Pritchett - Start next now : how to get the life youve always wanted

START NEXT NOW: HOW TO GET THE LIFE YOUVE ALWAYS WANTED

BOB PRITCHETT

KIRKDALE PRESS

Start Next Now: How to Get the Life Youve Always Wanted

Copyright 2015 Bob Pritchett

Kirkdale Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

KirkdalePress.com

You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Kirkdale Press for permission. Email us at .

Scripture quotations marked ( LEB ) are from the Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2013 Lexham Press. Lexham is a registered trademark of Faithlife Corporation.

Print ISBN 978-1-57-799645-3

Digital ISBN 978-1-57-799646-0

Kirkdale Editorial Team: Lynnea Fraser, Abigail Stocker

Cover Design: Josh Warren

Contents

My parents were not particularly ambitious for me.

They didnt push me to excel in school. My dad didnt pressure me to win the game, and my mom wasnt overly concerned with my report card. My parents cared a lot about my character but not as much, it seemed, about preparing me for a specific career or status or ambition. They didnt push me to do anything in particular.

What my parents did give me was encouragement to find and explore my own passions. Every project, idea, and fleeting career ambition was met with their encouragement, support, and a suggestion of what I could do right now to explore that passion.

When I wanted to be an FBI agent, my parents introduced me to a police detective who gave me a stack of professional law enforcement magazines. When I expressed an interest in bees, they put a beehive in the backyard and encouraged me to start a honey business. My interest in business got me sent around the neighborhood with a cart selling vegetables from the garden; my curiosity about journalism was met with the support to launch a school newspaper.

I have read many stories about parents driving children toward excellence in one pursuit or another, but none of parents giving such benign and nonspecific support as I received. Athlete, merchant, cop, or president of the United Statesmy parents led me to believe that every option was open to me, and they offered suggestions on how to start exploring it right now.

My interest in computers led to a high school business selling software for computer programmers. In writing and online no one knew I was just a kid, and during the day my mother took phone messages so I could return calls after school.

That experience helped me land an internship at Microsoft when I was eighteen. A year later I was working full time at Microsoft when I started a hobby project with a friend that grew into yet another business. At twenty I left to pursue that business full time, and I am still leading it more than twenty years later.

I love being an entrepreneur; its fun to set a vision and lead a team and even make some money. But the joy I find in my daily work doesnt come from money or position, but rather from doing purposeful work I love with people I love. And I am wise enough to know that I am not a self-made man. I am the beneficiary of many advantages, not the least of which is permission.

Today I employ hundreds of people. In interviews and coffee conversations, I hear over and over again how people were held back by parents who discouraged them, by teachers and coaches and bosses and counselors who told them they werent qualified, and by so-called friends who laughed at their dreams.

If you are among those who did not find encouragement to pursue your passion, then I am here to pass along the wisdom of my gently supportive parents: You have permission to try anything and my belief that you can accomplish whatever youd like. It might be hard, it might take time, and maybe you wont even want to. But we can start finding out right now.

You have permission to do something incredible.

You can have the life youve always wanted.

You can start your next now.

Before you can achieve the life you want, you need to figure out what that is.

Your goal may be about doing something. You may want to write a book, record an album, create a product, or launch a company.

Your goal may be about getting a position: You may want to be able to protect others, to teach, or to motivate.

Your next can reflect your desires or even your personality. You may find online tests for skills, attitudes, and personality to be useful in helping identify strengths you can build on or weaknesses you should watch out for.

Is there something that comes easily to you that others find difficult? Work with your strengths. It is easiest to distinguish yourself in the areas where you have unique experience or skills. Take a personal inventory of your strengths; whats the most unusual among them? What would happen if you invested more in developing and even showcasing this strength?

What things make you feel energized? What do you find yourself thinking about in your free time? Examine these and determine what exactly it is that you want to do to have the life youve always wanted. Envision what that will look like.

Maybe you dont have a goal and dont even feel a need for one. You can still move ahead by identifying a passion and choosing to pursue it at the next level: Record an album of your music, publish your writing, enter your photography in a contest, or get paid to do your hobby.

Figuring out what you want can actually be the most difficult part of getting ahead. Dont worrythere isnt a perfect answer, and you can always change your answer. If you cant identify the big goal down the road, at least identify the next thing you want to try.

When people think about getting ahead, they often assume it means making more money.

More money seems like success, and fame and power are classic side dishes. Of course we all want happinessthats a given. It sounds better too: Its easy to say we want happiness and know that it implies money too. Right?

I will tell you that studies have shown that money does buy happinessup to around $75,000 per year. Thats enough money to avoid many of the discomforts and inconveniences that come from not enough funds. But after that middle-class level, more money doesnt equate to more happiness.

Ive made more money, and I have had the opportunity to spend time around people who have made a lot more money. While having money has its fun moments, Ive come to believe that the Bible offers the best observation about money:

When prosperity increases, those who consume it increase. So its owner gains nothing, except to see his wealth before it is spent. LEB

In other words, you can only eat so much steak and lobster. The rich may order a higher-grade steak, but they start picking up the check for an ever-growing table. (An entourage may be a sign that youre important, but its also a lot more mouths to feed.) If you get a chance to bring in more than a middle-class income, youll be amazed at how quickly youre buying steak and lobster for other people. Theres nothing wrong with that, but if you want to hold on to happiness, youll need to make sure its generosity, not greed, that characterizes your feelings about money.