What is it you desire?

What’s the thing you want more than anything else?

Want to know the secret to getting it? Limit yourself.

That’s right, the key to more is indeed less.

This ancient proverb sums it up best: “The person who chases two rabbits catches neither.”

So ask yourself again: What is it that you want?

I have found answering that question fully takes time. For example, I spend about three months every year working on my annual goals. Three months is a quarter of the year—that may seem excessive to some.

My process, which has evolved over the years, begins with making a list at the beginning of November. I buy a new notebook and pen and begin to put my dreams on paper. I write about what big thing I could accomplish in the coming new year.

I keep the ideas flowing for weeks, through the holidays and through the new year. I don’t set a firm deadline for the final goals. However, it usually settles in and becomes clear to me around January 9^th or 10^th.

This process works for corporate teams as well. If budgeting for January 1^st, I start in July. People can become frustrated by such a long process, so you need to keep it fun and interesting. You need to connect the dots to the longer term aspirations of the team and illustrate how each year’s budget helps build the grand enterprise.

Uncovering Your Goal

Discovering your true goal is more like panning for gold than creating a new painting. It’s a process, sometimes a long process of sifting, eliminating, analyzing, and searching for that golden sparkle that catches your eye.

A book I’ve found to be very helpful is The Power of Less by Leo Babauta. In it he teaches a simple process for getting more while focusing on less.

There are two things Babauta recommends to do to get the thing you want:

1. Identify the one thing you want, the essential thing
2. Eliminate everything else

What’s interesting is that when you eliminate everything but your one goal, you will most likely accomplish it. Then you boost your skills and confidence and you can reset and go after another big goal.

While eliminating goals seems painful at the time, it’s actually the method for accomplishing multiple things over time.

Allow yourself time to discover your next goal. Be lavish in this regard. The time and process of finding something worthy of your focus are to be enjoyed, cherished even. Learn to love panning for your golden ideas. 

As the saying goes, “You can have anything in life you want; you just can’t have everything in life you want.” Therein lies the puzzle to be solved. What is your next rabbit?