Achieving Goals | The ‘Will’ vs. The ‘Want’

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be” 

~William Shakespeare

When working on achieving goals, you’ve said these words dozens of times.  ‘I want to Lose Weight’, ‘I want to Eat Better’, ‘I want a Six-Pack’, ‘I want a New Job’: I WANT TO CHANGE.  These ‘wants’ and many like them have been uttered hundreds of times by millions of different people.  But how often have your words actually shifted towards achieving these goals? What if for a second you thought about the intention behind the word ‘want’, what it truly means.  The nature of the word is that it is infinite.  Wanting knows no bounds.  You can literally want something forever and never receive it or accomplish it.  It becomes easy to continue to defer achieving goals to the future, thinking to yourself, “It will happen tomorrow,” but never taking action. The problem with merely ‘wanting’ is that it allows you to live outside the moment and takes the pressure off of yourself to follow-through.  It gives you an excuse that there will always be a second chance or another opportunity to achieve your goals.  This is what makes the words ‘I will’ so powerful and yet daunting at the same time.  Willing yourself to do something is proactive and it means you truly have the intention to accomplish the goals you’ve set for yourself.  It also means if things don’t go according to plan, perhaps you’re some kind of failure.

I’ve struggle with this idea for years.  I’ve wanted so many things and have dreamed of endless possibilities. But I have also learned to not only place these ‘wants’ in that endless dream state, but to solidify them into realities. If I really think about the moments that I’m at my very best, its when I make the decision to do something.  I accomplish the most when I put my best foot forward and make the decision to get started today instead of tomorrow.   It is only when I start putting a plan in place and things begin to happen fluidly.

So, the next time you tell yourself you want to workout today, pack your bag and say you will.  The next time you say you want to eat better – choose the apple instead of a cookie for your snack.  Those kinds of commitments are proactive and they just might lead you to the changes you’re looking for.   Seize the power of being willing to achieve instead of ‘wanting to’, and watch as you physically and mentally reap the rewards and begin actively achieving goals.