What makes some people more successful than others, even when they come from the same backgrounds, attended the same schools and colleges, and even got the same grades? Darren Hardy, editor of Success Magazine, has an answer. He says that those people who have achieved great success have found their “Why” and that is what motivates their action, not money, or the desire for power or status. Tell this powerful story about how to find our “Why”.
He says it like this to his audience:
If I placed a board on the stage from one side to the other, half a meter from the floor and offered you $ 20.00 to walk on it, who would do it?
Almost every hand in the room goes up.
If I place this board between two buildings, ten stories up, and offer him $ 20.00, who would walk across?
Nobody raises their hand.
If the building at the other end of the table was on fire and one of your children was unconscious at the end of the table with flames about to hit her in a few minutes, would you cross the table?
Most people raise their hands.
So what is the difference?
The difference is WHY.
WHY is a small word that poses a great challenge to us. It is what fuels our motivation.
When we do not achieve the success we want, it is often because we are not clear WHY we want it. When it doesn’t happen fast enough, we get depressed. We have nothing to motivate us on a deeper level.
When we give up on our goals a few weeks after setting them, it is often because we are not clear WHY we want to achieve them. When the going gets tough, we let go and take the easy road to nowhere.
When we fail to differentiate what we do from everyone else who does the same, it is usually because our WHY, which is our differentiator, is not clear.
When we have a big enough WHY, the HOW is never a problem. We just do it! We keep doing it until we achieve what we want.
It is not easy to find our WHY. It means that we have to stop and reflect. However, unless we find it, we will always live and work feeling that we are not achieving it, feeling that there is more in us than we are taking advantage of.
So find your WHY and let it motivate and propel your life.
How? Find a colleague to help you. Talk it over to someone who keeps coming back to you, asking clarifying questions, until that colleague takes inspiration from your WHY and resonates with you. Then you know you have it.