The most important question in business

I read this great article from Karl Bryan the other day.

He was talking about the most common question business owners ask him and saying that it was:

“What should I do?”

Whereas Karl said the correct question to ask should be “what do I want?”

You see in business; I too am often asked the ‘what should I do’ question.

The reality is there is always lots of things you could do in your business but in most cases, there is only a few things that you should be doing right now.

How you work out the difference between the ‘could’ and the ‘should’ is just a matter of answering the “what do I want” question and then resigning yourself to the price required to achieve it.

Once you do that then the road to success opens and what you need to do next becomes clear and obvious.

If you look at sports stars like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, they did not start by asking the question “what should I do?”

They started with being clear that what they wanted was to be the greatest basketball player of all time. Then they set about achieving it.

I am sure that the supporters of each of those players would have a very strong view on which one was and there are probably a few Lebron James supporters in their who might have something to say as well.

But in each case, they were clear on what they wanted. They were clear on what was required to achieve it and they did whatever it took.

The other big thing that sets these high achievers apart is that not only were they clear about what they wanted and what they needed to do to get there but they were not afraid to share with the world their objective.

We know that there is a great advantage in putting your goals on display.

Public accountability will significantly improve your chances of achieving your goal.

Giving other people permission to pat you on the back or kick you up the bum depending on what you needed is an essential part of success.

Maybe after you have answered the question “what do I want?” There are a whole bunch of questions that flow from that.

Should I follow some mindless thread on social media and check my phone every few minutes or remove the distraction from my end goal?

Should I do that gym session, even though I am tired, and I have had a long day?

Successful people I know get up at 6 AM. Should I get up at 5.30?

I think you get the idea.

So, ask yourself this, what do you want? And once you have answered that then ask yourself are you willing to pay the price to achieve it?

If you get a clear answer to both of those questions, then the next step will become obvious.

Then just take one step at a time, one foot after the other, one improvement in your business at a time.

Watch how what you ultimately want gets closer and closer.

Stand in front of the mirror and ask yourself those two questions.