Getting It Done Part 4

Make sure you fully understand why things must be done

This is a key strategy in accomplishing anything. In order to have a true commitment to action, you must have a meaningful reason. Make the connection between what must be done and why it must be done. Often the connection is not direct. For example, you may need to finish a report to fulfill your obligation to your company’s customer, so the customer will pay your company, so your company will remain prosperous, so you’ll continue to be employed there, so you’ll have a regular income, so you can make the house payments, so your family will have a place to live. When the connection between what and why has so many levels of indirection, that makes it all the more important that you understand and appreciate the connection.

Everything we do, we do for a reason. Look at your life and your actions on the “why” level. Proceed with that perspective and it will strengthen your ability and resolve to actually get things done.

If there’s something you’re having trouble getting yourself to do, seek to better understand why it must be done. Don’t stop with the first answer. When you’ve determined why you’re doing it, ask why again, and again, until you arrive at a reason that is personally meaningful and highly compelling.

For example, let’s say you’ve been putting off learning a new computer program. So you ask yourself why you need to learn it. The answer is, so you can prepare a certain presentation. Ask yourself why you need to prepare the presentation. The answer — so you can make a sale to a particular client. So why do you need to make the sale to that client? Keep asking why until you arrive at a reason so compelling you cannot bear to refuse it.
<:))))><<