Why can be more important than how

How are the planning sessions going? And more importantly perhaps, are you beginning to achieve more as a result of the time you've spent?

In working out what you want to achieve, there is one important element that we should always incorporate into each and every planning session and that is WHY.

• Why do you want to earn a million dollars by year end?
• Why do you want to be a size six in 3 weeks?
• Why do you want to run a marathon?
• Why do you want a dozen more customers?
• Why do you want to sell a hundred new mortgages / cars / widgets this year than last?

Why?

It's an interesting question isn't it.

Unfortunately most people don't have a satisfactory answer to the question WHY...which is why they will rarely get what they say they want.

• Why not?
• Because I do, that's why
• Because my mom / dad / sibling / business partner never thought i'd amount to anything and I want to prove them wrong

I use the "because I can" phrase quite a lot. To me it gives me free reign to be outrageous, to try new things, to do whatever I want (within reason). But lets face it, it's not a proper reason is it.

And whilst you are working out the reasons WHY, there is something else I would like you to consider and that is this

What will your day / week / month / life be like if you did manage to do whatever it is you said you wanted. Are you willing to spend hours training each and every day for several months in order to be physically fit to run the marathon? Are you willing to spend a lot of time on the telephone asking for more business?

Spend some time and work out what your life will be like when you achieve your "goal" and then if you are willing to continue (and believe me when I have said this to my audiences in the past, most people feel very uncomfortable about what their days are going to be like from here on in) why not start acting as though you already had those new customers. Start working the telephone, meet your new customers as if they were the ones to bring in the most money to you (hint they might be). Start training like you mean it. Start living your life. Because a goal isn't the be all and end all, that's just an end point. Each and every decision you make can take you towards those things that you say you want, or away from them.

So to recap:

• What do you want
• Do you have the time in your schedule to achieve it?
• Why do you want it? What reasons do you have?
• What will your day be like if you get "it"
• Does that fit with the life you really want to live?

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"Awake, arise and stop not 'til the goal is reached"
Sai Baba
Indian Spiritual Leader
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