Okay, so we’ve looked at where you’re at, we’ve looked at where you want to be. Now let’s look at perhaps the most crucial point – why are you doing it? The question that lays the cornerstone of our foundations is “why am I doing this? What do I really want to achieve?”

(You need to be able to write down some whys, and some, “What do I really want to achieves?” And it’s well worth taking time out periodically to ask yourself these questions and keep going back to them.)

And because of all the interruptions and hassles of everyday business life, you need to be focused on a daily basis. All these other hassles that go on around you knock you off course, and if you’re not constantly pulling yourself back in line, focusing on why you’re doing it, you end up in a totally wrong place. It’s no good getting to the end of your working life and saying, “Oh pants, we’re in the wrong place”, because it’s too late. But you do have the control, and what this is all about is taking control of what you’ve got. You do have the choice. You can be in the destination that you want. Focus on your why? What’s driving you, what’s it all for?

And it might help you if you remember that if other people can get to the destination that you’ve identified, if other people can show visible evidence of attaining what you are after, then you can attain it.

The only thing or person that stops you is you, and that’s primarily because you get knocked off course one day and you don’t pull yourself back on. You just carry on, and you know in this fluffy state of mind that you should be pulling yourself back in line but it’s not a habit yet. So you drift, and that easily then sets into big drifts and then after several years, well you’re miles off.

So please start pulling yourself back into line on a daily basis. Take notes now – use the spaces provided. Learn to write your thoughts frequently and just keep pulling yourself back, every day, every week, every month. Where are you at? What do I want? Why? Why? Why? What am I really after?

Do you really want this wealth and fame and fortune and retirement because you’d just love to drive a Ferrari 24-7, because that’ll soon get stale. You can only drive it so many hours a day! You really would get fed up! If that’s the end focus you may have a problem! So what else are you going to do with your time? You don’t want to fall into the trap of some people that when they retire they then just literally die because then they’ve got nothing to live for.

Scientists have proven that the brain activity is directly correlated to age and life span. Learning a language or a musical instrument, for example, is often recommended for retirement because they’re two things that really stir the learning patterns in the brain and brain stimulation or activity is essential to life. And as I say there’s research that shows it physically extended life spans. So, think a little deeper about your future.

“I’ll tell you what I want, what I really want” - to paraphrase the Spice Girls. Because it’s what you really really want that matters, and sometimes the first time you write this down, the goals that you write, the end is very glib. It’s commonly ‘millions of pounds retirement and Ferrari’. That’s rubbish, it’s not what we really want. What are you going to do when you’ve got that? Who with? Where? Why?

Do you want to give all your family lots of money to ease the suffering, perhaps? Do you have grand ambitions to provide employment for loads of people in your area? Or to create a shelter for homeless, a care home for the elderly, an education program for underprivileged kids, a sports academy for tomorrow’s hopefuls?

I’m going to let you think about that for a while and let you write and let you talk to yourself at your leisure. I want you to come back and revisit these pages.

But as we move on allow me to share another thought: the group known as ‘mankind’ share a common core spirituality…that is a basic need for ‘connection’. Connection is a word to describe that feeling of belonging, that feeling of being an important part even if only a small part. That feeling that you’re not completely alone and that you do matter to someone somewhere. On a broader plain it is about perhaps reflecting on our creator and looking to the universe for answers or a God for support. Well, as this is actually in-built in us all, because like it or not, try to ignore it, bury it or kill it these feelings are in us and sooner or later come to the surface. The point is thousands upon thousands of ‘successful people’ report that the fame or money that they strived for, once attained, still left them feeling empty or still unsuccessful. We don’t need to re live old clichés such as money cant buy happiness but actually they are true and when I’m talking with you now about your ‘why’ it is because I promise you merely having a material ‘why’ will leave you empty even when you get it…and I’ll wager that the odds of you ‘getting it’ are lower too. Try to think then of a ‘why’ that is bigger, a ‘why’ that involves sharing and giving. Try to think of a ‘why’ that is other people focused not you focused. Think perhaps of being a servant to your clients to save them from all of the other cowboys out there! Try to think of your job as a mission to prevent your potential clients ever suffering the pain of dealing with lesser providers. Think of your ‘why’ as not what you get out of your business but what you can give with your business. Think of a ‘why’ that involves ‘connection’ and I believe when you find this not only will success be far easier to attain but massively more rewarding when attained…. as I said, just a thought…

Okay, so we’ve been stirring the grey cells a little bit. But a word of warning - a common habit is not listening to yourself and not asking properly, and not really trying to find an answer. There is a part of our human psyche that says we are afraid. It’s very very simple. Most people do not set goals or examine daily activity – where they’re at or why they bother – because if they really looked they wouldn’t like what they heard or saw. If they really looked at their lot in comparison to their ideal, if they really looked at goals and said, “Oh I’d love to have this”, a voice inside their head at the same time says, “But you can’t”. And so to avoid the pain of disappointment they stop going for it and they come out with this silly line, “well I’m happy anyway”. That’s pants! Have the courage to stand up for what you want and then have the real strength to ask for help getting it! Don‘t ever give up and stop trying!

For most it’s a ‘bury the head in the sand’ approach, existing not really living. I want you to know right now, I am here to help you really live. remember, you can do it … there’s no such word as can’t. Ask instead, “How can I?”

Well, like I said in my introduction, building a better business to make your future better is only going to be achieved if you improve your habits! It’s not what you ‘know’ it’s what you ‘do’. If you’ve read on to this point without stopping to do some ‘exercises’ then I appreciate that you have heard all we’ve said before... I know that you know…but do you do? Please, take the time, break the habit of reading on and ‘do’. Answer some questions and think deeper – your results will be far greater.

Spend a few moments writing. Let words and thoughts merge and play games as to how big a picture of your future you can paint. Test yourself. Be ‘crazy like a child’. Allow your true desire to surface and instead of feeling silly to want it have faith that you can have it and have courage to ask for it. Then when it is out into the open the process of attainment can actually start…and I promise you that attainment is supremely possible, so do not feel silly to be bold. Be proud adventurous and honest with yourself…and then we can move on and aim for something that fires us up.

This is your ‘blank canvas’. Be bold, crazy and child-like! Write ALL of the ‘things you want’…paint the picture of your ideal future.

Remember always that the vision you hold inside of your head as an ideal ‘perfect’ you…this image is only possible inside of your head because you’ve seen images outside of your head…which means you’ve seen it already which means it exists already…thus there is no rule whatsoever in the universe that says you cannot also have it!! The most fantastic news is that if it already exists then you can have it also…so don’t be afraid to dream! Paint your picture now!