Who You Choose as Your Role Model is How High You Aim
Apr 04, 2022
Here is valuable role model identification exercise to help you determine how high you aim in your life, your career, and your business. It's a 5 minute read. Enjoy.
When you're deciding on who to follow, think to yourself:
Who you choose as your role model is how high you aim.
For most people, deciding on your role models is a result of discovering who has done what you want to do.
You might love surfing, playing tennis, soccer, singing or dancing. You might love inventing, making movies, or writing. Or, you might love to cook, paint, or code. So, you end up finding people to follow who have done it.
There is nothing wrong with this approach. It can certainly lead you to become like that person and do what that person has done.
But, I argue, that following that approach may not help you aim as high as you could aim.
I'm going to share with you a quick exercise that can change your life forever. It will help you define the right role models for you. And it will help you aim higher than what others have already done.
Aim Higher™ Exercise
Take a few minutes and pull out a piece of paper and pretend to divide it into three columns. I call this role model identification exercise, Aim Higher™
Step 1: Your Area of Focus
On the Top left side of the paper draw a picture that represents your area of focus.
For example: Boxing, Tennis, Entrepreneurship, Film, Writing, Cooking, Fashion, Computers, Crypto, etc..
Step 2: Second Focus Area
On the bottom left side of the paper draw a picture that represents another area of focus that is also important to you, let's call this your second focus area.
For example: Math, Literature, Painting, Swimming, Travel, Exploration, Research, Archaeology, Magic, etc...
Step 3: Forever Change Idea
On the top middle of your paper write what idea(s) have forever changed your area of focus.
On the bottom middle of your paper write down what idea(s) have forever changed your second area of focus.
For ex: The iMac forever changed computers, or how Citizen Kane forever changed film.
Step 4: Who is Responsible?
To the right of each Forever Change describe who is responsible for that Forever Change.
For ex: Jef Raskin, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Orson Welles, Herman Makiewicz, and George Shaefer.
Once you complete this exercise, pay attention to who is responsible for forever changing your second focus area, not so much your main focus area. Most of the time, the ideas that have changed your focus area have already been done.
If you analyze who forever changed your second focus area, and apply the ideas they brought to life to your focus area, this is where you can find tremendous opportunity for how you can aim higher in your own focus area.
I recommend that you consider as your role model the person(s) responsible for forever changing your second focus area, and analyze how you can apply what they did to your focus area.
Below is an example of the Aim Higher™ Exercise you can review.
By studying the example above, you will notice that the Aim Higher™ Exercise can help you:
1) Identify your Focus Areas.
2) Define the ideas that have forever changed your focus area and your secondary focus areas.
3) Identify who is responsible for forever changing your focus areas.
When the master magician, David Copperfield, defined who forever changed film, he adopted Orson Welles as his role model. It motivated him to want to forever change magic in the same way Orson Welles changed film. You can learn more from my interview with David Copperfield in the Discover Possible Podcast.
I invite you to take the time to go through this exercise today. It will open your mind to people that you should consider as role models, that you might have never thought of before.
The Discover Possible Blue Book is a multi-volume eBook series of books that will take you through the lives of some of the most accomplished individuals that have lived.
