|
Quite often we come up with ideas or are presented with opportunities that light us up. Just the very thought of them gives us a buzz – our imagination starts to go wild at the possibilities or the doors that could be opened as a result. These ideas or opportunities are not limited to one area of life either. They could be in your personal life, your work life, something to do with friends, family, your spouse, your children or a thousand other things. When these opportunities come knocking, what’s your strategy? How do you size it up? What measures do you put in place so that when pursuing it may get a little tough, you have the resolve to push onward? How do you keep yourself honest? What’s your plan when others have a differing opinion than you do? It’s been said, “That with a big enough ‘why’, the how’s will take care of themselves.” I take this to mean that when we are crystal clear on why we are doing something or why we want something, then nothing will stand in our way of achieving that goal. If we don’t have the knowledge at the time – we’ll ask someone or read a book, we might even Google it, or search YouTube for the answer. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING stands in your way when we are passionate enough and clear enough on your reason why. You find a way – you always have! I’m willing to bet that if you thought about it now that you would be able to think of a time when you pushed past all resistance to achieve something that was really important to you. You were so clear on what you wanted, and so clear on how achieving it would positively affect you and those around you that you wouldn’t stop until you got it done. One thing that most people seem to be missing, is a formula or a way of being able to size up ideas and inspirations or opportunities when they arise. Generally when the big things arrive that require us to make an important decision, we can let things get in the way. Quite often when the big things come knocking on our door, if we’re daunted by what lies ahead to be able to achieve the end result then we shy away. Fear steps up to the plate to ‘protect’ us. “I can’t do that,” some say, “I don’t know how.” We can be caught saying this about things that we actually want! Things that we KNOW will be of benefit to us! But our fear of screwing it up or fear of the unknown or a hundred other fears stop us from achieving what we want or what we know is good for us or good for others. Then all we’re left with is regret. We get some time down the track and a circumstance arises where had we taken the opportunity or acted on the idea, things would be different now. “Had I done what I knew was right, then maybe I wouldn’t be in this hole right now.” One of the worst ways to start a sentence is, “If only I’d…” If only I’d done this, if only I’d said that, if only I had the guts to… Because we knew back then as much as we know now, that if we had have taken action on the opportunity or idea at the time, things would be different now. So what can you put in place so that when these opportunities come up you don’t make decisions based on fear or anything that could hold you back? Tony Robbins has said, “The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask.” Every day, we are constantly asking ourselves questions and then answering them – that’s essentially what thinking is – the asking and answering of questions to ourselves. Sometimes the quality of our questions are high, and sometimes they aren’t so high. The more often we can ask ourselves high quality questions on a regular basis, the more we will be able to squeeze out of ourselves and life. I heard the other day a different way of setting out to achieve a goal – set it out as a question. Let’s say your goal is to earn $100,000 by the end of the year. It’s a very clear goal, and it’s got a timeframe to work with. Now that you have that clear goal in place, then turn it into a question: “How can I earn $100,000 by the end of the year?” You know your ‘why’ – why you want that kind of income. You’re very clear on it – maybe you’re growing your family, maybe you want to increase your savings or you’re saving for a new home – or whatever it is, but you’re extremely clear on your ‘why’. This is where the ‘how’ comes in, this is where your mind is engaged to move heaven and earth to find the way, to find the answer, to find the person or the book or the mentor. This is where your ego is pushed out of the way in the pursuit to find an answer or maybe some answers. But the key is to push yourself to come up with at least 20 answers to your question of how you can achieve your goal. 20 answers - no less. If you do any less, then you don’t give yourself the opportunity to really explore and work. The answers that we seek are in the last place that we look, so we must expand the places that we look for how to achieve our goals. No less than 20 answers to how you can achieve your goal. If you come up with more possibilities, then write them down too. Another good point is to write your goal down as the question and then write down the possibilities below it. It’s a checklist. Get it out of your head! You’re liable to forget a possibility if you keep it in your head, so write it down. Also, seeing one thing written down may lead you to the idea that is the one that you were looking for. Letting all your ideas scramble in your head limits your ability to sort through your thoughts. So write it down, write them all down! I know of a person who was trying to sell his business. He’d built it from the ground up, it was a sound and stable business, but he wanted to travel the world for a year and enjoy the fruits of his labours. For some reason he was unable to sell it – it was listed in all the places that you could or would list a business for sale. It was a good investment, but for some reason he couldn’t get it moving. He was then taught this style of tending to his goals – by changing the goal into a question. He asked himself, “How can I sell my business as soon as possible so that I may travel around the world?” He wrote down as many answers as he could and didn’t stop until he got up to 20 answers. Some of the answers were higher in quality than the others. But he now had a list of possibilities in front of him that he could objectively look at – they weren’t jumbled in his head. As it turned out, it was the last one that he wrote down which was the one that made it all happen. By chance, it also turned out to be the simplest courses of action than of all the others. From there he was able to create a roadmap for how he was going to achieve his goal. He restructured his business aligned with the strategy that he’d eventually came up with and sold his business easily after sending it to market again. Quite often when trying to achieve our goals we need the behavioural flexibility to know or understand when we need to change our strategy. They say there’s more than one way to skin a cat… By using the technique of turning our goals into questions, we activate our imagination and determination. By thinking along the lines of ‘How can I?” we stay open to possibility – the possibility of finding the way, and the possibility of us achieving it. By concentrating on the ‘how’, fear and doubt are pushed to the side – there is no longer room for it when we reside in the world of possibility. If you liked this, then click here for more
Related Articles -
Goals, Why, How, Dream, Vision, Steps to goals,
| 
