Achieve Your Goals With One Simple Question
October 2, 2008
Are you struggling to achieve your goals? It may be because you haven’t asked yourself one simple question: “Why?”
Say you have a goal of wanting to make lots of money, or of losing 30 pounds in weight. You may think that the ideal way to achieve that goal would be to focusing on reaching it and to visualize yourself having already achieved it. But this kind of thinking may not be enough to help you achieve your goals.
You’ll come far closer to knowing what you really want, if you stop and ask yourself why you want to achieve those goals. And there’s always a “why”.
If your goal is to make lots of money and your “why” is, to be financially secure, or travel the world, don’t focus on making lots of money. Instead, focus on being financially secure, or travelling the world. It will be far easier to visualize yourself doing something you really want to do, as opposed to something vague, like making lots of money. And the clearer your “why’s” are, the easier you’ll find it to persevere.
Have you thought about your “why’s”? Do you have difficulty visualising your goals, or do you find it easy?
Comments
22 Responses to “Achieve Your Goals With One Simple Question”
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Successful And Outstanding Blogger
Cath, If you have to ask why, you may have the wrong goals. Or, you aren’t really sure what your goals are. Both states of mind seem to be fairly common.
Brad Shorr’s last blog post..Trust Me
Brad, not sure you understand Cath. I think she is saying that if you have a “vague” idea of what you want (you see making money is vague) then how are you going to achieve that? You need to imagine yourself driving a Ferrari, or relaxing in Costa Rica (like I am ) in order for the law of attraction to help you get there.
Really, you need to visualize your goals in order for them to materialize.
~ jim
Jim Gaudet’s last blog post..Michael Moore’s 10 Point Plan
I’d advise against asking ‘Why’, for the simple reason that it doesn’t get people thinking in the best way. It’s all to easy to answer with statements like ‘Because I want to‘ or ‘Because it would feel good‘, none of which are very compelling.
I always advise people to ask ‘What are the reasons…?’ instead of ‘Why?’, or even better – ‘What are the real reasons…?’. I’ve seen people come up with real gold with that question.
Steve Errey’s last blog post..McCain on Confidence and Consistency
I definitely think considering the real reason is the way to go. Whenever I thought about the end results and the reason why I want to accomplish something, it usually happened for me. The path was always unpredictable, but the end result was something that I held in my mind.
Carla’s last blog post..LA Times: California launches broad effort to control hazardous chemicals
I like the idea of asking why. However, don’t stop at the first answer you get. Keep asking yourself till you find one compelling, inspiring reason which touches and moves you – one which you know means a lot to you and would readily work for everyday.
Avani-Mehta’s last blog post..Honor Your Anger Style : Anger Management Series Part V
Hi Catherine – Avani makes a good point. Don’t stop with the first “why”. It also helps if we ask, “Why else?” Sometimes we find our goals aren’t really OUR goals but those of someone else. I see that a lot where young adults are trying to please their parents, but it’s not what they really want to do.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Biggest Misconceptions About Blogging
Hi Cath. Ok, you are entering into the world of life coaching now
Great question! And Avani and Barbara you are right on about not stopping with that first why!
Ask why and your answer will tell you what you value about your goal; what is important to you at your core. Knowing what you value helps you to know what “to pack” on your way to achieving that goal. What tools/skills/people will help and guide you to get there. Values are like lampposts that light your way.
And, asking more questions (mining for values) gives you more clues as to why your goal is important and builds up the momentum. If the momentum doesn’t build or take you anywhere then ask why again. Perhaps you really didn’t want it in the first place.
Davina’s last blog post..Free Spirit My Ass!
I agree that focusing on the “why” is a great tool for achieving goals, probably because it means focusing on the reward.
Hi Cath – agree with you 100% and I would also throw hard work into the mix with visualization.
mark_hayward’s last blog post..What is your ultimate job (or life) description?
I think that if we ask “why” it also helps us to find other alternatives that we may not have contemplated. For example, if you ask for a raise your boss might ask you why you want a raise. Maybe you need more money to get your child into a better daycare center; under that scenario your boss might tell you that he can’t give you a raise but if you get other parents together who are also interested in a daycare center he could look into the possibility of creating a daycare center on company grounds. Asking why helps you to expand the pie.
Marelisa’s last blog post..Four Outstanding Thoughts on Innovation
I think the WHY question is a good one for determining our reasons for doing something we have started to stay on target with the rewards we are hoping to achieve. I did this with blogging and it made a huge difference to me. Knowing WHY I blog has allowed me to focus on the “success” and results I am trying to achieve and not get caught up in other people’s goals or how they measure success.
As for the WHY question helping us determine how to achieve our goals or determine our goals, I have found it useful to try and imagine and write down what my life will look like when the goal is achieved. What are the elements that make up my image of success. If you have trouble doing this, then maybe you’re on the wrong track with your goals and they are coming from a place of fear or from another person’s desires for you.
