Is Your “Why” Strong Enough?
As you move through understanding personal leadership and putting systems in place to succeed in life, you will find that it could take consistent plan pivots. When you first start, you place building blocks and checkpoints in for success. You start your journey, and you think, “I am good, now. My plan will make me succeed!” You must start with a solid plan and foundation, but we also must remain flexible throughout our journey.
When you start hitting your checkpoints, you must always evaluate your plans. If you don’t constantly evaluate your plan, you might end up in a direction you ultimately didn’t want to go. Also, you might not hit your full potential. Change is hard, but consistently evaluating your plan and having the ability to change will propel you to freedom. This is the reason your “Why” is so important. Our mission and vision statement is our destination (the why), but we must stay flexible in the journey.
How do we make sure our Why is strong enough? Design your best life. Define who you want to be. Period. That’s it. Define who you want to be at the core based on your desires. This is an introspective viewpoint of yourself.
Why should we remain flexible in our journey to our mission and vision? The reason is simple, when you are on the right path, you will learn more about yourself. You will figure out that you can do more things than you ever thought you could. We always overestimate what we can do in the short-term, and underestimate what we can do in the long-term with consistency.
For example, you start on the journey and reach several checkpoints or goals. You will experience a weird feeling. First, you will be very happy and excited. Although, those euphoric feelings will be followed by some letdown. You might say “Now what?” or feel almost lost. Examples of this are when sports teams make it to the championship, but then the next year(s) they fall off to mediocrity.
Another major factor to think about is whether your goals are set high enough. I am sure you have heard the saying “Aim for the moon and if you miss, you’re still amongst the stars.” You must set your goals high enough, so you are always focused on achieving your full potential. Set your goals high but have checkpoints along the way so you can have wins.
Some questions to ask yourself when you are creating your goals:
- Did you set your goals high enough and can they be continued?
- If I achieve this goal, will I experience a letdown? If so, what is my plan?
Remember:
You will face different feelings along this journey. You will feel the highs and rush from starting a goal and achieving success. Also, you will naturally be in a short-term, tactical mindset as you put processes into place and attack your goals. However, you will need to keep your long-term vision in mind, so you can pivot your emotions to continued success.
