In the last post, I showed you how your Values are the foundation for your Success. If we take the building metaphor even further, what’s the next thing you see go up when a building is constructed? After the foundation you see the framework go up. The framework in a building is each floor and it’s walls. These divide the building into multiple stories and rooms.
But why do we do this in a building? Why don’t we just put everything in one big room? Why bother separating things by floors and rooms?
Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty glad that my bathroom and kitchen aren’t in the same big room. I don’t want people in the kitchen seeing what goes on in the bathroom, especially if I’m the one in the bathroom!
Each room has a purpose, right? We sleep in our bedrooms. We cook in the kitchen. We shower (and other stuff) in the bathroom. We put the car in the garage. Each room has a function that is its PRIMARY purpose. We do other things besides sleep in our bedrooms. Many families congregate in the kitchen for social time, homework, meals, entertaining, etc. We store the lawnmower and tools in the garage. Each room can do multiple things.
For our Success the framework is our goals. You probably saw that coming, right? Our goals give us targets to shoot for and methods to achieve our Success. Goals move us along and they too perform multiple functions in getting us to our Success. Out educational goals might be needed to provide us with the skills we need to achieve other goals. Our financial goals may fund our retirement, our business start-up, our family’s new house or our grandchildren’s education. Each goal has a primary purpose, the achievement of the thing. It’s secondary purpose is to move us closer to something else or do something for someone else.
Goals can be grouped into categories based on the type of goal, financial, spiritual, educational, etc., or its purpose. Is it a goal that is for others, part of a larger project or bigger goal? Is it a goal that you’re working on with others? Is it a goal that is designed to help others. in some way? Just like a building has types of rooms, we have types of goals. Some rooms are used to get ready for something else. For instance, the kitchen is generally where we prepare food, but we often eat it in another room. So some goals are steps along the way. They are process oriented, not the final result.
Goals are built on the foundation of your Values, because that makes for a stronger, more motivating set of goals. Just as you build a building up from the foundation, you do it with goals too. If you build a house, but a quarter of the house hangs over the side of your foundation, what’s going to happen? The house will eventually collapse. Goals that aren’t built on your Values will also collapse because your Values will not be the underpinning and support that keeps your goals up.
Values provide the base as well as determining the type of Success you can build. A narrow, shallow set of Values will create a narrow, shallow Success. Think of a skyscraper and a house. Both have very different foundations. Each one is appropriate to the structure that will be built on it. You don’t build a house on a skyscraper’s foundation and you especially don’t build a skyscraper on a house’s foundation. One would be thinking too small and the second would be not planning well enough ahead of time.
Don’t build a Success skyscraper on the foundation meant for a house. If you want to build a big Success in life, you need to have deep, strong Values to hold it up.