Difficulty in getting detail on successfully reaching your goals can also show you the beliefs which might be holding you back. I have always wanted to be a novelist who was successful enough that I could travel the world and live and work anywhere.
But this year I realized that inside I don’t believe this goal is possible. My desire for travel always makes me set goals about earning money and so I put my fiction to one side. I can’t see what my life would look like as a novelist because I don’t believe it will ever earn me money. At present, my goal for travel feels mutually exclusive to my goal of being a novelist. Sad but true.
Kelly
Kelly@SHE-POWER’s last blog post..Heroes of Healing: Louise Hay & the Book that Changed My Life
Hi Brad – I guess that would happen a lot. You find yourself asking why you want somethin then you discover you don’t really want it at all.
Hi Jim – that’s what I was meaning – you’ve got to know what you actually want to do with that cash.
Hi Steve – that’s a good point – rephrasing the question is probably more likely to help you discover the real answers.
Hi Avani – that’s a really good point. Asking only once may not be enough. I like your idea of keeping going until you get to the most inspiring reason.
Hi Barbara – it is a good idea isn’t it. And you make a good point about young folk. Plenty of “whys” would help them discover whether they’re living their dream or someone else’s.
LOL Davina – I like how you explained that. I’m guessing you must be brilliant at this life coaching gig because what you just said has really motivated me to keep digging deeper.
Hi Vered – that’s true – and if you know exactly why you want something – the reward will be more tempting.
Hi Mark – that is very true. Once you know what your goals are – hard work is essential.
Hi Mare – that’s an excellent example of coming up with creative ways to get what we want.
Hi Kelly – so are you saying your real goal is wanting to travel. Or do you really want to become a best selling novelist too?
Why are you finding it difficult to imagine making money from writing? Is it stuff you’ve read about starving writers or something else?
LOL Rita – I loved that post. It really made me think about what I really do believe in. And as you say, once we’ve thought about it – the answer is that we don’t know what we believe at all.
Actually I just got clarification on this when I read Mark’s latest post a few minutes ago. What I want is to write about whatever the hell I like – fiction, personal development, whatever – while being able to travel, live remotely, teach/mentor and work with interesting and inspiring people. But I don’t believe that can all be done.
I seem to have a deeply held block that says travel takes money and if you want to make money you have to do work you don’t like or write what pays, not what you’re interested in. Everyone says fiction is hard to make pay and while I love my blog I seem to think I can’t monetize it without changing it and moving away from my current diverse nature of topics. I have no niche. How does a blog make money without a niche?
Bloody hell, I think I need MORE therapy. When does this ever end!
Kelly
Kelly@SHE-POWER’s last blog post..Heroes of Healing: Louise Hay & the Book that Changed My Life
Hi Cath
I think you are quite right – knowing WHY we want our goals is an essential part of the creating process.
Robin’s last blog post..Ice And Global Warming
“Why” can be a powerful question, if we can honestly answer it. I think part of the key is just that, being honest with ourselves when we do answer.
Lance’s last blog post..A Helping Hand
Hi Kelly – I read what you said on Mark’s blog. As someone who has several partly completed novels through trying to write what I think the mainstream will read, I would say, write what you want – you’ll get far more pleasure from it.
And if you’re not making enough money – do both. Sophie Kinsella who writes those hugely popular shopaholic type books previously wrote totally different things under a different name.
As for your blog – I don’t think you need to small a niche. As you’ve said before, you like writing about life, so why not keep on doing that. You certainly write some interesting stuff. But I think you’re way to hard on yourself re: traffi and popularity. Blogging really is a numbers game.
I write almost every day. I may have no more readers than you, in fact I may have fewer. It is only the number of posts that make it seem that way. If we both had a thousand regular readers – I posted 10 times a week and you posted twice – I would get around 10,000 visitors a week and you would get 2,000. But it doesn’t mean your blog is less popular.
Hi Robin – it’s important isn’t it. And I like how Avani & others have pointed out the importane of not stopping at the first why.
Hi Lane – that is a good point. Sometimes its too easy to tell ourselves what we want to hear isn’t it?
I think “why” is an absolute must to ask and should be asked even before you start planning your business.
Like you said, if the “why” is money then you have to realize money is just a tool – alone it can’t do anything. If your reason for starting a business is financial freedom, then it’s the benefits of money that you’re after. Money is just a tool.
Great point on how we need to focus our real core reasons for starting a business because that will be our inspiration.
Great advice,Cath. And I agree with the folks who say you have to dig deeper than the first answer that you come up with.
Hi John – Exactly – it is a tool, so it’s not a great thing to focus on. As you say – if financial freedom is your why, it’s far best to focus on that and the benefits it will give you.
Thanks Lillie – that deeper digging is really important isn’t it.
Hi Cath – wow, this was simple, succinct, and dead on!
Al at 7P’s last blog post..Guest Post at Write to Done
Hi Al – thank you. I guess it’s a question many of us don’t ask ourselves often enough – but like you said, it’s so simple.
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