As mentioned briefly in the video, there are two things that are simple, yet not thoroughly thought out which I believe causes many people to struggle and spin their wheels in their businesses. The two things are:

1) getting VERY clear on “WHAT” you want (a.k.a. “WHERE” you want to go), and
2) getting VERY clear on “WHY” you want to achieve the “WHAT” in the first place.

Now, notice that I did not include the “HOW” above. Many people tend to focus on learning the “HOW” from different ebooks and training courses offered by the Gurus. There’s no question that the “HOW” has its place in the overall ‘GOAL-GETTING’ plan, but it should come after you figure out the “WHAT” and the “WHY” (and in many cases, the “HOW” will become apparent once you get clear on the “WHAT” & “WHY”).

Ok. Let’s take the “WHAT” piece and elaborate a bit.

It’s like planning for a trip. When you get in your car, you have to know what your end destination is (i.e. where you want to end up) before you even pull out of the driveway. Or, if you plan to take a plane, the plane needs to have a destination set in order to design a flight plan to reach it.

I just luv this quote (makes me smile everytime i read it, but it’s very true…

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” ~ Yogi Berra

When you know exactly what you want and where you are going and focus on that point, you will go directly to that end. Without a focus for your direction in business (or life for that matter), you will wander aimlessly until you are hopelessly lost and confused.

So, how do you get clear on your “WHAT”? The key is to ask good questions to yourself and dig deep within yourself to dig up what you really want for yourself. Here are some questions to get you going (by no means comprehensive):

“If there were no limitations or consequences, what would your perfect average day look like?”

- where would you live?
- what would your house look like?
- what time would you wake up?
- what would you do in the morning?
- what do you think in the morning?
- what would you have for breakfast?
- what does the mundane stuff look like (taking kids to school)
- what would you spend the first half of your day doing?
- what would you have for lunch?
- who would you eat with?
- what would your friends be like?
- what would you talk about?
- what would you do for personal fulfillment?
- what life purpose would you strive towards?
- what would your business be?
- what time would you start work?
- what would you actually *DO* at work?
- what are your clients like?
- what is your relationship like?
- what would you do for family time?
- what would you have for dinner?
- where would you eat?
- who would you eat with?
- what would you talk about?
- what would you do at night?
- who would you do it with?
- where?
- what would your thoughts be as you went to sleep?

ok. Once you have that conversation with yourself and jotted down the answers, it’s time to put actual figures on some of the tangible stuff within your “WHAT”.

For example, if your dream home costs $3,000,000, then figure out what the monthly mortgage will be (e.g. 30 year mortgage, 6% interest = approximately $18,000 per month).

How about your vacations? Perhaps 4 times a year with a budget of $30k per vacation? Cool. That’s $120k per year, which is $10k per month.

I think you get the point. You can figure out the total monthly cost for your ideal lifestyle. Let’s just say for simplicity’s sake, we say your ideal lifestyle costs approximately $1,000,000 per year =)

$1,000,000 per year = $83,333.33 per month = $2,777,77 per day.

So, if you are selling a product that you sell for $1,000 (or you are an affiliate marketer and the commission per sale is $1,000), then you’ll need to sell 2.77 sales per day.

Let’s look at this from a different angle.

If you are building niche sites that sell products and/or services (your own or someone else’s) and a site earns $10 per click. Let’s also assume that the site has a 20% conversion rate (i.e. 20 out of 100 visitors buy your stuff or earns you commissions).

Then, you’ll need 278 clicks per day (278 clicks x $10 per click = $2,778 per day (which is what you need to get to that $1m per year mark).

This means that you’ll need 1390 visitors to your site per day (278 clicks per day / 20% conversion rate).

This means that you can either have one website that gets 1390 visitors a day that earns $10 per day with a 20% conversion, OR build 28 websites that get 50 visitors per day with the same metrics (i.e. 1390 / 50 = 27.8).

The metrics will be different for everyone depending on the type of business you’re running, but the key concept I want you to take away from this example is that you need to be VERY clear on the “WHAT” and then break it down into measurable metrics. Once you break things down, i think you’ll agree that the smog starts to clear.

Then, it’s a matter of “HOW” to get there… but oh, let’s not forget a VERY important component – the “WHY” (which i think is even more important than the “WHAT”).

Let’s say I put a 20 foot steel 2-by-4 on the ground and told you to walk the length of it as a fun challenge, you would do it, no problem (right?). If I then took that 2-by-4 and placed it 10 stories high, bridging two buildings, and told you to do it for fun, I’m sure you would say, “No way!” (unless you’re an adrenalin junkie of sorts =)).

Why?

The “HOW” is too difficult and the risk and the reason for doing it are too small.

Now, if on the roof of the second building were your one-year old child (or someone you care for very much if you are not a parent) and the building was on fire, would you do it?

Of course!

What’s the difference?

It’s the same 2-by-4, the same length spanning the building, and the same difficulty. However, the “WHY” has changed. The reason for doing it became far greater than the difficulty or risk. Any “HOW” is possible if the “WHY” is big enough.

So, before you start focusing on the “HOW”, I strongly suggest you get the “WHAT” and “WHY” crystal clear for yourself. I assure you that the “HOW” will fall in place once you figured out your “WHAT” and “WHY”.

I hope this post helps. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below