As I travel around the US giving keynote addresses, my most common topic is to take the audience on “A Guided Tour of Finding Your Why.”  If you follow my articles on this blog, you know that I refer back to finding your why as being one of the most crucial components of your success.

So you might be thinking, “Why the why?”

That is a very legitimate question.

In Psychology Today, Michael Levine made the following statement:

“Each time we make a choice, it is my belief that our left-brain arm-wrestles with our right. The left (and more pragmatic side) tells us to act logically while our right puts up a dramatic fight for following the heart’s content.”

Basically, we are both logical and emotional creatures.  Additionally, decisions tend to be made with more weight given to the emotional side of our brain.

That brings us to why the why is so very important.

You all understand the logical side of the following statement: Sales is a numbers game.

You logically understand that if you contact enough people and say the right things – a certain number of people will buy your product or service.  To take it even further, if I told you that you must contact 100 people in order to set 10 appointments…  and from those 10 appointments you will make 4 sales…  and from those 4 sales you will earn $10,000 – you could logically understand that if you want to make $100,000 you just need to contact 1,000 people and complete the same process.

You could logically understand that right up until the point you put your plan into motion.

But when you start working that plan – you see the other side.

• 900 people you talked to would not even give you an appointment – OUCH!
• 60 people that you made presentations to refused your offer – OUCH!
• Even though 40 would say yes – you will be extremely tempted to give up before you get there

Why are you tempted to quit?  Because a “no” registers on your “right-brain.”[lightbox link=”http://jeffcwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/left-brain-right-brain.jpg” thumb=”http://jeffcwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/left-brain-right-brain.jpg” width=”300″ align=”right” title=”left brain right brain” frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=””]

The logic of the numbers game is understood by your left-brain.  But the “no” you hear is more understood by your emotional right-brain.

And we tend to make decisions more on emotion (right-brain) than on logic (left-brain).

When you find your why – that emotional touchstone that you are willing to fight for – it will counter-balance the emotion you feel when you get your “no”s.

It is that simple.

Find your why.

QUESTION:

What keeps you in the game on a tough day?