This is the first in a series of five posts pertaining to my initial entry “Five Tips For Making Goals That Stick.“
By “Why,” I am referring to the reasons why you do something and by “How” I am referring to the means for accomplishing that thing.
Accomplishing anything requires some level of motivation. Accomplishing anything, no matter how big or small, requires some internal motivation. Compelling reasons are the driving force behind any action that we do. We eat and drink because they are necessary activities to keep us alive. We carry on some occupation because we require some finances to make our way in this world. We participate in hobbies or sports because we derive some pleasure and a feeling of significance from doing those things.
You can never completely know how things will play out. Practically speaking, the “Why” matters more than the “How,” because for most non-basic goals, it is impossible to know the “How” to the full extent. Let’s suppose you want to make a cake tomorrow. Do you know where every ingredient is in your home? Do you know where every pan is? Do you know every step you are going to take to bake the take? No. You have a general idea of where things are, and you figure out the details (such as which cabinet the baking pan is in) as you go.
In other cases, the “How” cannot be predetermined, because the “How” will depend on the environmental circumstances at the time. If you are going on a trip to the mountains for a few days of hiking, you might take a raincoat, but you don’t know when it might get used. It might not rain, it might rain one day, it might rain every day. You play it by ear.
We never have full conscious awareness of all possibilities. Perhaps the most important reason the “Why” is so important, is that the universe of potential means for accomplishing any thing (the “How’s”) is limited by our awareness of those means. If you have a goal of going on a trip to Hawaii this year, but you don’t have enough money to go on such a trip, you might be inclined to write-off the goal as unachievable.
But what if there were ways to travel for far less then you had ever imagined? You could take advantage of off-season discounts, time-share trials (stay in a time-share for free, in exchange for listening to their sales pitch!), perhaps a friend of a friend might have a place in Hawaii you could stay in for free. Unless you are omniscient, there is always a chance that a way exists, even when you think there could be no possibility. You will really never know until you try.
Therefore, when you are setting goals, focus on the “Why,” embrace the uncertainty of not knowing how you will accomplish them and trust that the details will work themselves out over time.
Here are a few tips to help you get clear about your own compelling reasons:
1. For each of your goals, write a full paragraph about why it matters. In this paragraph, focus on how your life, the lives of your friends and family, and the entire world will be different once you have accomplish the goal.
2. Close your eyes and spend a few minutes to really visualize and feel what it would be like once you have already accomplished the goal. How would you feel? How would people react differently to you? How would the whole world benefit?
3. After your visualization, add to the paragraph you just wrote, and make note of any new compelling reasons, emotions or sensations that came up during your visualization. Keep these notes in a handy place, and reference them regularly.
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