What is the most important question you need to answer about your business, life, success, etc.? More importantly: Are you sure you’re asking it?
Case in point–I recently asked this at a meeting with a prospective client.
“Oh, I can answer that,” he said. “It was a question posed by a coach in a workshop: ‘What is the one non-negotiable activity you must do everyday without fail?”
That’s a pretty great question, actually. “What was your answer?” I asked.
“To make 35 dials a day!”
Excellent! “Do you?” I asked.
“Mmmm…no.”
“But if its non-negotiable…”
“I know,” he interrupted before I could finish, “it’s hard.”
“I get that,” I said, “that phone can get pretty heavy…”
“Oh no, that’s not it,” he assured me. “I love making the calls. I know that makes me odd, but I do. No, the problem is that it takes me so long to prepare for the calls and to do my research. If I don’t plan well the day before, I fall behind pretty fast.”
“Ah ha,” I replied, “so the ‘non-negotiable activity’ isn’t making those 35 dials, it’s the prep work the day before. If you never miss the prep work, you’ll never miss the mark on dials. Right?”
“Right,” he said.
The non-negotiable activity isn’t making the calls, it’s preparing for the calls, but because the calls are the “money-activity” it felt like that’s where the commitment should be. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the activity needing the commitment.
Are you working on the real problem you need to solve? Or are you working on the smoke screen? Because the latter isn’t going to move you forward.
After more than 30 years, Steven Fulmer has honed his skills in public speaking, presenting, selling, teaching and coaching. He is a graduate of The Coaches Training Institute, and the 2012 President of the ICF Chapter Northwest Coaches Association. He has also completed the candidate Fast Track with the National Speaker’s Association. Contact him today to schedule a free life-coaching consultation, or schedule him to lead a workshop at your next event.
