"You Can't always get what you want"

I wanna dive right in. So we were sitting the other day with some folks, and, y’all have heard this song, “You can’t always get what you want.” True.

Well, you definitely can’t get what you want if you never define what it is that you want. This came up because I asked a couple in real estate, and I said, Hey, what it, what is it? What it is? What is it that you want?

And it was like deer in headlights. Like I’d asked them some quantum theory question and they paused and said, I don’t know. And I said, well, definitely can’t get what you want if you don’t define what you want. I said, why is that a, you know, difficult question for you?

“So we’re just so busy” Ask anybody how they’re doing lately, man, I am, I’m good. I’m just, just busy. I don’t know if being busy is a good or bad thing, but they were so busy they haven’t slowed down enough to ask that question. What do I want?

So that’s the question today is if you’re driving, if you’re sitting, I’d encourage you if you’re, if you’re in your office to grab a pen, if you’re driving, maybe a voice memo after this is over, what do you want?

You’re allowed to ask and answer that question! And then write down what it is that you want. And dream a little bit. We’re not allowed to dream anymore.

It feels like we’re so task-oriented that we don’t dream. We get to the end of our lives and we say, Hey, how did I end up here? Well, you never defined where it is that you actually wanted to be.

It’s one reason we build out a vision story, both for family and work. Cuz those things intersect. You can’t compartmentalize those. What is it that you want? Write it down.

It’s a brain dump as they say. Then ask the question, what’s getting in the way of what it is that I said I wanted? Identify those barriers. Just write ’em down, all of them. Then as you kind of marinate on that, digest that, let that metabolize a little bit as they say, what will life look like? Feel, what will life feel like two, three years from now if nothing changes, if we keep moving in the same manner, on the same trajectory that we’re moving in now and, and changing nothing, what will life look and feel like? And then what are you willing to invest time-wise to get what you wrote down or verbalize that you wanted?

That’s why we create that vision story. We write it down, we get really granular, right, with what it is that we want holistically, life, work, finances, health, and then we make a plan to move forward in the direction of what we want and decisions are made in light of the vision story that we create. So I hope you pose that question to yourself today.

Maybe with your significant other or just to a buddy. Hey, what, what do you want? See what the responses are, but then take some time to really unpack what it is that you want.

Maybe you’ve done this, most folks I have talked to have it. So we’ve gotta set the target. We’ve gotta create this vision of what we really want and we’ve gotta identify the barriers that are in the way.

And it really gives you motivation when you ask yourself, Hey, what will life feel like if I do nothing different? No, I’ve said those several times. So unpacking the day, that’s one of the things we do here at Business On Purpose.

We do not start anything in our coaching roadmap, our installation roadmap until we define what it is that folks won’t. Y’all have a great day. Thanks!

Brent Whitaker is a business coach in the Lowcountry of South Carolina specializing in liberating business owners from chaos. He is a weekly contributor to The Business on Purpose content and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com”