I really like this chapter. I believe it is absolutely true that you must decide what you want if you are to get it. You must know where you are going if you are to get there. It’s pretty easy to understand really, if you don’t know where you are headed, how do you know which road to take?
In fact, I think the vehicle is much less important to worry about than the destination. You first choose the destination and then evaluate the different options available. Its the same thing as when you decide to go to Colorado on Vacation… You first choose Creede, Colorado (notice how exact this is), and then you decided how you will get there… Will you drive? Maybe you will fly, or maybe you will fly to Colorado Springs and then drive the rest of the way… No matter what, when it comes to your life… you should decide where you are going FIRST.
Jack talks about making an “I WANT” List. This was a pretty fun exercise. You are supposed to list 30 things that you want to have and 30 things you want to do, before you die. The list helps you define what is really important to you. It starts pretty simple like, “I really want a new Mercedes”… but it gets deeper and deeper into “you” by the end of this process.
There are several exercises in this chapter to help you better define what you really want… but for me, it all starts with this next thing Jack talked about:
“Is worrying about making a living stopping you?”
This was my problem for a long time… I kept looking at things that I liked to do, looking for my “passion”, and trying to figure out how to make a living with it… and I always got stuck on this, thinking “how in the world can I really become a millionaire if I do ‘X’?” But as Jack put it: Tiger Woods loves playing golf, Ellen DeGeneres loves to make people laugh. Oprah Winfrey makes a living hanging out talking with people…. Again, choose your destination first, then lets worry about the potential vehicles. I work on this with my coaching clients all the time (which by the way, I now have a couple of openings for new clients if you are interested, just email me if you are interested), and it is something I personally love to do. I have so much fun doing this, and my clients have been surprised by the amount of opportunities that actually await them when we start talking about this.
I hope you are reading along… Please join in the conversation. I am getting quite a few emails from people on every post so far, but not many comments on the blog post… Please feel free to post a comment so everyone can benefit from the comments.
Make it a great day!