A short motivational lesson (YouTube video) by Adam Kay focused on the importance of a clear, emotional "why" behind a dream income (example used: $250,000/year). The speaker argues that because humans have ~60,000 thoughts per day, only emotionally compelling goals will occupy enough mental attention to engage the reticular activating system (RAS) and scan for opportunities. The lesson gives concrete examples of powerful personal whys, advises selecting two whys (one noble, one personal/selfish), and provides journaling prompts/questions to help learners define and feel their motivating reasons.
Chapters
You've probably done an exercise like this before and you've probably heard the idea. Yes. Get clear on your why. I'm going to make it more clear as to why this is so critical for you. So this lesson is all about having a why behind your dream income, right? Why do you want to achieve it? What's your most motivating, inspiring reason or set of reasons for wanting to achieve that dream income? Now, as this course goes, I'm going to continue to use the example that I've already set of earning $250,000 per year, right? For a lot of account executives, that is a dream income. Some of you might want more. Some of you might think that's way up here. That's the example number I'm going to use in this course. And so this lesson is all about getting clear on your why. Now, this is the reason it's important. This isn't like hairy, fairy or mystical or anything like that. The reason it's critical to get in touch with an emotional, driving why is the average human being has 60,000 thoughts per day. 60,000 thoughts per day. If you're setting a goal and you don't find a deep motivating reason to achieve that goal, you don't stand a chance. Or better yet, your goal does not stand a chance. Among all of that distraction, there is a tornado of 60,000 thoughts swirling through your head every day. You want your goal to be as many of those 60,000 thoughts as possible. Most people, it's zero. People who write goals once in a while, it might be a couple times a day. If you can get deeply in touch with your why, the reasons you want to achieve your goals, the number of thoughts that are about your goals among those 60,000 will increase and that will keep your reticular, activating system. Your ras that we learned in the last lesson focused on your goal and scanning your environment for opportunities. This is why this lesson is so critical. So the idea is only set a goal that you truly care about or set a goal that you can get yourself to care about by doing some soul searching and getting in touch with what is the most emotional, driving reason I want to achieve this? What is would get me out of bed early, keep me up late to achieve this goal. Okay, so here's a few examples. I just want to give you some concrete examples because the more concrete you can get with these, the better, right? The more abstract you are like, you know, I'm not saying this is a bad one, but I just want to provide for my family. That's not very concrete. It's in the right direction, but we want to get really concrete. So here's some examples I've heard from other salespeople. I want to earn enough money to travel through Europe and see World War II history with my dad. Okay, that is a powerful why. That is something that you can visualize and gets your blood flowing. Now I would encourage you to get out a journal and just start jotting down thoughts as I give some of these examples to you. And we're going to do an exercise as we get toward the end of this. Another example. I want to buy a big beautiful million dollar home to raise my family in. I'm getting emotional just reading some of these. These are good ones. I want to retire by age 40 and visit every national park in the US traveling by RV. Powerful why? I want to buy my dream motorcycle so I can zip around the Pacific coast highway during the summer and feel like a cool guy or gal doing it. I want to retire my parents early from the jobs that they are forced to work in. They don't have line of sight into retiring and I want to be able to make enough money where I can retire them. These are powerful whys. Yours are going to look different. You should get in touch with what this looks like for you. But I want to give you some advice. You should try to find two whys. One of them should be noble and not really focused on you. It could be your family, it could be your customers, the people you serve. But one of them should be focused on you. One of them should almost be selfish. I have found that many salespeople will not write a why that's about them. Like buying a cool motorcycle so they can zip around the PCH because they feel kind of guilty doing it. But as long as you're doing two whys right, one that's noble and one that's focused on you. That's how you activate all of your why power. Okay? If you only set a Y and get clear on a reason that sounds good to other people, but you're not getting in touch with the things that like really fire you up, you're not going to cut through the clutter of 60,000 thoughts storming through your head every day, okay? So get in touch with the things that you truly care about. Even if some of them could be perceived as a little bit selfish, okay? That's okay. It's your life, it's your goal. You want to do other things that impact people positively, right? You want that why too. But do something for you and do something that lights your soul on fire. So get out the worksheet, and I want you to write down your why. You could have one. You could have many of them. Really, this doesn't matter. The more emotional you can get about these, the better, even if that's only one or if that's 10. So here's some questions to ask yourself to get in touch with yours. If it's not immediately clear. Why did you get into sales in the first place? Right? Many people got into sales seeing the income potential, and. And their mind started to storm with possibility. Here's where I want to live, right? There were, like, motivating things, and maybe you've lost touch with that as you've progressed in your sales career. So why'd you get into sales in the first place? Number two, what would achieving your income goal mean for you? What would you be able to do? How would it impact your lifestyle? Number three, what would achieving your income goal mean for others? Right? Your friends, your family, your kids, your wife, your husband, your extended family. What would it mean for them if you were to achieve the income goal you set in one of the last lessons? Next question. How exactly would the quality of your life be different? Would you be living somewhere else? Would you be vacationing more often? If so, where exactly what would your life look like? Next question. What would you do with the money? How would you spend it? Would you invest it? Would you splurge a little bit? Would you buy some toys? Would you move? What would you do with the money? And finally, and I know this is kind of cheesy, but how would all of this make you feel? Try to get in touch with the chemicals we know as motivation that are squirting through your bloodstream right now as you do this exercise. That is how you cut through the clutter of the 60,000 thoughts that you're having every day. So before you move on, go complete this lesson, right? Get the worksheet out, write down your why. If you need to rewatch this for some examples, or if you just want to look at the previous slide for questions, do that. Complete this exercise and I'll see you in the next lesson.
