Have you ever thought at times “If I only know how to ______, I could _________.” (you fill in the blanks accordingly).  After all “know how” is the key to success right? Or is it.

The fact is it were simply a matter of “knowing how” to do something there would be no overweight people and everyone would be independently wealthy.  Then again, maybe it’s just a case of knowing the “correct” how.  After all, new diet/weight-loss books come out every year along with a slew of get rich quick ones.  And hope springs eternal as we think “maybe THIS time it will work!”.  Then again, perhaps it takes something more than just knowing how.

Implicit in every “how to” is the proviso that the recipient of this knowledge is going to change their behavior in some way in order to realize the intended benefits.  And for most human beings, change is hard.  So hard in fact that we would rather spend our time (and money) chasing after more “how to” than changing our behavior to take advantage of what we already know.

People have written whole books on why change is hard (books you don’t really need to go out and read :0)  Fortunately there is one thing that will make the journey of change tolerable and help us implement our current knowledge of “how to”.  And this one thing is available to each and every one of us…

When you create a big enough WHY you will always find the HOW.

Vickie Smith

The how of things becomes simply a detail if you have a strong enough why, especially if it is tied to your sense of purpose.  The why is the journey, the how is the vehicle you take to get there.  You can walk, ride a bike, drive a car or even fly, it really doesn’t matter.

In our society the how is often put on a pedestal and the why rarely, if ever, mentioned.  It’s probably because when you focus on just the “how” you don’t have to acknowledge or take responsibility for the why.  If we all did more of that, there would be far less frustration, conflict and for that matter, obesity :0)

So next time you are tempted to learn yet another “how to” first ask yourself “why” you want to learn it.  If it’s to earn more money, ask why that is.  Keep asking until you hit the bedrock of the real reason.  If you make a practice of owning up to the real “why” of what you want to do or accomplish, I guarantee the “how” will not be a problem.  “How to’s” are a dime a dozen, genuine “Why’s” are the true gems.