Align Your Equation for Success. How to Make Your Equation Greater than the Sum of It's Parts

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts – Aristotle.

What will make your life whole? What does this equation look like? The whole of your life done well makes for exponential happiness. Its greater than the sum of its parts! Take for example the great Steve Jobs. He achieved amazing success in business, yet he believed his life was a disappointment. What if the sum of a great life, great family and great business achievements were all his? Would the results of his life be exponential? Surely. For the rest of us, the heights of his business success may not be achievable, but a high level of success in various important components of our lives and in very specific way is achievable. How do you make that happen?

I’ll tell you a story. I enrolled in a class for entrepreneurs. Over the fifteen years that we met, I must have written down my goals 100 times. It started with a simple list. We reviewed it over the years and each time we were encouraged to think bigger and more specifically. Many times we shared one another’s goals. This expanded our minds on how far and wide we could go because we took ideas from others. When I say wide I mean that people started sharing community goals that I hadn’t dug into much. Goal types and categories started to form. I started with a small list. The list got better, the list got bigger, the list got more specific using the SMART analogy and the goals formed into categories.

It hit me during this process that adding up these categories was the equation of my life. These category goals added up to my vision of a whole life.

Family goal + Financial Goal + Health Goal + Travel/Active Pursuit Goal + Friends Goal + Lifestyle goal + Community/Charity Goal = Amazing Life.

For many people we don’t get to hear the math of ones' life until our funerals. That’s a shame and for many, it’s the first time the math of our life is articulated out loud for evaluation. What if the math of your life, the equation you hope to pull together, is set up in your mind so that you are more likely to achieve a bigger better sum? You know what to do, and you know what not to do. You can visualize it. You can tweak it. (Always be tweaking).

I’ve learned that studying goals, considering what yours are, writing them down, and re-writing them down to make them create a path, direction, and inspiration in the mind, makes the results exponential. I’ve had my kids write down their goals on a board in the kitchen for about ten years. My 26 year old daughter who is a teacher came home this Christmas and looked at the board she refused to update for about 3 years and said, "Hah, took me longer but I nailed them!" She wasn’t thinking about what she had written, but it was painted in her brain. I saw the joy of achievement in her face.

I’ve been successful with a business in a way that was far in excess to what I ever believed. I’ve accomplished physical challenges and where I live and what I have seen in the world, brings tears to my eyes. I know love from family and friends that makes my heart swell. Those are some of the key components of my equation and the sum humbles me! What are yours? The funny thing about many of these items, is that they become achieved and you have to take them further. Can you? Yes. Will you? sure!

How do you execute on these goals? Here are the four pillars of exponential results. In this fast paced world they are critical to achieving amazing things. If I can do it, you can too.