The Power of “Why”

It’s week 4 in our program of helping you achieve your goals with Nowolutions – and ensuring that they are the right “size” for you, and ones that you truly believe you can achieve.  This week, it’s time to step it up a notch.  By making it personal…

How personally powerful are your goals?

Are they simple statements of things that you one day wish to be?   Words on a page that list things you’ll one day have?  If your goals are mere rational declarations without a strong emotional connection, then there’s (unfortunately) a high chance those goals will never see the light of day.

Goals with emotion are goals with intent.  And intent is like rocket-fuel for goal achievement.

What’s your “Why?”

The first step in finding the emotional attachment to your goal lies in answering: “Why is reaching this goal important?” 

Maybe saving $10,000 will help for the down payment on the home in a perfect neighbourhood.  Maybe dropping 20lbs will help you become more agile, so that you can spend more time playing outside with your kids (without running out of breath!).  Maybe achieving a better work-life balance means you get to have “date night” with your partner once a week.

What experiences will reaching your goal provide? 

The more personal these experiences are for you, the more emotional connection you’ll have to your goals.  And the moment you really connect with wanting your goals to happen, you move from dreaming about them to being inspired to act.  And that’s personally powerful.

Your Practical Action Plan

Look back to the new goals you’ve set for yourself over the past few weeks.  For each goal, answer the following statements:

• This goal is important to me because…..
• When I reach this goal, I will be able to…..
• When I think about this goal, I feel……

Side note:  some of your are probably squirming in your seats at the idea of writing out answers to these types of questions.  We have one thing to say – quoting a doctor from the CBC series Village on a Diet – “Suck it up buttercup!” 

The moment you get over your ego, and really put conscious thought to making your goals personal, is the moment you trade in “regular unleaded” for rocket-fuel.  Which fuel would you rather have?

Next week, in the final part of our “Why Resolutions Fail” series, you’ll turn you goals on their heads one more time with our 5 Points to Specificity plan.