We generally know “what” we want. “How” to achieve it, is a different story. At this time of the year we tend to review what has worked well for us and set our minds on doing better in the future. It’s only natural for us to want “more” in life, though this “more” varies greatly for each of us. Following are some examples of what we may want:
MORE love
MORE money
MORE prestige
MORE peace and harmony
BETTER transportation
BETTER relationships
A BETTER house
A BETTER job
What we want comes easily. How to get what we want is more elusive and requires more thought. Fortunately, we can cut any objective into smaller pieces to better determine how to achieve it.
For example, one thing many of us want is more money. “How” to earn more money tends to be fairly simple though not always easy. We simply need to “sell” more of what we offer to the world.
You may be thinking, “I don’t sell anything.” Though initially this may seem to be the case, we all sell something. We sell ourselves every day. We sell our capacity to be a good employee. We sell our ability to be a good friend. We sell the fact we are a good colleague. We sell our capability to be good parents. We are constantly selling. If we want more, we need only sell more!
Here is another example. Let us suppose, what we want is to have a better business relationship with each of our clients to increase our profitability with them. While there are many ways to achieve this, we can start with this question. What does our client really want? Some of the answers might be:
Better attention
Better payment terms
Technical expertise to optimize the use of our product
A product or service which better satisfies their specific needs
With these answers we can begin to create new strategies to provide them with better service, more favorable payment terms, technical support and products which better meet their specific needs. While it’s quite possible we cannot directly influence or provide each of these elements, this process leads us to focus on “how” to give them what they want so we in turn can get what we want.
“How” to achieve any objective depends on each individual and there isn’t a magic answer which works for everyone. One of the most wonderful things about life is that we are all different and there are indeed many means to achieve our objectives. When we clarify “what” we want, we can then determine “how” to achieve it and implement a plan daily to give direction to our destiny.
∞ Rob McBride ∞
LL II 44