Building a Life Aligned With My Values #578

I was out walking last week and often when I go walking I think about things , I take notes and I try to understand how I think , how I or why I act the way that I do , and piece together problems that I've had in my life so that I can create a better outcome , moving forward .

And as I was walking , I was thinking about this idea of building a great life and where I'm at in my life right now . I once wanted to be , and I know that there would be advice that I wish I had . Now that my future self will be able to tell me .

And when you think about life in that way , you really start to be empathetic to where you're at , to show compassion and to also get excited by what you can really create . And that's what really triggered this email .

So I'm going to read this one , a newsletter to my younger self , and for those of you who have subscribed to the newsletter , I appreciate that You'll get to see all the images and everything that goes with this week's one . And if you haven't subscribed , head over to themanthatcanprojectcom and it'll pop up straight away . It'll say join the weekly newsletter .

But here it is . Life isn't going to plan . You have a burning desire to make your life mean something . You feel lost . You don't feel respected and you don't know what to do . You're overwhelmed by the pressures of life and the fear of failure , rejection and making a wrong decision . You have not hit your mark as an athlete .

You keep stuffing up your relationships and you don't know whether you're going to make something of yourself . You've adopted this belief that you need to have it all figured out at such a young age . You fear taking risks , you don't back yourself and you're waiting for someone to save you . What if you aren't good enough ?

What if you won't be a professional athlete ? What if you won't earn a ton of money ? What if you don't find a good career ? The truth is you may not be good enough , and I want to emphasize that you may not be good enough . And I want to emphasize that you may not be good enough .

You may not become a professional athlete , you may not earn tons of money and you may not find a good career , but that does not mean that you are not enough . Your results don't determine you . They don't define you . Use them as a guide .

There will be things that you suck at , things that you don't need to improve on , and there will be things that you suck at that you decide you need to improve on . Things that I come to mind for myself now is finances , is communication , is honesty .

They're all things that I did suck at and I recognized pretty quickly if I wanted to live a good life , I needed to really learn to be vulnerable and accept those and build on them . When you figure out your life's vision , you'll figure out the difference between what you need to improve on and what you don't .

Your character defines you , so who will you choose to be ? Will you control your life or allow someone else to control yours ? Choosing to control your life may seem scary . You may not feel like you're qualified to do so . You're responsible for all of the successes . I mean , yeah , how good is that ? But you also must accept responsibility for the failures .

You may feel you need guidance . You may feel like you can't achieve it at all . Those thoughts are all normal . You're not alone with that . It's also scary to think about someone controlling your life . Do they have your best interests at heart . Do they know what your best interests are ? Do they care if you don't get to see your children grow up ?

Do they care if you end up overweight and highly stressed ? Life is going to be full of decisions , lots of little ones and plenty of tough ones . How will you know which ones are best ? You must think about what you want from . So the method that I use here is the zoom out and the zoom in .

So zoom out , think about this Do you want full control over your life , getting to build towards that life that you desire , someone to control your life , having to react to what they build for you ? So when you zoom out , that's the big picture thinking and depending on whether you want one or two , then determines what we do when we zoom in .

Zooming in what are the specifics that you want to experience ? Choose your income , the holidays , own your time , or do we zoom in with having someone else control it ? So what are the experience that they want you to experience ? Dedicated income or dictated income , specific time off for holidays , specific work hours ?

So you can see when we start zooming in and start zooming out and that'll be a completely different newsletter that we can talk about , but if you start doing this , you will be able to start planning your life . You either choose to be in control or you choose to be out of control , and a lot of people go with the latter because it's easier .

We don't have to make decisions , we don't have to accept responsibility , and that may be easier in the short term , but it's not easier in the long term . And that may be easier in the short term , but it's not easier in the long term . So zooming in and out helps with clarity and it helps with perspective .

So don't fall in the trap of just going with the flow , because if you go with the flow , you may flow in a direction that you don't like . It's hard and it's time consuming to think about what you really want . What do you want to experience ? Where do you want to travel ? Where do you want to travel ? How do you want to be remembered ?

Who do you want to be become ? Who do you want to be become ? Who do you want to become ? They're big questions , but the only way to build a great life is to sit with those questions until you create answers . Don't put your head in the sand . Don't hope that you magically find an answer . Hope is an absolutely terrible strategy .

You may not believe you're capable of building a great life yet , but I can promise you , if you create some direction , if you create some clarity , you will be able to see much brighter . You will be so much closer well sorry , you will move so much closer than if you don't do that . Be patient , you have time .

You aren't the man that you need to be yet , and that's okay . Tomorrow's you is today's journey . Today's journey should lead you to tomorrow's you when you have a vision , when you have goals and when you have clarity . Three key understandings that I've learned over the years that I feel may help you . One you don't wake up with a great life .

It must be built . Two building a great life is deeply personal and subjective in pursuit a subjective pursuit . Three happiness comes from within and it cannot be found by making the world conform to your desires . These three understandings are why you know in your stomach that you must create a vision for your life , or at least the next 10 years .

The younger you are , the harder it is to project further into the future . So maybe five years or 10 years is a great place to start , but as we get older we continue to refine and we can project further into the future with a greater understanding of who we are , what we want and how we operate .

