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What Was Your Big "Aha" Moment?

What changed your life?

By Frank ZaccariPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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Let me ask you a question. Where are you right now, personally and professionally? Is it where you really want to be? Maybe it was once, but is it still right now? I am willing to bet the answer is no. Am I right? Be honest!

If you are reading this, the odds are you are at a cross road in your life. Are you happy, I mean really happy not just content? Again, I am willing to bet the answer is no. I recently read a Gallup report that two-thirds of American workers are unhappy with their jobs. Even more alarming, another 15 percent actually hate their work. What happened? How did we get to this sad situation and more importantly, why are so many people still engaged in an activity that provides so little joy? For many they are under the dysfunctional myth, “It is too late to make a big change.”

So what happens? Many of us tend to dwell on what might have happened if we took this opportunity or that option. Then depression sets in as we feel there must have been a better option or path to take, and we simply missed it or fear prevented us from trying. “If only I had taken that chance, my life would be so much better.” In order to maintain our sanity we turn to realization to justify why we didn’t seize the moment and pursue an opportunity. I am willing to bet your realizations sounds something like this: You convinced yourself that you didn’t know enough or have enough information to make a move. You burdened yourself with trying to know everything about an opportunity and discovering every option possible so you would make the right choice. Frustrated that you will never know everything there is to know, you made no choice and stayed in your unhappy situation.

I know how you feel. I was there. Successful but unfulfilled, feeling it was too late to make a big change. I was becoming a spectator rather than a participant in my life. I was watching things happen to me rather than making things happen for me. My big “AHA” moment came when I read the book Designing Your Life by Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. At age 63, I reframed the dysfunctional myth to, “It is never too late to design a life you love.”

I sold my business and started the journey with 31 million other people between the ages of 44 and 70 to find what the authors refer to as the “encore” career. The work and the life that combines personal meaning, continued income, and social impact. I was inspired to take action and design my life. If you are still reading, I bet you are thinking of starting the journey with me.

It is not going to be easy. It will require changing to or developing an open mind set. Not the easiest thing for people our age. How? The author’s give us four characteristics:

  1. Curiosity: It makes everything new. It helps us “get good at getting lucky.”
  2. Bias to action: Try things, test things, get involved. Get off the couch.
  3. Reframing: Step back. Examine bias and myths and move toward a solution.
  4. Radical collaboration: You cannot do this alone so meet and talk to people.

What’s next? Step out of your comfort zone. Take the leap of faith. As Mark Twain once said, “20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, and catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover.”

Got your attention?

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About the Creator

Frank Zaccari

Business Adviser, Co-Founder of Trust the Process Book Marketing Program, Featured Contributor BIZCATALYST 360° - Key Note Speaker - 5X Best Selling & Award Winning Author - Radio and Roku TV host of Life Altering Events

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