Can Success come from just 1 question?

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

 

I listened to a great CD over the weekend. I spent a few hours driving in my car, and taking heed of Brian Tracy’s words, decided to enrol in a short course at my university on wheels. In amongst the various pearls of wisdom came one particular phrase that really stood out for me. The secret of success was simply a case of asking one question on a regular basis:

 

“How would the person I want to become do what I am about to do?”

 

This question got me thinking, and it also reminded me of the quote at the top of this post. It is so important that we hold in our mind the vision of how we want to live our life and act as closely to that image as possible. I used the time I had available to assess how I had been performing of late, and how I wanted this to be different for the weekend. My challenge was that I was going to be spending time with friends, and we all know that when in familiar situations we tend to revert to our typical behaviour.

 

I knew there were certain areas I needed to focus upon and so imagined myself in such situations over the weekend; how would I act, what would I say and how might people act differently? This is an NLP technique known as mental rehearsal, and forms part of a tool called the New Behaviour Generator. I already use this technique a lot, particularly for sport, and decided it could be really well applied to this particular situation.

 

Did it work? Well I was definitely conscious of having to behave differently, particularly early on during the evening, but I found this quickly changed to feel far more natural. I felt comfortable with my new behaviour, and could feel myself taking yet another step towards my ideal self. It was interesting to see how my interactions with my friends changed as well, with conversations reaching a different level to those of the past and many relationships developing even further.

 

Your challenge this week is to ask yourself that particular question as often as possible, and to discover the impact it has on how you act and the results you create. Think about how you can apply this question in multiple areas of your life, for example your career, relationships, health and personal development. Get clear on your ideal you, and then take the appropriate actions that will make you that purpose. Then, as Aristotle reminds us, do it again and again until it becomes a habit!