If you create the vision plan with purpose and take action every day , you will become the man that you need to be to build a great life . So here's a framework in order to do that , and this is my let's call it Lockie's long-term thinking framework for this one , and you can find it on the newsletter for those who want to write it down .

But number one is reflect on key life experiences . Now , it's super important to reflect on key life experiences , both the positive and the negative , because every experience provides lessons , and lessons provide redirections , you know , gaining clarity around what we want more of and what we don't . Number two is establish what you value .

We all value different things , and that is completely okay . A fulfilling life , a meaningful life , a purposeful life , comes from living by your values , making sure that your values are met . Three is envision your dream life . Take time to think about how you want your life to go , as I mentioned some of those questions before .

But what does that really look like ? Get yourself excited . Think about why you're delaying the gratification , why you're putting in the hard yards today . What is that going to give you ? Number four is what impact do you want to have ?

Do you want to have immediate impact on direct family and friends , or do you want to have a global impact or a community impact ? What legacies do you want to leave behind ? It's important to think about that , because when you think about those things , you can then start thinking okay , how big does my influence need to be ? How can I create that influence ?

What skills do I need to have to make sure that I can develop influence ? And this once again ties into long-term thinking , goal setting , skill development , personal standards all the stuff that I run through in the self-discovery program . Number five is we want to create a vision statement .

So when you think about your life and the multiple areas that you want to grow in , we can bring that down into a clear and concise vision statement , something that you can read over regularly . That reminds you of the big picture that you're working towards and finally break your vision down into goals .

One of the most powerful things we do within our Strongman of Value Academy is we work in 12-week blocks . We have our 12-week game plan . Strongman of Value Academy is we work in 12-week blocks . We have our 12-week game plan and within that game plan , we focus on a specific goal that we know is going to move us closer to living our ideal life .

And obviously it's easier to know what those goals should be when you have a life's vision , when you have something that you're building towards . So by doing that , we provide you with the structure , we provide you with the accountability and tips on how to be more productive .

The more productive you can be , the more or greater results you can get in a shorter amount of time . So back to the newsletter . That was a little segue there . That's why the podcasts add a bit more value than the newsletter . So it will feel weird going against the grain .

If you do what everyone else does , you can expect to get the same results as everyone else , and all we need to do is have a look around , have a look around at the people . Are they happy ? Are they healthy ? Are they wealthy ? Are they living a great life ? Do they have great relationships ? Are they wealthy ? Are they living a great life ?

Do they have great relationships ? And some of you will be able to answer yes to those and others won't , and the idea is to surround yourself and build a life that you can say yes to the things that are important to you . So I'm not going to sit here and say you must do this and you must value that .

That is completely unique to you and it's why the frameworks that I use are so beneficial to people . Because it's why the frameworks that I use are so beneficial to people , because it is designed around you . Show up for yourself when others don't Return to your vision . When you lose sight , your vision is achieved , one goal at a time . You got this .

Everything you need is within you . Draw upon the outside world to help connect the dots . A big life awaits you . Draw upon the outside world to help connect the dots . A big life awaits . Cheers Lockie . So I hope you got value from this newsletter and in this episode .

I feel I love the podcast because I'm able to , I guess , elaborate on things , and I didn't really have an idea of how I was going to talk about this one today , whether I was going to read it out and elaborate on points and whether that would mix the messaging .

But I feel it is important from time to time to write , whether it's your future self , a letter or your past self a letter , because that allows you to really think about and , I guess , lessons that you wish you had .

Provide perspective on your own life , and the more we reflect , the more emotional intelligence we develop , the more self-awareness we develop , the better man you will become and the better quality of life you will be able to live . So if this resonated with you , I'd love to hear from you guys On YouTube . You can leave a note in the comments On Spotify .

There's actually a link if you click on the episode to text , which would be cool to hear from you guys as well . Or you can just reach out to me on Instagram at Lachlan Stewart . But this is just a reminder that there is four days , 19 hours and 36 minutes at the moment of recording this , until the Strong Men of Value Academy applications

open . Now , for those who are wondering what that looks like , I've been building this program for years , really trying to work out what the main value is , how I can help men's lives the best , and we've really dialed it in .

And what it looks like is obviously , first and foremost , you want to have a life's vision , and if you don't have the vision , you can either work one-on-one with me , but I would probably recommend just doing our self-discovery program . It's $27 and you can get on top of all that .

What you will then walk away with from that program is a vision and is a list of goals , most importantly those goals we then plug into the Strongman of Value Academy . So , as I said , we will help you become more productive to achieve that goal by helping you get clear , concise .

You will be held accountable by other men who are successful in their own right in different walks of life , through our weekly calls , our monthly planning and our quarterly recaps and future focusing for the next goal . So if you would like to apply , you can head over to the man that Can project now see the Strongman of Value Academy .

The waitlist is open so you can join there . You will get an email , but if you listen to this and the waitlist is down and the applications are open , they're only open for 10 days . So get in early and join us on the next 12-week block within the Strongman of Value Academy . My name is Lachlan Stewart .

As always , do something today to be better for tomorrow .