I wanted to discuss an idea I was introduced to a while back in Darren Hardy's book 'The Compound Effect.'  The entire book was a life changer for me (one of the only books I plan on reading at least once a year) and I wanted to share one particular section that I found really interesting.  That section had to do with our WHY.

The reason WHY you do something can be the deciding factor of whether or not you'll be successful or not. I believe when taking on new challenges most people map out a plan on how to get there; makes sense. Sometimes we get there, sometimes we don't.  If we don't, we often go back to the drawing board and map out a new plan.  We repeat this over and over until we either quit or succeed.

What if we don't succeed?  Are we just not capable of attaining our goals?  Or is the reason we failed because our WHY wasn't strong enough?  I'd like to argue that next time you're feeling down because something didn't go your way, consider changing the reason WHY you're doing something instead of changing your methods.  

Here's an example given to us in the book, I just really wanted to add the visualizations to it :)

If I laid out a 50ft 2x4 wooden board on the ground and asked you to walk across it for $100 would you?  I think most people would say yes, I mean what do you have to lose right?

What if I took that same wooden board and placed it across of two neighboring skyscrapers.  Would you now walk across it?  I'm guessing you'd say 'hell no!'

What if I said you need to walk across it or you would automatically die.  What would you do now?  I'm guessing you'd walk across the board now right?

The point of this example is to illustrate how important your WHY needs to be.  The wooden board and the distance didn't change in any of the examples above.  But the reason for WHY you were walking across it did. Sometimes you said YES and sometimes you said NO. The only difference between you saying YES or NO was the reason WHY you'd be walking across it.

So I challenge you to do this... the next time you're trying to achieve a goal and it isn't quite working out for you; instead of coming up with ways to change how to reach that goal, consider changing your WHY instead.

The great thing about having strong WHY's is that you can have as many of them as you like!  I've found the more the better, and some will be stronger than others.  Also multiple WHY's will help out when other WHY's fail. Wanting 6 packs abs will keep me away from McDonald's in the summer but that WHY may fail in the winter when I'm covered up.  But, if my WHY is to have 6 pack abs, not get cancer, and live as long of a life as possible; I'm pretty much covered for not going to a fast food joint.        

Let's face it, life is tough.  And when life gets tough the thing that separates the people who keep going from the people who quit is their WHY.  Make sure yours is strong and I believe there is nothing that can stop you from achieving any goals you set.