Know What You Want!

Today I’d like to talk to you about something called “Know what you want”.   Now this might sound simple and a really dumb thing to discuss, but the reality is that I have come across so many people over the years that don’t know what they want!

They haven’t ever sat down and thought about what they want! They don’t even know what questions to ask themselves to try and work out what they really want.

CLICK HERE to watch or listen on YouTube

If you did the exercise from the last video, “What Do I Need To Work On” then you will have come away with an awareness of which areas of your life need working on.  But what are you going to do next?

Now if you are in an organisation you may have already created your vision statement of where you want to be; or your mission statement of how are you going to get there.  You would have included your goals and your objectives.  This helps you know what you are moving towards and what you’re also moving away from. You can then start to solidify your thinking, hopes, and aspirations into something that’s more concrete and achievable.

And you can do the same in your life as a professional person, or for anyone else who is working to really push themselves forwards and make something happen. You can start to define what it is that you want.

The more detailed you make these objectives and plans, the more likely you’re will achieve a positive result.  Because the more specific these plans are, the more believable and therefore achievable they will be in your own mind.

And that’s important because here’s the thing.  Your mind is this fabulous machine which makes thoughts into things.  It takes something that is purely an idea and brings it into reality.  As long as you put the effort in. So, ask yourself, are you going to be an action taker and make these things happen?

Now thinking back to the objectives, there are some good questions that you need to ask yourself. These questions include: “What is it that I really want?” and not just what do I want, but, also why do I want it? When I achieve these objectives, what might I become, what will I have achieved? 

You should start also thinking about what you have now and how you achieved that. By adding all these layers of information to your objectives you bring them to life.  And then your desire, your reason why, becomes stronger.  And the stronger it is in your own mind, the more likely you’re going to be able to achieve your goals.

If you think about it! it’s a bit like trying to learn something new.  If it is something you are passionate about you will always put in the extra effort needed.

An example of this may be how much effort you put it to planning your holidays. Most people put a quite lot of effort into planning their holiday.  It’s one of those few times of the year that they look forward to. 

It’s the time you can spend with your spouse, your friends or other loved ones. In planning you will look at various places, examining in detail what it is that you want to do. Are you going long haul or are you going short haul? Is it going to be a week or a month?  Do you plan to go in the summer months or the winter months? Going even deeper, what excursions do you want to do during the holiday.  What extra activities do you want to do?

You are again adding more layers to the view of your holiday.  By spending this extra time detailing and planning the holiday –  it becomes more real and desirable in your own mind.

You can take the same approach with all your objectives by adding layers of information to the things that you really want, and need in your life.   Taking the time to do this makes it much more likely you will achieve what you want.  Or you could not bother, and just keep doing what you have always done.  Unless that is not getting you the results you really want….