There’s a huge difference between what you want and what you need. If you’re focused on what you need, that’s all you’ll create. If you want to manifest more than what you need, focus on what you want.
Think Big
A focus on need keeps you thinking small. When you think small, you get small results.
Let’s say you need $4,000 per month in income to pay your bills. If all you do is focus on what you need, you’ll just squeak by every month and never create any additional revenue. You’ll get $4,000, and that’s it.
Think bigger than your needs. Focus on what you want.
Yes, you need an income of $4,000 to survive; what you want is an income of $10,000 per month so you can have disposable income. What will you do with that money? Maybe you want (not need) to contribute financially to your favorite charity or to help those who have been impacted by a natural disaster. Maybe you want to help your children pay off their college loans or buy houses. Perhaps you’d like to self-publish a book that makes a difference or develop a new widget of some sort that you know will transform your industry. Or you might want to sail around the world, start a foundation, or take your elderly parent to see the Great Wall of China. Possibly the additional income will reduce your stress, help you be more present with your family, and find joy in life.
How to Move from Need to Want
It’s easy to move your focus from need to want. Here are a few steps to help you:
- Get out a journal.
- Write: “I need _____.” Fill in the blank. For example, “I need an income of $4,000 per month.”
- Write: “I want _____,” and again, fill in the blank. For example, “I want to earn an income of $10,000 per month.”
- Write: “I want _____ because _____.” Your answer should be related to why you want whatever you want. For example, you might write, “I want $10,000 a month so I can pay all my monthly bills and send $2,000 to my daughter’s college loan each month.”
- Completing this sentence: “I will create __________ by the following date: ___________.” Answering this question requires that you create a deadline by which you will manifest what you want. That deadline might feel crazy; set it anyway. You might say, “I will create an income of $10,000 per month by March 30, 2018.” You can attach your why to this statement in this way: “I will create an income of $10,000 per month by March 30, 2018, so I can pay off my daughter’s college loan in 10 years.”
- Make a list of five things you need to do to meet that deadline and manifest your want.
Plan Your Trip to Wantland
Here’s another way to think about creating what you want. (Thanks to Paul Gowin, Certified High Performance Coach, for giving me this great analogy…and for coaching me to Wantland.) When you decide to go on a vacation, you don’t plan to visit someplace out of need; that’s not a vacation. You choose to go somewhere you want to visit.
Once you’ve made that decision, you begin planning. You determine when you will leave and return from your vacation. You place those dates on your calendar. You book your hotel room and airplane flights. Maybe you also make reservations for fun activities you’ll participate in while there.
Once you’ve finished the planning, you have to get to the airport as scheduled, board the airplane, and sit in your designated seat. You have to travel to your destination. If you don’t, you don’t go anywhere or do anything different, right?
To make it to your destination, you have to have a plan and a set timeframe within which you will carry it out—the dates of your vacation.
The last step in the sequence above—creating a deadline—is what allows you to travel from “Needland” and to “Wantland.” Once you have a deadline—a date on which you will have what you want—you can work backward from there. You can ask yourself, “What do I have to do to get there by that date?”
For example, if you want to earn $10,000 per month (and you don’t even make $4,000 now) by X date, what will you do to get to the $10,000 income level? And by when do you need to accomplish those milestones?
This type of deadline-related planning changes everything. It takes a generalized want and turns it into a clear and achievable goal.
We Live in Needland
Most of us live in Needland. I do, too, much of the time. That’s why my friend, Paul, recently coached me to strive to live in Wantland. As he did for me, I want to push you past need; I want to help you focus on want.
Each time you hear yourself say, “I need…” Stop! Ask yourself, “What do I want?” Then ask yourself, “Why do I want that?” And… “By when do I want that.” Then work backward to determine how you will plan your trip from Needland to Wantland.
What do you want, and by when will you create it?
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