6 Cycles of Life

If you knew what cycle in life you were in, would you live a little differently?

When I reflect on my life and the cycles that I have been through in business, relationships or even finances; there are 6 main cycles that we all have to go through when embarking upon a dream or journey. By identifying which of the 6 cycles you are in, will give you a better perspective of how to embrace the next phase of your journey. These are the 6 cycles of life that I have endured:

• Learning
• Application
• Reliance
• Denial
• Assessment
• Growth

Learning

When we are born, we are born as students of life. As children, we have to constantly learn our environments. We learn how to walk, talk and the social norms taught by our families. Our religion, political affiliation, etc., are all formed in our formative years. We all go through this phase in life. We first have to be students before we can be masters. In business, it is no different. We learn to manage and run our businesses as best as we can from whatever sources we can.

Application

When we learn something new, we apply our knowledge to our purpose. That could be your business, a new recipe, dancing or simple tips from a Youtube video. Need help with understanding taxes as a business owner? Need help with 10-99s? Having issues with motivating your team? There are an abundant amount of resources from which you can learn from as an entrepreneur and  then, consequently, apply. Once you have learned enough and applied enough, you then start to rely on what you know.

Reliance

This cycle in life can be the cycle of complacency. Often we rely on our skill sets, techniques, ability or what we have learned in the past. This is not a bad thing of course, but what happens when you rely on old information all the time? You become outdated. What in your life are still relying on that you shouldn’t be? Or in the case of over-reliance, what happens when as a business owner you come to realize that relying on one solution prevented you from better ones? For example, imagine that you have managed your sales and data for your office, team or business via an excel workbook. It works. You rely on it. As times have changed, however, better solutions have arisen. Such is the case with CRMs – software dedicated to managing, automating and compiling data in ways that Excel can’t even dream of while managing relationships with your customers. Reliance may hold you back from this and lead to the next cycle.

Denial

Often times when we realize that we have to change or a change needs to take place in our lives, we often deny that we are the source of the problem. In this cycle in life we often blame everything else, our spouse, teammates, work environment, even our family. Pointing the finger at everyone else makes us feel better. When in reality, it isn’t helping you progress.

Assessment

Every process has a discovery cycle. Eventually we will come out of denial and look around and notice the calamity that we have caused. We start to wonder why our marriages are broken, why our finances aren’t what they should be, or why our faith isn’t where it should be. You may find yourself in this cycle of life and wonder “how will I get out of this?”. Remember that assessment always highlights room for growth.

Growth

Growth is the final and most exciting cycle. You start to improve, life starts to get better, and you have officially graduated to being a master. But mastery isn’t the end-result as no one skill or experience can manage your road to success. It’s a cycle. It repeats. I am learning just as you are and I am growing just as you are. As entrepreneurs, we know the value of things outside of business. It’s why we chose this life. To break away from a 9-5 cell onto a life of business where we control our life and income. Growth is the key to continued success and for that we need to understand our cycles as business people.