Millionaire Series Part 1 – The WHY
This is part 1 post 3 of the Millionaire series, click here to read?post 1 and post 2.
Goals are important to have, but if you only have goals you are missing a key ingredient. The WHY. Why you want to achieve your goals is the foundation to obtaining them.
It is the missing ingredient and one of the main reasons why people fall off the wagon. If your WHY isn’t important enough to you, you will be more likely to make the easy decision in the moment, rather than the RIGHT decision.
What is your Why?
Your why is the reason behind your goals and it’s the crux of actually accomplishing them. Many goals go unaccomplished because the end didn’t justify the means. The why wasn’t big enough to sacrifice or make changes for. It’s too easy to revert back into normal routines.
Your why goes beyond your thinking brain, it needs to be felt in your gut. We can be logical and say, “Well I want this goal because it just makes financial sense?”. That isn’t going to get you through three years of paying off debt. The reason to achieve your goal, your WHY, has to be BIG.
How to Find your Why
Finding your true why can be difficult. You are here because you are an Eventual Millionaire. So why do you want to be a millionaire?
Is it because you have the idea of sitting on the beach all day on an island? After a few months of sitting on the beach, you are going to get bored. Do you want to survive retirement? Is surviving a good enough reason?
You need to start thinking a bit bigger and deeper when you search for your reason why. Whenever I have asked this question before I tend to get answers that involve time. Usually, the answer involves the one thing that we can never make more of, time.
Some examples I have heard are; more time with your children, more time with your spouse, less time worrying about your financial situation, more time having fun, and more time for yourself. Many of these have to do with designing your life style.
Since your Why needs to be BIG I recommend taking some time to really figure it out. Take an hour to brainstorm your reason Why.
Try these to narrow it down:
- List every reason – List every reason you can think of and freely write it down. Do not judge anything.
- Perfect Day – Figure out What is Your Perfect Day?
- Brainstorm?- What would you want someone to say about you at your funeral?
- Or, If you already have an inkling on what your why is, answer these questions:
- Think of the opposite of your why.
- How would you feel if you had that situation for the rest of your life and you couldn’t change it?
Once you feel a reaction in your gut, you have your why.
Why exactly do I need a Why?
You need a solid and strong reason why behind every goal because you will have bad days. Everyone has bad days. a strong reason why is what I use to combat bad days. In the worst of times, I’ll think of my reason why. It’s as if I have a stronger attachment to my reason than I do to the current bad situation. It helps me make the right choice with my gut.
For those times that I do slip and make the wrong choice, (since we all do at some point!) it gives me the strong attachment to keep going anyway. I am a perfectionist and my reason why is stronger than the voice in my head that tells me to give up.
My why is a statement. I want to be able to have the freedom to do what I want, when I want, without thinking about the financial repercussions. I want to be with my children when I want to be with them, and I want to be working when I want to work, and I want to be able to go on vacation where ever I want, and experience everything I want to experience.
Our lives are short, and tomorrow is never promised. Squeeze the juice out of every day.
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Tags: Brainstorming, Goal Setting, Goals, millionaire series
Categories: Business, Debt Freedom, Finances, Goals
7 responses
Hi Jamie and thank you for your email; It’s great to connect to people through blogging.
I love this post. You’re right without the ‘Why’ what’s the point?
I’m on step 4 of your five steps and even though I’m not aiming for $1m more like £400,000 {$600,000}, all the steps are still relevant.
I’m working my way through all your posts 🙂
I’ve read a lot on your blog too. I think it’s awesome that you will move to Portugal by 2012. It’s funny how huge of a goal it seems to someone in the US 🙂 (not to mention paying off the mortgage!)
That’s great about the $600,000 – I am glad you’ll still be reading even though you don’t need a million! I want to make sure I don’t turn anyone off who has high goals, even it’s it’s not a million. It takes the same stuff!
Thanks for reading!
Hi Jaime,
My first time here and a great post about a great question. I have always found that asking myself or my clients the question: ‘If time and money were no object then what would you choose to do?’….really great way to get to someone’s Why.
Adrian
.-= Adrian Swinscoe´s last blog ..Net Promoter Score: It could change your life =-.
Thanks so much Adrian. It’s amazing how easily we put limits on our thinking.
Most recently I’ve been a business coach at a local firm, so I love your blog! I just added it to my reader- thanks for stopping by!