Publisher Insights: The Transformative Power of Why

To live a full, rich, and diverse life requires not only the practice of setting big goals but the tenacity to stay committed to them. It’s more important to know your “why” than the “how.” If there isn’t a powerful and compelling why, then you’re not likely to persevere through the how.

In last month’s publisher insights article, I promised updates about a 12-month program that I had joined from New York Times best-selling author Darren Hardy, designed to mold modern leaders. Here is this month’s update on my progress: It’s amazing what can happen when you reflect, remove barriers, and open yourself up to opportunity. 

The program starts with getting you connected to your “why” so that you can create a roadmap to living your best year ever. Darren Hardy says, “Learning to set and stick to goals is the master skill of success.” He goes on to further explain that proper goal setting puts you in a speedboat and gives you a target to steer toward. 

To live your best life requires a vision. It needs to be a vision bigger than yourself and something that you will fight for tooth and nail. It should be something that you are willing to live for.  Something that you’re willing to live for? Wow! That statement made an impact. It got me to think about my work, my life, my health, my family, and my community all at the same time.

With this kind of inner power and movement toward your goals and passions, you can move mountains and walk through fire to arrive at the envisioned destination. Can you feel it? There’s an unstoppable energy with this kind of thinking and clarity. 

Let me explain the next steps to the process.

Stating your goals is just a starting point. Now you must draw out the map of how you’re going to get there. It looks something like this: 

• Plan
• Do
• Review
• Improve

Retrospection

However, before you look forward, it’s wise to look backwards. What were the 10 best things that happened to you or your family last year? Identify your successes, what worked, what didn’t work, and where did you come up short? 

Darren says, “It’s vital to learn the lessons of life quickly or you will be apt to repeat them.” 

This is an eye-opening exercise that has no right or wrong answers — just the truth.

Here are a few of the activities that I did to review 2023: 

1. A scroll of my camera roll revealed a lot about how I spent my time and what was most important in my life.
2. Reviewing my checkbook, credit card statements and Amazon account documented where I spent my money.
3. The cards, notes, and emails that I had saved told me where and how I made an impact.  
4. My Headspace and Audible apps shed light on what I was listening to and the skills I was attempting to improve. 
5. And finally, my bookshelf is filled with books on health and wellness, relationships, leadership, mental health and business strategies or best practices.  
6. Diving deeper, I evaluated accomplishments, lessons learned, improvements made, who influences me, smartest decisions, service work accomplished, biggest risks taken, and identified the things I should do either more or less of.  

This is work but so revealing.  

I love this quote, “If you don’t make the time to work on the life you want, you’re eventually going to be forced to spend a lot of time dealing with a life you don’t want.”  (Author unknown)

Gratitude

This leads me to gratitude. Part of goal setting is realizing what you already have and being grateful for it. Oprah Winfrey said, “Be thankful for all you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”

Gratitude is the attitude that changes everything. It can build and deepen our relationships. It can make us wealthy. It can even save and prolong a person’s life. Having an abundance state of mind is critical to accomplishing one’s goals. Here are a few things to consider: friends, family, colleagues, your home and work environments, your talents, gifts, and abilities, your knowledge and experience, your connections, the community, and the luck you’ve experienced in your life. 

Vision

Make your business plan fit your life plan, not the other way around. This is where the vision boarding process comes into play. You must figure out what kind of life you want to live and include all the details; where you’d travel, where you’d live, the friends you’d have around you, the things you’d know, the kind of food you’d eat, the shape you’d be in — all the details. 

The hardest part about this exercise is thinking BIG and FAR beyond where you are now in your life. And then you’ve got to believe it and feel it and be honest with yourself about your efforts over the last year.

Next, we conquer limiting beliefs and give voice and muscle to the dreams we have. In this step, you begin to write everything down, who you want to become, what you want to accomplish, have, or do. Nothing is impossible. Don’t filter or qualify anything that you write. Write everything that comes to your mind and check in with your gut and listen to your heart.

The objective behind these exercises is whole-life success. That means success in every area of your life that matters to you. Relationships, family, physical health, mental health, business, finances, spirituality, and lifestyle. From here, we look at things we’d like to accomplish in each area over the next year and then create a top-10 goals list, and from there, it gets paired down to the top three goals. 

The Magic

There’s more — it’s called the magic factor. The magic factor is about becoming the person you should be in order to attract the people or results you want to achieve. With your top three goals in mind, ask yourself the following questions for each goal.
Who do I need to become?

• What new habits, disciplines or behaviors do I need to start?
• What existing healthy habits, disciplines or behaviors do I need to expand on?
• What poor habits or behaviors do I need to stop?

Once you’ve got your answers, you implement a routine and start to act.  

You’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed and maybe even a bit confused by all this. I was, too, but then momentum took over and things started happening for me. I took my time. Processed the information, and little by little made my way through. It’s hard work but so worth it. I’m here to help and lead the way. If you have questions, feel free to reach out.

Connect

Tracy@everythingbrevard.com
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Meet Our Publisher/CEO

Tracy Stroderd embodies the ultimate success story as an entrepreneur who brings consumers and businesses together. She is a speaker, business strategist and consultant who uses her unique combination of real-world entrepreneurial experience and formal business education to champion small-business success. Her love for working with entrepreneurs and making an impact in her community stems from growing up in a small town where she was born into the world of entrepreneurship.

Tracy earned a master of arts in administration from Barry University, where she has taught services marketing. She is a trained facilitator and mentor for the IGNITE 360 Mentoring Program at weVENTURE Women’s Business Center powered by Florida Institute of Technology. She has taught in the entrepreneurship program at Eastern Florida State College. Tracy has served on the executive committee/board of directors at the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce. She has served on this board since 2017 and was the chairwoman from 2018-2020.

In 2022, Tracy launched a Toastmasters International Club at the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce and was recognized with a Club President Award in recognition of dedicated service and outstanding leadership.

From the Archives:

Jan. 1 2024: Take Charge and Be Ready for Transformational 2024