Serve Your Values and Priorities Throughout Your Life

Have you ever wanted to live life in greater harmony and alignment with your priorities? That is precisely what Shawn Sparks decided to do with his life — and he tells his experiences in his book, The Advisor Breakthrough.

Shawn Sparks is such a fantastic individual. He has so much information and thoughts that I feel are similar to my own mindset. His views on how our work lives impact our personal lives are profound, and I’ll mention more about that here in this post.

How Will That Deal Affect Your Lifestyle and Family?

Shawn likes to analyze his business deals and everything he does according to how that deal will affect his lifestyle and his family.

My favorite quote of Shawn’s is:

“I think the best definition of wisdom is knowing how your short-term actions impact your long-term future.” –Shawn Sparks

Shawn came on my show in December 2020. He had just made a considerable change in his life from working a building a company for nearly 15 years — to building a new company that better fit his values and goals. Shawn wanted to find a blend and balance between business and family.

You’ll want to listen as Shawn talks about life and realize that life is so short with no redo. He talks about regret minimization and how to better manage that part of life.

How Do You Make The Best Decisions?

You have to think about what you value in life as a father, husband, entrepreneur, and businessperson, and you ask yourself, what do you want ten years from today? Usually, the easy and best answers are not always the same.

Shawn told me that when he asked himself, “When I come to my deathbed and look back, what regrets will I have?” He said, “I will tell you the urge and the need that I had to create a change when I started thinking this way was so strong that I couldn’t ignore it.” Shawn knew that he had to make a switch-up in what he was doing at the time.

The best thing? Shawn took action.

Whenever I speak or write, I guess it would be to take action if I could empower people to do anything. So whatever you do — take action. If it’s the wrong thing, pivot and do something else, but don’t just do nothing.

Mirror Your Values and Priorities

Shawn was making a great living — so his switch to something different was not about the money; it was finding and building something that would mirror his values and priorities. The thrill of taking a new and different path and starting your own business is impressive. But it has to go beyond the money.

Having the ability to spend time with his family and have freedom of time and greater autonomy drove Shawn to succeed in his new venture. He invested well from the start with his first company, which paid off and made many lifestyle changes possible.

I’m Successful, and I’m Blessed

If there is one thing I always want to remember, I am successful, and I’m blessed — and Shawn is careful to be aware of these two things in his life.

Shawn believes that one of the reasons he was and is prosperous and blessed is from a mantra he keeps in mind: If you’re a student, the teacher will appear. He loves to learn and watches for the learning opportunities in every situation, and with every person, he comes in contact with. Shawn loves conversation — and he’s good at it — but he doesn’t waste that valuable time. Shawn Sparks learns from everything he does.

 Bad Day at Work, Bad Day at Home

You have to serve your values and priorities throughout your life because if you love what you are doing for work, you will be happier and healthier. And it almost goes without saying that if you hate what you are doing, you will likely not be the happy husband, father, and friend at home. Shawn pointed out that so many marital issues can arise from being overworked and overstressed.

I love looking for deals with Shawn Sparks because we look at them the same way. We analyze them and say, “Hey, does this influence lifestyle positively? Does this not? Does this give us cash flow? Does this not?” There are so many ways that we kind of analyze deals, analyze life, analyze work.

Serve Your Values and Priorities Throughout Your Life

Shawn always says that he likes to make his tough decisions based on overall higher quality of life. However, there is an authentic principle that Shawn points out — and we all have to be aware of — money is also an addictive drug. That paycheck means a lot to each of us, but if we can make enough and spare, we can better serve our values and priorities.

Both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have said that one of the greatest gifts is to be able to make decisions without having to worry about the money. But unfortunately, it’s hard to stay completely true to yourself and your values and priorities if you are barely scraping by from paycheck to paycheck.

Conclusion

Take a moment and listen to this podcast with Shawn Sparks. You’ll be glad you did, and you will learn a ton. Just by hearing Shawn, you will want to be a better person and set your life up nicely so that you can help other people by serving your values.

Shawn takes the opportunity to learn and teach about investments every day with his work — you can learn a lot about finance and the compound effect from him in this podcast. So take a few moments and do something to improve your own situation — listen to Shawn Sparks.

Image Credit: Natasha Fernandez; Pexels; Thank you!