It’s Not Enough to Know “How To”
WHY IS IT that so many overweight people who really don’t want to lose weight buy weight loss books?
In a minute I’ll give you the answer, but first let’s get the business lesson. Last month I had a young business owner ask me at the end of a seminar all about how to grow his small business.
Problem was, I could tell that all the strategies in the world were not going to save this guy.
Here was a young guy with his entire life savings, all the income to feed and house his family tied up in his own business, and no matter what I showed him to do, none of it would have mattered.
He was a heavy man buying a diet book he would never read. He was a cigarette smoker buying gum that he would never chew. When you looked in his eyes you could easily see he had no desire to be a success, no desire to build a great company, no will to do whatever it takes… all he had was a desire to just keep his head above water…
He and thousands of business owners like him had no big reason WHY…
You’ve probably read enough books, been to enough seminars, all you need now is a push. I believe that everyone in life knows enough ‘what’ to do and ‘how’ to do it…
If you’re overweight, you eat less and do some exercise. There’s no rocket science to it. Same is true for business…
If there is something that needs fixing, I would bet that in at least half the cases you already know what to do…
But, the problem isn’t knowing what to do. In fact, if you grabbed a sheet of paper right now I’ll bet you could list at least 20 things you know you should have done, but have not. Go on, run through the list in your head…
It’s not just about knowing what to do, or even how to do it anymore. It’s the motivation, the inspiration, the gumption to get off your backside and do what you already know…
So, back to this young guy.
I had only one job to do with him, to get him back to a stage where he would do whatever it took to get his company growing again. He had to find his “why”, and we had to do it fast…
First he had to learn the difference between a MUST and a want…
Most of us want to be rich and successful, and we want to be fit and healthy, but the reality of life, I have found, is that most people don’t move until they get the ‘MUST’ card dealt to them.
They have a stroke and survive, their business almost goes under, or their wife threatens to leave them, and so on.
So for him, success was a want, not a MUST…
The difference between big business and small is that corporations have investors demanding a return, demanding growth, demanding success. There is a MUST level of pressure to achieve or they’ll lose their job.
What could turn your wants into MUSTS? Here’s what I do… I make a public statement, or a personal promise. One time I promised to take my kids to Disneyworld and gave them pictures of where we were going and when we were going, and boy did I work that much harder to make it a reality.
As a business coach I find that outside pressure is usually far more powerful than internal motivation to start with. At some point though, as people, we move from external motivation to internal.
That’s when you move from painful motivators to pleasurable goals…
Make the leap today, set a goal to grow your company, get the 20 things you should have done and do them, work on growth instead of survival…
Remember, you already know enough “how to” to get started, so work on your “why to”…
Our young guy… he rang his wife and promised her a two-week holiday in 12 months, right there in front of me. Now he has some motivation, now he has a MUST, now he has a reason why…
So, then we sat and discussed how he could grow his company, knowing that he would apply what he learnt.
Oh, and the reason why overweight people buy diet books… it makes them feel like they are doing something. Feeling like you are doing something and actually doing it… two totally different things. You know which one works.
Article reprinted courtesy of My Business Magazine
