Andy Black
Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
LEGACY MEMBER
MEMBER
Clarity of Purpose
When I hurt my back as a youth my parents took me to an Alexander technique practitioner.
I don't even know what the Alexander technique is (or care really), but I walked away with a lesson I've remembered ever since.
(One day (!) I'll record this as a video and post it in here because it was so powerful to see. In the meantime I'll try and describe it so you can hopefully see it in your mind's eye as well.)
She told me I needed to be more aware of my posture and stand straighter - not just when I was running around a track, but for every minute of every day.
She then took a chain necklace from her pocket and threw it on the floor.
"That's your back. And it's not straight when you stoop and your shoulders are slumped."
"You could straighten it by sucking your stomach in, pushing your shoulders back, and keeping your chin up." (She proceeded to push bits of the chain that were sticking out back towards the central line, trying to make it straighter.)
"Except that doesn't work very well (it didn't look very straight that's for sure), and it's a lot to remember for every minute of every day."
"OR ... we could just take one end of the chain, and gently pull it."
The chain miraculously lengthened until it was straight as a die. I almost felt the relief in my own vertebrae and muscles watching it get longer and straighter!
"Don't try to walk around sucking your stomach in, pushing your shoulders back, arching your back, and keeping your chin up. Instead, just imagine a chain attached to the top of your head. The other end is attached to a massive crane that follows you around, and it's gently pulling you up so that you're tall, and straight."
Wow. That works. When I'm running I'm suddenly running tall.
Combine that with a wee trigger to remember the crane whenever I go through a doorway, and my posture is great.
I just had to focus on ONE goal, and everything else fell into place naturally.
So apart from helping your posture and preventing you from getting a bad back (both great intentions), why would I add this to an entrepreneurial forum?
I think it's relevant.
Years ago a mentor told me that the single biggest reason for business failure was "lack of clarity (of purpose)".
I never quite understood what that meant.
We see people in this forum and elsewhere talk about "blogging", "selling eBooks", or "importing from China" (insert latest flavour of the month).
They may or may not succeed.
It often depends on what they're ultimately trying to do.
Is the entrepreneur trying to help parents deal with their autistic child? Is a blog and eBook just a particular vehicle to reach those parents with the helpful advice they need?
Is the entrepreneur trying to help people in the US get a better product that they're looking for, that can currently only be found in China?
If your purpose, your "why", is to help people achieve a result they want for themselves, then focusing on that ONE goal means everything else falls into place naturally.
It's like thinking of the crane pulling the wire attached to the top of your head. Focus on that and the actions your body takes so you walk taller will just happen naturally.
We all know we should "Take Action!"... that knowledge is worthless unless you act upon it.
But we should also know that "the market does not pay for activity" ... unless that activity adds value.
Get your "why" right, and all the right actions to take will become obvious.
Get clarity of purpose, and that insane list of possible actions you can take becomes a lot simpler.
Ask yourself "Does this help my customer?"
Don't just take my word for it though. Listen to MJ in this video:
When I hurt my back as a youth my parents took me to an Alexander technique practitioner.
I don't even know what the Alexander technique is (or care really), but I walked away with a lesson I've remembered ever since.
(One day (!) I'll record this as a video and post it in here because it was so powerful to see. In the meantime I'll try and describe it so you can hopefully see it in your mind's eye as well.)
She told me I needed to be more aware of my posture and stand straighter - not just when I was running around a track, but for every minute of every day.
She then took a chain necklace from her pocket and threw it on the floor.
"That's your back. And it's not straight when you stoop and your shoulders are slumped."
"You could straighten it by sucking your stomach in, pushing your shoulders back, and keeping your chin up." (She proceeded to push bits of the chain that were sticking out back towards the central line, trying to make it straighter.)
"Except that doesn't work very well (it didn't look very straight that's for sure), and it's a lot to remember for every minute of every day."
"OR ... we could just take one end of the chain, and gently pull it."
The chain miraculously lengthened until it was straight as a die. I almost felt the relief in my own vertebrae and muscles watching it get longer and straighter!
"Don't try to walk around sucking your stomach in, pushing your shoulders back, arching your back, and keeping your chin up. Instead, just imagine a chain attached to the top of your head. The other end is attached to a massive crane that follows you around, and it's gently pulling you up so that you're tall, and straight."
Wow. That works. When I'm running I'm suddenly running tall.
Combine that with a wee trigger to remember the crane whenever I go through a doorway, and my posture is great.
I just had to focus on ONE goal, and everything else fell into place naturally.
So apart from helping your posture and preventing you from getting a bad back (both great intentions), why would I add this to an entrepreneurial forum?
I think it's relevant.
Years ago a mentor told me that the single biggest reason for business failure was "lack of clarity (of purpose)".
I never quite understood what that meant.
We see people in this forum and elsewhere talk about "blogging", "selling eBooks", or "importing from China" (insert latest flavour of the month).
They may or may not succeed.
It often depends on what they're ultimately trying to do.
Is the entrepreneur trying to help parents deal with their autistic child? Is a blog and eBook just a particular vehicle to reach those parents with the helpful advice they need?
Is the entrepreneur trying to help people in the US get a better product that they're looking for, that can currently only be found in China?
If your purpose, your "why", is to help people achieve a result they want for themselves, then focusing on that ONE goal means everything else falls into place naturally.
It's like thinking of the crane pulling the wire attached to the top of your head. Focus on that and the actions your body takes so you walk taller will just happen naturally.
We all know we should "Take Action!"... that knowledge is worthless unless you act upon it.
But we should also know that "the market does not pay for activity" ... unless that activity adds value.
Get your "why" right, and all the right actions to take will become obvious.
Get clarity of purpose, and that insane list of possible actions you can take becomes a lot simpler.
Ask yourself "Does this help my customer?"
Don't just take my word for it though. Listen to MJ in this video:
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?
