Tuesday 3 August 2010

Moving from wanting to doing

How often have you chatted with a friend or colleague about wanting to do something different or new. How often has that conversation led to a feeling of frustration and even hopelessness. It's human nature to want and anyone who has looked at human behaviour knows about Mazlow's hierarchy of needs and the diference between need and want. Moving forward in life is often fraught with difficulties to overcome and blockages to shift before wants or needs can be satisfied. But how do we move from wanting something to doing it - really putting into action those things that you really want to achieve. The first step is being crystal clear about what you actually want. Knowing and understanding what you want will make it easier to get there. I often describe this as 'getting on the bus' - you wouldn't nornally jump on the first bus that comes along. Normally you would know your destination, find which bus will take you there and get on the RIGHT bus!
Your journey through life is similiar, know where you want to go and you can determine the right bus to catch.
The next step is being aware - of people, opportunities and ideas that can move you forward to achieve you goals. Tell people about your plans, share your ideas and listen to see what new opportunites present themselves to help you move forward. Remember if this step is not working for you it is s SIGNAL to you to do something else. Sometimes a small chang ein behaviour or activity is the key to makeing things happen around you.
The next and crucial step is to be flexible - you need to keep in mind that you might have to change direction several times before you get what you want. Think about that bus journey I mentioned earlier. Imagine you want to travel from Aberdeen to London. It might take three or four changes in your journey before you get to your final destination but if you are flexible and can achieve what you wanted. In fact this zig zag journey may be more enriching than taking the straight route from A to B. In real life the things we value most are those we have striven to attain, achieved in the face of adversity and gained through our own efforts.