On the Mountaintop

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” – Jack Welch

Our past few blogs have centered on the concept of specific and measurable intentions for your business. From creating them to using them, to keeping them alive, delivering on intentions is hard but worthwhile work. It’s always possible to have big dreams come true, but when the goal seems very far away, it’s sometimes challenging to take those first steps toward it. We can be afraid that it’s just too big for us, or that that we are not deserving, or that there’s no way we have the knowledge, skills or resources to deliver.

If you have done the work of creating your intentions and scheduling actions into your calendar to paint a picture of your path, you are well on your way to getting there. But how do you develop the confidence to get off the dime and get moving?

We ask all our clients to go through an exercise that puts the client into the picture of the finished intention. Here’s how it works:

First, write a letter to yourself or to your coach, as if you are standing in the future, having delivered on your dream. You are on the mountaintop, looking back over the climb. You did it! You made that million dollars, or opened that new location, or took that dream vacation with your family.

Standing in the place of “it’s done”, write down everything that must have happened to get you there. It’s important to note there are no wrong answers. Don’t over-think the exercise, and don’t grade yourself on composition and grammar! Just brainstorm everything that had to happen.

For instance, if your intention was to generate $1mm in revenue – what would you need to make that happen? A new salesperson? Two new computers? Twenty more hours a week in sales? A different supplier or five new product offerings?

This is a place to be creative. Even if you have no idea how you will obtain or learn how to make those things appear, write down what you think must have happened. You’ll soon see the bigger possibilities for taking your company to that next level.

Wanting to make $1mm is a very different thing from being intentional about making it happen. It takes vision, combined with a specific game plan and a very diligent existence system to have it all come true.

From your letter, develop a list of actions that will unquestionably deliver the result you’re looking for. The key is what will unquestionably deliver the result. When you review your list, ask yourself this…if I did everything on this list, what is the probability that I will achieve my intention? 60%? 75%? 95%? If the actions on your list do not yield at least a 95% probability of success, then add more tasks to the list.

Last week we talked about keeping your intentions in existence. This list is an important part of your existence system. We’ll talk more in future blogs about how to use your letter and your list. For now, we want you to imagine yourself at the finish line, having won the game. Because being able to see the possibilities of new future give you the power to make it a reality.

Are you ready to win?