Tag Archives: life purpose

Numbers, Numbers, and more Numbers!

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I’m leaving this post running until Sunday to allow time for more comments … to read the really detailed comments that have been left already (they are like ‘mini-posts), just scroll down to the bottom (once you click on the title/link so that you can see them) … and, please feel free to throw your two-cents in as well!

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If you have been following this blog for some time – and, if you have also been following the exploits of our 7 Millionaires … In Training! – you will see that I have an obsession with ‘helping’ you to understand your Number.

This is because simply understanding my Life’s Purpose, then quantifying that ‘purpose’ into a Number, had such a big impact on my life …

… I truly believe that I would not be sitting here, writing this very post today, had it not been for that simple act.

It’s a process that should only take a couple of hours – more, if you get the urge to dive deep into what your first cut throws at you.

What’s wrong with having no Number?

Nothing, if you like to fly blind; it’s like embarking on a journey with no destination: any road will get you there … which is OK for some, but not me.

My ‘no destination’ journey took me to a lot of work, two so-so businesses (together, they just managed to break even … and this is after YEARS of operation), and $30k in debt.

Yet, as soon as I realized my destination and found out how much it could ‘cost’ me to get there, it was like suddently letting off the parking brake: things almost magically started to fly.

Don’t get me wrong, there was even more hard work and major risks and decisions to undertake (not many people move country to pursue their dreams AND keep their businesses in the ‘old country’ going).

So, if having no Number is ‘bad’ what’s wrong with picking a number out of thin air?

Again, nothing, but have a look at what our 7MITs came up with after a couple of revisions … and, compare that to their starting Number – their first ‘guess’:

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Let’s ask them: what changed and why? Why did your Number go up/down or (in only a couple of cases) stay the same? And, why is this exercise better than just picking a Number and going with it?

And, let me ask you … if you have a Number in mind, how did you come up with it? And, why?

Passion before money …

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I talk a lot on this site (and, on http://7m7y.com) about money being there to serve your Life …

… yet, we slave our lives away to the pursuit of money. Go figure!

So, when working out your Number – that ‘magic number’ that tells you if/when/how you will retire – it is my contention that you first need to start by understanding your Life’s Purpose.

It’s nice to see that somebody on the finance community agrees with me: George Kinder, author of The Seven Stages of Money Maturity!

In fact, George is a financial planner who is one of the early pioneers / practitioners of a form of financial planning called ‘Life Planning’ … where your financial plan is designed to support the life you want, not necessarily the life that you have.

I have provided some exercises to help you understand your Life’s Purpose, hence your Number; similarly, George Kinder poses three questions that he considers important in achieving a similar result (you may have seen these on Oprah):

1. “Assume you’ve got all the money you need – enough for the rest of your life. Maybe you’re not as rich as Warren Buffet, but you never have to worry about money for any reason. The question is, what would you do with it? How would you live? Feel free to let your imagination roam. What would you do with it all? Think for a moment, then write down the answer … ”

2. “You go to the doctor. The doctor discovers you have a rare illness. He says you’re going to feel perfectly fine for the rest of your life. But, he says the illness will prove fatal. The sorry outcome will occur sometime within five and ten years. It will be sudden. The question is, now that you know that your life will be over in five years, how would you live it? What would you do?”

3. “This question will sound a bit like the previous question, but it’s different: It starts the same way. You go to the doctor. You’re feeling perfectly healthy. And again the doctor says you have a serious illness. But then the doctor says, ‘You only have 24 hours to live.’ So, what did you miss? Who did you not get to be? What did you not get to do?”

Of all these questions, obviously the last is the key … and it is the purpose of the Rear Deck Speech – designed to make you think past ‘things’ and to the more deep/meaningful aspects of your ideal life.

These questions, however, will help you if you’ve been struggling with the Finding Your Life’s Purpose exercises that I provided …