Tip 45: What Would You Like to Have Happen?

Outstanding people have one thing in common:
an absolute sense of mission.
Zig Ziglar

When I was starting out as a coach, I remember a session I had with my own coach in which I was complaining at great length about someone who had upset me. I was brimming with indignation about this and my coach was helping me to look at options for dealing with the situation.

I was all set to pick up the phone and speak to the person and, because I was upset and hadn’t thought things through properly, would almost certainly have ended up making things worse. But my coach asked me a very wise question: What’s your purpose for making this call? What, specifically, do you want to achieve?

Considering things from that perspective helped me to think things through more objectively and make a considered decision as to how to proceed (I chose not to make the call).

I learned a lot from that coaching session. Rather than blundering mindlessly into things — whether it’s a potentially tricky personal conversation or an important business meeting — it always pays to think it through beforehand and be mindful of what you want to achieve from it. What’s your purpose? What’s your intention? What’s your ideal outcome?

Perhaps the best question of all for focusing the mind is the one which is asked at the start of all Clean Language sessions. It really pins you to the wall and makes you focus on your desired outcome …

What Would You Like To Have Happen?

The world has the habit of making room for the man
whose words and actions show that he
knows where he is going.
Napoleon Hill

There are two things to aim at in life:
first, to get what you want;
and after that, to enjoy it.
Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.
Logan Pearsall Smith