How to Coach Yourself and Others Popular Models for Coaching | Page 82

The why is your motive for getting this book published. Maybe
it's for the money, maybe it's more a question of personal
fulfilment.
The how is the method by which you'll achieve the goal. So
you'll need to have a plan for writing the book and a plan for
finding a publisher.
Here's the key point: the why is the most important. Goal
motivation theory says that we only achieve goals to satisfy our
motives. We achieve the what as a means to an end - and that
end is taking care of our why. Gary Ryan Blair suggests that for
every goal we set we need at least three 'why's'. If we don't have
a strong enough list of why's we simply won't have strong
enough motivation to acheive the goal.
So what sort of why might we have in terms of goal motivation
theory? Essentially there are two categories of why: pain and
pleasure. In Awaken The Giant Within. Anthony Robbins says
that "Everything you and I do, we do either out of our need to
avoid pain or our desire to gain pleasure".
So my suggestion is that you identify the pain and pleasure
associated with any goal you set. In fact, when you write your
goal down, I suggest you also write down your pain and
pleasure motives. Naturally the motives you identify must be
important to you. You can't get motivated for someone else's
reasons.
Let's continue the example of writing and publishing a book.
Maybe the writer doesn't like life as an employee and thinks
that getting a book published would allow them to leave their
job - thus moving away from the pain. Perhaps also they would
like to move towards the pleasure (as they see it) of seeing their
book in the local bookshop.
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