Some of us are born knowing what we want to do our entire life. Neither Beth nor I are one of them.

We’ve done dozens of different things as we’ve grown and changed over the decades. We’ve made these shifts as we’ve navigated both the corporate space and as entrepreneurs. We’ve changed jobs, companies, and even industries as we’ve searched for the right fit.

As you think about what you want, it’s easy to get distracted and chase someone else’s idea of the next cool thing or where you might find your success. When you do that, you’re searching. You don’t know what you want, so you grasp ideas and chase them around hoping one will be the magic answer to your yet unasked questions.

It’s these unformed questions that help you know what you want and to give you the necessary focus.

As we’ve said many times, “You get what you focus on.”

That means to get what you want; you first must have an idea of what it could be. The more clearly and fully you know what it is, the easier it will be to focus on it.

When you know what you want, you develop a level of clarity that carries over to other aspects of your life. You sleep better, you are more productive, you smile more. Everything suddenly becomes easier when you know what you want.

Having a vision of what you want let’s you focus your energy and attention forward. You continually update it with what you learn and the progress you make toward the future you envision.

If you just search, it’s like spending hours mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, or other social media. You end up drained because you see so many options, and other people’s successes, but still have no plan forward for yourself.

You get to decide how you spend your time and how you live your life. Are you going to continually search for some undefined magic answer, or are you going to take time to learn what’s important to you and build a future that allows you to get it?

You Can Choose.