If you’re like me, you learn something new every day. However, do you do it on purpose — or for a purpose? Or both?
Over the years, I’ve developed an LLC. No, it isn’t the Limited Liability Company sort of LLC, but a Lifetime Learning Commitment. In this kind of LLC, we invest time, energy, and money to gain knowledge and wisdom, and then strive to make the learning process more important than any one particular experience.
As part of my LLC, I’ve invested significant funds to participate in leadership programs with some of the country’s top think tank groups. The value I get back — in terms of opportunities and concepts that I’m able to implement in my work, charity and family efforts — can’t be measured in dollars. Suffice it to say, these leadership programs have been well worth the investment.
The accumulated lifetime of learning I gain also becomes part of the strategies I share with my own clients, helping them learn to accumulate cash — both of the monetary sort, and what I call KASH (Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills and Habits).
How does this LLC work? True principles and higher knowledge adds clarity to our lives, which then leads to balance and focus. This, in turn, helps us more quickly reach a brighter, more abundant future. We stop worrying about the little things that don’t really matter (a scarcity mentality) and instead focus on the more important feelings of gratitude and opportunity (an abundance mentality).
For example, some people trying to obtain wealth will neglect their health along the way, leaving them in poor physical shape when they get there. Without health they can’t appreciate their wealth! Others might unintentionally create a sense of entitlement within their posterity by paying for a child’s education, or a new car, or even a new business, without requiring them to have some skin in the game.
Moving from Scarcity to Abundance
With a structured Lifetime Learning Commitment, or LLC, you learn to focus on developing the habits of abundance rather than scarcity — so you can really begin to grow. How do you do this? If you already see the proverbial glass as half full, you’re on the right track to an abundant, positive mindset. This is where you see the possibilities to grow even when life gets tough. On the other hand, if your glass is half empty, you’re still in a scarcity mindset, a lingering feeling that the cards are stacked against you. Life just isn’t fair. Instead of comparing how full or empty the glass is, let’s focus on filling the glass!
Strategic coach Dan Sullivan calls it those who live in the “abundance neighborhood,” versus those who live in a “scarcity spiral.” The scarcity spiral begins with envy. Jealousy or frustration grows within us because someone else appears more successful — or took too much of the available happiness or accomplishments — as if there isn’t enough success to go around. Hey, I didn’t get my fair share! As a result, we feel guilty or ashamed that we aren’t as successful. Then anger and resentment build until they destroy our happiness.
If this negative, scarcity mindset sounds familiar, how do you change it? First, remember that we can all be successful and happy. Life is not a zero-sum game (as others have said) because happiness is not a limited resource. There is no limit to either to either success, or happiness.
As part of your Lifetime Learning Commitment, take time to learn how to appreciate the value of everything and everyone you already have in your life (click here to learn about the Gratitude Amplifier). Capture your life stories or sketches that include lessons learned and challenges overcome. Gather as many “I Remember When” stories as possible — short, insightful, or funny personal stories that can be shared in three minutes, printed, and archived by your family in what we call the Legacy Bank. Plan and enjoy what we call “Family Retreats with a Purpose” where your entire family’s LLC can expand and flourish. These retreats can include intentional teaching moments interspersed with fun activities and memory making.
In addition, take a class or join a club. Earn a degree. Read a different book. Learn something new every day — and share it with your family and others. Doing this takes commitment, but it’s easier than you think.
Through the process of learning, and not just from an experience or two, your own LLC will lead you and those you love to a life of abundance.
Call To Action
Want to know more about how to live an abundant life? Click here to get a copy of my newest book, “Entitlement Abolition” for FREE (just pay shipping). Learn how to lead your family and your legacy from “me” to “we.”
Originally published at medium.com