It will probably sound a bit odd, at least at first.

It’s certainly counterintuitive, at least in part.

But it is the shortest distance between where you are now and the BIGG success that you dream about.

It requires you to be able to hold two conflicting ideas in harmony. So what is it?

Eliminate possibilities while keeping your options open.

Eliminate possibilities

When it comes to choosing your path through life, you are inundated with choices.

Every idea seems like a good idea. But most of them aren’t.

The key to reaching BIGG success as fast as possible is to eliminate your choices as quickly as possible.

We learned this from a venture capitalist. He said his job is to “get to no as fast as possible.”

Then you can move on to the next idea. Keep going until you have trouble saying no.

Then you can focus on the few ideas that are truly gems. Did you notice the key term in that last sentence?

Focus. That’s the reason to eliminate possibilities – to allow you to focus your precious resources on a few great ideas at a time.

Keep your options open

Now you’re ready for the conflict. As you develop the idea, you will gain more information.

Just what you needed, right? You did such a good job eliminating possibilities. Now you know more so you have more.

And that’s good news. It’s how you will deal with the unexpected.

BIGG success is about entrepreneuring your life. As an entrepreneur, you know you can’t predict the future. You create it.

You create it. with creativity. Your creativity helps you see new options to get to BIGG success faster.

Creativity. That’s what this second part is all about. It keeps you from hitting your head up against the same wall over and over.

Creative focus will help you reach BIGG success!

Image in this post from stock.xchng

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You choose a career.
You get a job.
It pays the bills.
Life is good.
You live happily ever after.
If you’re lucky. Because …

If you’re lucky, you love your job.
If you’re lucky, your work is stimulating.
If you’re lucky, there is room for growth in your chosen career. 
If you’re lucky, you earn enough from your job to support your desired lifestyle.
If you’re lucky, your job also affords you time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
If you’re lucky, you realize that luck is only a small part of all of these things.

As the old saying goes, “It’s better to be lucky than smart.”

Lifestyle costs affect career decisions
However, smart decisions often increase your chances of getting lucky. And who doesn’t like to get lucky?

You get a job to support your lifestyle. But how does your lifestyle affect your career?

• If the costs of your lifestyle put too much of a demand on how much you have to make, you may have to take a job that you don’t love just to pay for your lifestyle.

• If your lifestyle consumes every penny you make, you may have to jump at the first offer that comes along instead of being able to select the job that fits you best.

• You may have to take a job that takes up all of your time. You have no time to do anything else including things you love to do or spending time with people you love.

Find harmony between the two
The two are completely interdependent. Your career choices affect your lifestyle. That’s certainly true. But the piece that’s missing is that your lifestyle also affects your career decisions.

Bigg success is life on your own terms. The five elements of bigg success are money, time, growth, work and play. The bigg idea behind bigg success is that there is synergy between these five elements.

You are the entrepreneur of your life. It’s implicit in our definition of bigg success. You and you alone are in charge. Successful entrepreneurs understand that their business finances and their personal finances are linked.

Their business has to make enough money support them. But that’s only half the story. They also have to be careful that they don’t put too much of a burden on the business with their personal financial decisions.

Even if you aren’t an entrepreneur in the traditional sense, it’s helpful if you see yourself in business for yourself. You may have just one customer – your employer. Your lifestyle affects your career and your career affects your lifestyle. Find the harmony between them and you’ll find bigg success!

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Thanks for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we discuss the one thing you need to face challenges with confidence. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Related posts

Bigg Success Primer

(Image in today's post by shho)

But what if the order is reversed? Can happiness buy money?

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The latest research supports the notion that happiness can buy money[PDF]. It comes from a team effort with researchers from the University of Virginia, Michigan State University, and last but certainly the most, the University of Illinois. Okay, we’re biased but at least we admit it.

Happiness buys an extra $8,263 a year!

The researchers surveyed incoming freshmen at 25 elite colleges. We’re not sure how they defined “elite”, but we’re pretty sure it’s the schools we attended!

The participants reported their cheerfulness. 19 years later, when the participants were about 37 years old, the researchers asked them to report their annual income.

On average, the participants in the highest 10% on the cheerfulness scale earned over 15% more than those in the lowest 10%. In 1995 dollars, this was a difference of $8,263 a year, on average ($62,681 vs. $54,318).

Attitude to altitude

That’s a bigg difference. So not only can happiness buy you money, it can buy quite a bit of it! Apparently attitude does determine altitude!

That’s one of the bigg takeaways here. If we approach the days of our lives with the right attitude, we’ll be more productive. We’ll show more initiative. We’ll get more opportunities.

More money, less risk

We also found it interesting that the most cheerful participants were one-third less likely to ever be unemployed than the least cheerful. It appears that being of good cheer not only helps you be more prosperous, it reduces your risk as well. That’s a slam dunk!

And it flies in the face of conventional wisdom. We learn in business school that you have to take more risk to make more money. But as this study shows, you can make more money and actually have less risk with the right attitude!

That’s the bigg idea behind bigg success – to get all areas of our lives working harmoniously by finding synergy like what we see here.

Being too happy is costly

Here’s a surprising twist from this study: People who were moderately cheerful (above average on the researchers scale but not in the top 10%) earned the most on average.

They made almost 6% more than those in the top 10% and about 22% more than the bottom 10%. In 1995 dollars, that means they earned $3,563 and $11,826 more than the highest and lowest deciles respectively.

So being really happy leads to much better income than being really unhappy. But being happy instead of really happy is even better yet!

It turns out that Droopy had it right. He never said, “I’m really happy.” Just “I’m happy.”

Bigg Success is the community of bigg goal-getters. People who are usually happy, but never content. This research supports the notion that this “happy, not content” attitude leads to bigg success.

Thanks so much for checking in on us today. You can get more tips and tools to be a bigg success by subscribing to our free weekly newsletter.

Please join us next time when we’ll discuss what entrepreneurs have that MBAs don’t. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00446-072709.mp3

Related posts

Stop Being So Happy

4 Secrets to Having All You Really Want

How to Feel Rich Today

(Image in today's post by Mattox)