When it comes to creating and maintaining forward momentum in your career or in your business, there is one factor that rises above all the others: your why, your reason for doing things, the motivation behind your motivation. It’s been said that you can accomplish any what, so long as you have a big enough why. I’m a firm believer in the truth of that statement.

Have a look around, and you’ll see that those who get what they want out of life are driven to succeed by their why for doing it. In other words, their reason for succeeding is bigger than any defeat they may experience along the way. These may sound like empty platitudes, but look a little deeper and you’ll see what I mean.

Think of a time when you were close to achieving some particular goal but stopped just short of getting there because of some obstacle that came up. Most likely, like the fox in Aesop’s fable, you made a declaration of “sour grapes”, justifying to yourself that not attaining the goal was probably for the best anyways. Dig beneath the surface, though, and I’ll bet you’ll realize that, no matter how important attaining that goal may have seemed to you at the time, somewhere along the way you lost your zeal for it: you no longer had a big enough why.

Now think of a time when you did achieve some goal you’d set for yourself, in spite of any roadblocks that may have come up. No matter what the setback, you got up, dusted yourself off, and kept right on going, pushing ahead until you got what you wanted. What kept you going in this case? Examine your motivation, and I’m sure you’ll find that in this case, you had a really significant reason for achieving that particular goal. In this case, your why was big enough to accomplish the what.


Now think of your plans for the upcoming year. This is the time when many of us will be examining ourselves and setting our goals for next year, hopefully challenging ourselves to reach greater heights than we have in the past. While you’re working though that process, here’s a little something to consider: a goal, no matter how specific and measurable it might be, is useless without knowing why you want to reach it. You have to examine your reason for the desired outcome. Once you have a strong enough why, nothing will stand in your way, no matter how big the goal is.

If you’d like some help in delving into your motivation, click the link at the end of this post to download a free 10-minute excerpt from the “Motivation 101″ audio program. It’s step one of the program, “Ask Why”, in it’s entirety. In it, you’ll get a better understanding of the importance of having a clear purpose, a why big enough to keep you on track. You’ll also learn the steps for creating a powerful why statement for each of your goals for the coming year.

I hope you’ll enjoy this gift. And don’t worry: you won’t have to provide any information to receive it (not even your name or email address). This is my gift to you to help you prepare for massive success in 2010 and beyond. Just click on the link below, and enjoy!

http://jerrykennedy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Step_1-Ask_Why.mp3