How bad do you want it?

Don’t ask how bad you want it

/ Goal Setting, Mind tricks, Productivity / Leave a Comment
When attempting to overcome procrastination or lack of motivation, one might receive a question from a well-meaning friend: “How bad do you want it?” This question is supposed to jolt you into action and propel you into a productive mode immediately.

 

But…

 

This question is impossible to answer!
“How bad do I want it?”
How do you measure desire? What’s the unit measure? What is the gram, meter, ounce of desire?
Old timers here know how I feel about abstract thinking and ambiguity when it comes to goal setting and productivity. So, having this question thrown at people left and right didn’t sit well with me.

A better question

Let me present an improved version of this question.
“How SOON do you want it?”

Now you CAN answer the damn question!

Do you want the result you are trying to produce by the end of day? Week? Sprint?

When we are procrastinating, all we are doing is prolonging the timeline for when we receive the desired outcome.

The 21st century made us impatient. Why not use it to our advantage?

How to use the better question

In writing

Let’s say you want to finish the first draft of your essay/book/PhD dissertation.
Whenever you find yourself procrastinating, you can ask yourself, “How soon do I want to have the first draft completed?”

Most likely, you want to get it over with as soon as humanly possible. And the thought of spending yet another month on it terrifies you. So, you get to work.

 

In fitness

We can all agree that it takes a certain number of workouts to get into the shape you want. I bet if you do 100 workouts, you will look different. (You can aim for a higher or lower number depending on your situation. For the sake of this example, I’ll stick with 100.)
Now, instead of thinking that “one day when” I get in shape, you can start thinking “as soon as I get 100 workouts in, I’ll be fit”.

If you don’t want to go to the gym today, ask yourself ,“How soon do I want to be fit?” Not going to the gym today will delay your goal by at least a day. Do you want that?

 

In business

I’m currently using this mindset for my main business (writing these posts and running the Monthly Method School  is not my main job in case you didn’t know). I’m setting up an affiliate program for the business and need to reach out to many adjacent businesses who fit our affiliate profile.
Every day, when I don’t feel like doing the work of building this program and reaching out to businesses, I ask myself, “How soon do I want the affiliate program up and running and bringing sales?”
And the answer is always “as soon as possible”. I’m not ready to wait long to get the result I want. Call me impatient, but aren’t we all these days? And that gets me going.

Question formula

How soon do I want a [insert the final outcome]?

The final outcome is something that is a thing we are trying get. First draft, fit body, 100 new customers, published post, clean house.

Other ways to ask the same questions

How soon do I want [insert unpleasant condition/activity] to be over?

“How soon do I want to stop thinking about it?” is my personal productivity life hack. It just works. I hate thinking the same thoughts over and over again. I can barely tolerate listening to the story I’ve heard before. When I find myself thinking the same thoughts for weeks, I feel stuck in a loop and desperately want to get out.

Both of my businesses were started largely because I was tired of thinking about starting them. I wanted to start thinking about new things (building it, growing it, dealing with clients, anything else but starting).

The reason why you are reading this post (and many others that came before it) is because I asked myself the question, “How soon do I want to stop thinking about this idea?” Writing helps me finish the thought, package it up, send it out, and move onto the next thought. I didn’t want to go another day thinking about this idea. I want to stop thinking about it tonight.

 

Turning ideas into reality faster

I’m currently in Europe. What always inspires me in Europe is the beautiful architecture. The fact that somebody had an idea, was articulate enough to share it with others, organized enough to pull it off, and disciplined enough to see it through to the end. It inspires me to observe how someone’s idea can be manifested into reality so beautifully.
With a lot of my writing and teaching, my goal is to help you manifest your best ideas into reality. The question “How soon do I want it?” is one of the tools you can use on a daily basis to battle procrastination and other nonsense your brain might be throwing at you that day. When used enough times, the time between having an idea and seeing it completed decreases substantially.

If you are new to Agile philosophy, you can find the core principles on the Start Here page.

You might enjoy this:

  1. The one question that stops my procrastination
  2. How to stick to your goals: The Boogeyman Technique
  3. Step off the hamster wheel with Agile and Sturgeon’s Law
  4. The Logarithmic Framework for Building Things
  5. The Energy Cycle of Daily Life
  6. The one question that turns a lazy day around

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