LIVING FOR A BIG REASON

To set a great 2020 visionary goal, set a goal in such a way that you can live for a highly significant reason, a reason that answers the why question. “Why are you doing that? Why is that important to you?” “What is your biggest why?”

For those of you who know the Well-Formed Outcome questions, this is question three. It is a question that works with a person’s goals, we use it to elicit the person’s unique set of values. What’s the rationale for this? To facilitate synthesizing the person’s goals with his values. Obviously to go after something that you don’t value, don’t believe is important, and don’t ultimately care about is to set up a self-defeating goal. That is what sabotages the goal-setting of many people.

If you ask question three in a meta-stating way, you will elicit or create your own unique hierarchy of values. At first the values will be low level and probably the values of survival, safety, social belonging, self-importance that correspond to Maslow’s list. If you “hold” a given value (X) in place, and again ask, “Why is X important to you?”, and give yourself time for reflection and discovery, you will make explicit your set of values. [This is also something that you will learn to do in the APG training.]

Now the power of living your values and letting your values set your goals is that it gives you a reason for living, a reason for taking action, and a reason for thriving. This is a process that can save you from frustration, mediocrity, depression, feeling like a victim, and many other unpleasant emotional consequences.

That’s what happened to a Mr. Fuller at age 32 when he was living in low-income public housing in Chicago. His daughter had recently died from polio and spinal meningitis. Consequently, he became chronically depressed, began drinking heavily, and then seriously considered committing suicide. One night, while standing on a bridge and trying to decide whether to jump to his death, he asked himself some questions about the meaning of life. “What would make life worth living?” At first he had no answers. But he continued to reflect.

Suddenly in a flash of spiritual insight, the answer came to him. He would begin an experiment, to determine how much a single individual could contribute to changing the world and benefitting all humankind. The answer, it turned out, was “quite a lot.” Over the next 55 years, he patented over 2000 inventions, wrote 25 books, and went down in history as one of the greatest thinkers, inventors, and servant leaders who ever lived. If you haven’t yet guessed, I’m describing Buckminister Fuller. The experiment that he gave himself to was that of seeing what would happen if he did as much good as possible to benefit the world. That’s also an experiment that you can attempt. Implied in that idea are multiple values.

Contribution — “Doing good.”

Abundance — “As much as I can.”

Making a difference – “To benefit the world.”

Unselfishness — “To benefit the world.”

Discovery — What would happen if?

Experimentation – Give it a go.

Values drive behavior and because of that, values also create motivation. It gives you a motive for acting, a reason for living. Consequently if you have a so-called motivation problem, elicit your values and give yourself the opportunity to live them. Do you have a big enough why for your goals? If not, you now know how to create that big why, repeatedly ask question 3— Why is that important to you? If you have any difficulty, contact your closest Neuro-Semanticist.