For years my highest value was freedom. Not that I knew it at the time, but as I look back over the years and the choices I’ve made in business…
Working out of coffee shops, refusing to be ‘hired’ choosing to be my own boss and boasting the fact.
Freedom has been the highest priority.
Not money. Not contribution, purpose or adventure. But freedom. Personal freedom and independent control.
Freedom is nice, but it isn’t everything.
I think I first realized this after listening to, “Think and Grow Rich” last year.
What struck me was one of his first principles about the necessity of desiring to be rich. Making it a high priority. And of course with the priority, there comes the assessment and measurement of where you are and where you want to be.
It hit me that the main measurement I used on a daily basis has been my freedom and control. “Can I do what I want to do today?” Not, “am I making the amount of money I want or need to.” “Can I turn my phone off, take the day off, or tend to the emergencies of family at a moments notice?”
When making management decisions, it was all about my freedom and control, not what could yield the highest ROI. Any ROI decisions were first filtered though my freedom gauge.
And so, recently I’ve started to shift into prioritizing peace.
To be honest, I think I thought that more freedom could bring more peace. I thought I needed to be free from other people and self-secure. But that never brought what I was wanting. Even when I made large sums of money, the fact that it was all based on my efforts and my sustaining it just brought anxiety.
Peace doesn’t from control, but from trust. Peace isn’t centered on self. Something or someone outside yourself is needed.
God’s peace is described as transcending understanding. It goes beyond knowledge and intellect. It surpasses one’s ability to preplan every scenario. It may work through other people or institutions, but it’s core is in the person and character of God.
One last point.
A few weeks ago I was listening to a podcast from the Bulletproofexec.com with a guy named Peter Sage. One super idea I gleamed from it was the idea that inner health and stability was needed to precede financial health and wealth.
He said (in my own summarized recollection ) that when the presence of money is the rudder or governor of our soul; ie, if we are happy when we it’s high, and sad when it’s low — we will never see consistent growth.
But instead, he mentioned that if would could become strong and consistently healthy on the inside, that the volatility money would eventually become stable, stay with us and grow.
I have no idea of the validity of this idea, but it sounds good to me! I know from experience that I generally fall in the category of being moved by money. And so, with my new priority of seeking peace and trusting God over self, I’m hoping that I’ll see the financial growth as well.
Create a great day!
– Arvell