Very often in books and articles about goal-setting, one of the questions the author suggests you ask yourself is “What would you have to give up to achieve your goal?” This is a great question, as it reconnects you with the ‘real world’ of hard choices, opportunity costs, and reminds you that achieving a goal takes work.
When I came across this question in a self-help book recently, it occurred to me that a similar question, but applied to a different area – your current situation, rather than your desired outcome – may be even more useful. So if there’s something you want to achieve, and you’re not there yet, what happens when you ask yourself this question:
“What are you giving up to get the results you are getting at the moment?”
Or you might want to try a variant: “What are you giving up to have your current situation?”
I’m guessing that for many of us this will result in a lessening of complacency with what we’re putting up with in the current situation, and a much-needed jolt of away-from motivation to get us taking action to change things. That was certainly my experience with it.
I am interested to know what happened when you asked yourself this question, in terms of ‘lightbulb moments’, shifts in motivation, changes in the way you view your current situation, and so on. Leave a comment below to let me know!