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Ambition is a double edge sword. It can create Freedom and give you choice. It can also make you a slave to the albatross of obligation. The question you are probably grappling with is where is that line, where does your ambition go from your ally to your enemy? How do you know when to pull back on the reins to keep it from running your Stagecoach off a cliff?
So what does this mean? Let us say that you're going out for your favorite meal. You are hungry and you've been looking forward to this meal for a really long time. Say the cost of the meal is $55 but you have been looking forward to this and you are excited and feel it is worth it. After you finish your meal and you're good and full now they ask you if you want a second meal for the same $55. Well now it doesn't look so good and certainly it isn't worth spending another $55 on. The meal is now worth a lot less. This is a “Marginal benefit” which means the benefit decreases as the quantity consumed increases. I know that when I go to restaurants after the meal even the dessert menu is a marginal return. If you have a second home would you want to buy the one next to it also? Do you buy a second of the same car? Probably not because of the benefit being less than it was for the first. The more you have the less valuable everything becomes. You have to decide what you are after and what is enough. It is different to strive to create a lifestyle, or from having security and abundance for yourself and your family. Those are important. It would be a sin against nature to live less than prosperously and below the skills and ability you've been bestowed with. This is a time of enormous opportunity!
I wish each of you to have a prosperous lifestyle, whatever that means to you. But that is what you have to decide and then quickly start calculating the marginal benefit of more, because more for more sake is actually less. Because at that point you are likely trading what you value more like time, Freedom, lifestyle, control, flexibility, liberty, balance, or peace of mind for more stuff or achievement accumulation. All of which has a marginal benefit drop off to it. I am being thoughtful, I am calculating what I want and how I achieve my goals. I’m checking these to minimize the trading of what is priceless to me, for things that have a diminishing marginal benefit. Be sure you do this for yourself, then you'll know how to properly rain in and steer your ambition. I will always be ambitious, I will always be productive, I will never retire until I am retired to a spot of ground. I will not rush there either. But success is not a lot more stuff, it is not in a storage unit or a bigger house. That is only accumulation or consumption. Success to me is about being in full control of my choices, it is the ability to choose what I want to do, when I want to do it, and the way I want it done with who I want to do it with. I am building a life that is on purpose and by my design, that is real freedom or success that is really living. That is what an amazing life is. So who is going on this trip with me?
I want to let you know how much I appreciate each of you spending your time with me today. I think of you each day. You are a big part of my life and I’m glad you are here. If you haven't yet, do yourself and me a favor and subscribe to this channel. Also, Set up a time and let's discuss how you can use these tools and others to get your amazing life!
