In business, we’re always told to go forward. In this case, we take the opposite route by working backwards. By this, we mean to take a look at your goals and trace the footprints it took to reach where it is. The point of this is not about the goal. It’s how you reach that goal. Learn how to frame things and re-align the necessary steps to truly move forward. You can do that by retracing and working backwards.
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Listen to the podcast here:
The Magic Of Thinking Pt. 3
This episode is loosely sponsored by Digital Footprint. You can find the information about our annual event at DigitalFootprint.net. We sell out every year. The reason we sell out is the value proposition we put forth from that stage. I’ve never seen the likes of it. I’m not saying that because I’m one of the speakers or I’m one of the main two people between my wife and I putting on the event. I’m saying that from the dozens and dozens of exit interviews after we get done where I get reminded that we do add value to the people coming. Putting on Digital Footprint has become one of the main loves of my life. It is truly life changing.
The goal is not the point; it’s the steps you take to reach that goal. Click To Tweet
If you have not gone to DigitalFootprint.net and watched the little three-minute video at the bottom of the homepage, you owe it to yourself, your household, your business, your checkbook. Put it this way. Do you have a talking checkbook? I think you do. Most people, when they say, “Let’s go to Disney next week,” they look at the checkbook and it either says yes or no. If you have a talking checkbook and you want to buy a vehicle, you want to buy a home, you want to take a vacation and you’re not getting the answer you’re looking for immediately when you lift the checkbook, you need to watch the video on the bottom of the homepage of DigitalFootprint.net. I’m going to let the video speak for itself. I am so proud of our team for making that little video. To me, it’s incredibly impressive as to what we stand for at Digital Footprint.
This is The Magic of Thinking Big Part Three. This is called Work It Backwards. Part one is you’ve got to think small. You’ve got to block out a 30-minute time to think. Step two is to determine exactly what you want. I covered in great detail five to six aspects of going about that, none of which you can leave out any little piece of it because they all build on each other. Step three is let’s say you figure out what you want and it’s a big hairy butt goal. It’s your BHAG.
Jeff Hoffman, if you don’t know, is the Co-Founder of the $64 billion company, Priceline.com. When Jeff speaks at our Digital Footprint events, he teaches a principle called Work It Backwards and he says, “You can take any major goal where the individual thinking about the goal has a knee-jerk reaction, “That’s so big, I’ll never get that. That’s way bigger than I’ll ever achieve anything.” He can prove that you can work any major goal backwards and then physically see the footprints to get it. One example I like to give based on Jeff’s principle is let’s say that you’ve been in your industry a year and a half. You’re definitely not authoritative. You haven’t been published in your journal, but you have a goal within a two-year period of time to speak to audiences of 10,000 people and be paid to speak on your subject. What would have to happen backwards for that to happen?
First, you’d have to find an event that has 10,000 people in your industry. Then you’d have to find the stage coordinator of that event. Then you’d have to find a way to contact them. You’d have to know somebody that knows somebody or just penetrate into them through the gatekeeper. Then you’d have to have some book or some talk that is very detailed and authoritative to speak on to give that person an example of to see if you’re worthy to speak on that stage. Before that, you’d have to have some type of life experience or proof or evidence to support that book. What would have to happen before that? You’d have to be in the motion forward to experience that life experience.
The point is I don’t care what goal you give me, “I want to go to the moon.” What would be the step right before you go to the moon? You’d have to be trained by an astronaut with some NASA type of training. What would have to happen before that? “I’d have to have this type of training.” Fine, it does not matter what you put in front of me as a BHAG, big hairy ass goal. There’s nothing you can put in front of me that I cannot use Jeff Hoffman’s technique of working it backwards step-by-step of what would have to happen right before that to get you to where you are.
Step one of the magic of thinking big is to think small and block out the time. I covered that in a short episode of 246. Step two is you’ve got to determine what you want, but it’s based on a few criteria that’s covered in episode 247. You got to work it backwards. Psychologically, our brain can only process so much forward movement before it implodes or shuts down. The determination of where it implodes or shuts down is based both on heredity and environment.
I have so many podcasts on this about the 15% branch of the family tree where it’s uncanny. You can go back hundreds of years, that you will earn in your lifetime plus or minus 15% of whoever you view as the next branch on your tree. They then earn plus or minus 15% of whoever their bigger branch and then whoever was the trunk. It’s never been disputed, it’s not a theory. It’s a law. It’s about the process of garbage in, garbage out, positive in and positive out in our brain.
You have to work backwards because psychologically, our brain can only process so much forward movement before it implodes. Click To Tweet
That’s why books like Awaken The Giant Within, Unlimited Power, Think and Grow Rich, those books are written for the express purpose to be the mentor, to be the father, the mother, the cousin, the uncle. To be that person speaking positively into you and opening up those pathways, those stoppages so that you can think a little bit bigger. What I want you to do is put your seatbelt on because the next episode 249 finishes the race with step four of exactly what to do to ensure that the magic of thinking big is not just a wasted exercise. Work your big hairy butt, go backwards, and achieve it.
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