getting closer, it might feel a little vague to you and that’s because you must have clarity first. When we are going through life without clarity on who we are, what we really want and need, how we work best. It’s literally like we’re driving cross country without a map. And without a destination, there’s no way to get there. And as a result, we just fall into the trap of doing what everyone else is doing, thinking the next thing will solve our problem, or just seeking more in the hopes that that would finally make us happy. So this idea of closer starts with actually really defining what matters most to me. What do I really want? What is it that I feel like I can’t have right now, but I’m working so that one day I can have it. And then starting to really dissect the decisions that we’re making on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, to actually identify? Is this thing that I’m going to do get me closer to what I want? Or not? And having the courage and the confidence to say no to the things that won’t? You’re often we can get caught in such scarcity mindset, believing that if an opportunity comes, we can’t pass on it, because there won’t be anything else. But what we don’t realize is everything we say yes to is a no, we have to say to something else. And every time we overburdened our schedule with too much work, too many priorities, too many things going on. There’s no space for new opportunities to come. And I see this cycle over and over and over again. And then we wonder why we’re burnt out exhausted, working so hard, and yet feeling so unfulfilled in our lives. Because everything comes down to it, right? It’s not just the tactics, it’s not just managing your calendar and prioritizing. It’s also really looking at how am I making decisions? Why am I making decisions in the way that I am? And do I actually have clarity on what it is that I want, so that I can look at the decisions I’m making and actually identify if it’s actually going to move me closer to the life I want or not. And I could tell you so many times when you apply this principle, you begin to realize, all of the times you’ve been taking action in the hope that one day it will get you what you wanted. But it isn’t really what you want now, and it actually causes you to do something that moves you much further away from what you want. I’m going to share a story that one of my mentors shared with me about this, because I think it’s such a relevant one, about how often the very solution that we need is right in front of our face, but we can’t see it. He told the story about this gentleman at once came to see him who really wanted more time with his family. Ultimately, he just on a daily basis felt like he was missing out wanting to be more involved with them. And so his perspective about how to solve that was just to grow his business make more money, when I make more money, then I can hire someone else, have somebody else do these things for me, etc. And then I will finally have the time to be with my family. Well, as my mentor started to talk to him about what was going on in his life. Where was he spending his time? Where was he spending his money?

Blake Schofield 7:57
The answer became really clear. This idea of him needing to grow and scale and do all these things would create exponentially more risk and more effort and actually not get him closer to what he wanted, or at least not in the near term. But what he actually identified is this man was driving like two hours a day commuting to his office. And he was staying actually quite a significant amount of money for the building that he was using. And so then the solution became really clear the solution to how to get closer to what he wanted. Without all the work without all the effort was hidden in plain sight. All we had to do was get rid of the place that was a two hour commute daily. He got 10 hours back to spend with his family. And he could either choose to work out of his office or somewhere closer that was more affordable. And now no longer does he need to go make all of this money to have the life that he wanted someday. But he could actually have a life you want to now I see this all the time, whether you’re in corporate or an entrepreneur, whatever your circumstances are, that you’re likely chasing more, instead of actually identifying what it will take to get me closer to what I want. It’s such an easy trap to fall into. And it’s one as a society we do all the time. And yet it’s why we achieve these goals part of why we achieve these goals. And then we ended up dissatisfied, because it doesn’t feel like what we thought it was going to feel like. We don’t have to wait for some mysterious moment in the future to live the life that we want. Now. We can create moments, weeks, days, hours, years that allow us to live the life that we want. My mentor Nick always says the process is the shortcut. It’s a really beautiful thing that most people don’t understand. And most people don’t realize everyone’s looking for the shortcut. The thing that’s going to get them there faster. The thing that feels like more but The fastest way to get to what you want is to be able to fall in love with the process, the process of what you’re doing on a day to day basis, to align your work and your life in a way that’s in harmony with who you are, what you value and what you want to make a decision today and tomorrow that gets you closer to the life you want now, not to do a bunch of work that takes you further away from it in the hopes that maybe in the future, you’ll actually get what you want. It’s a complete and utter paradigm shift, but one that will completely change your life. The challenge, though, is being able to see it opening up the paradigm to start to look at where in my life in my chasing more, am I hoping the next promotion, the next job, the next opportunity, the next house, the next car, the next whatever it might be, is actually going to be the thing that makes me happy so that I can actually live the life I want. If you find yourself in any realm, telling yourself that you’re chasing more, instead of actually finding the thing that will move you closer. Instead, stop and identify, what do I really value? What do I really want? And what’s the simplest path to get there? What if it really could just be easy. Thanks again for joining me today. And I look forward to seeing you again next week on the bridge to fulfillment. Until then, have a great one.

Blake Schofield 11:33
Thanks for joining me today. Rather than hope the grass will be greener identify what the right next step is. We can help you do just that. Get clarity on where you are in your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optimal paths to get there, and the right next step to take. Start your complimentary personalized career fulfillment plan at www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan  Again, you can get your personalized career fulfillment plan at www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan Thanks again for joining and have a great week ahead!