Beyond Wishful Thinking: The Strategic Path to Your Business Desires

Ever felt stuck on a business plateau despite your best efforts? Overwhelmed by endless tasks with nothing to show for it? Or perhaps your once-successful strategies have mysteriously stopped working? You're not alone—and there's a deceptively simple framework that can transform these common entrepreneurial struggles.

At the heart of business success lies three fundamental principles that not only reduce stress tenfold but dramatically improve effectiveness. First, the Clarity Principle demands honest answers about what you truly want (not what others think you should want), why you want it (with genuine emotional connection), and your strategy for achieving it. This clarity becomes your north star when decisions get tough or motivation wanes.

The Circle of Control Principle then helps you distinguish between what you genuinely control and what merely concerns you. Paired with the Glance-Gaze Principle, you'll learn why focusing on uncontrollable factors magnifies them in your mind, creating unnecessary anxiety and clouding judgment. Instead, by glancing at important concerns while gazing intently at actionable items within your control, you create momentum without the frustration.

Perhaps most transformative is the Goals versus Desires Principle. Goals are fully within your control: you can schedule them, complete them independently, and measure their completion. Desires—like revenue targets or client acquisitions—depend on others' decisions and actions. By focusing on goals that incrementally move you toward desires, you shift from wishful thinking to strategic action.

Ready to implement these principles? Develop a strategic action plan with four key components: a marketing plan making you visible to ideal prospects, a sales system focused on helping clients achieve their objectives, operational systems defining day-to-day functions, and an implementation timeline with specific milestones. This structured approach transforms abstract concepts into concrete steps, providing clear direction while minimizing overwhelm.

What will you do differently after learning these principles? The answer to that question might just be the catalyst that propels your business to new heights of success while giving you more time to enjoy the journey.

Chapters

• 0:00 Three Critical Concepts for Success
• 4:00 The Clarity Principle Explained
• 9:50 Understanding Your Circle of Control
• 13:50 Goals vs. Desires Framework
• 21:40 Building Your Strategic Action Plan
• 24:40 Closing Thoughts and Implementation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The third concept is this the goals versus desires principle. This one's really the key to it all, because it provides a practical, everyday understanding of what you can actually do in your life to put it all into practice. As you see, that's really the key to the whole thing. What are you going to do? What are you going to do differently after you learn this stuff or anything? What are you going to do differently in your life because of what you've learned? Welcome to the Commission Code Podcast. We're here to help you overcome the challenges that most of us face in our business. From time to time, you know things like feeling like you're on a plateau and you just can't seem to grow your business. Or maybe feeling overwhelmed, just trying to make ends meet, and yet it seems like you're always working. Or maybe you've done quite well for a while, but now nothing seems to be working anymore. Well, we want to help you solve those problems and many more. Our objective is to provide you with practical solutions so you can grow your business and have more time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. My name is Morris Sims and I'm going to be your host for this show. I've spent years okay, decades really in the corporate world, teaching business owners how to increase their revenue and use professional sales processes and run their business more effectively and efficiently. I started my own consulting and trading business about seven years ago, I guess and I'm helping my clients do just exactly that Get more revenue, increase their revenue and have more time to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But I got to tell you I'm having more fun than ever helping people build successful businesses. So, with all that said, let's get on with today's episode of the Commission Code for your Success. Of the Commission Code for your Success, there are three concepts that I believe are absolutely critical for all of us, both personally and in business. Now, those three concepts when you adopt them and you put them in your daily routine, they can truly reduce stress and anxiety and easily do that a lot. I mean talk about like a factor of 10 or more. And, in addition to that, implementing these principles is going to help you improve your effectiveness and help you reach your desires for yourself and your business. Three key concepts you ready, here we go. Number one is the clarity principle. The clarity principle it really is just three questions that we all have to answer, and we do answer them, whether we do it consciously or unconsciously, so probably best to do it on purpose. That's number one. Number two is the circle of control principle. That's number one. Number two is the circle of control principle. Now, this is going to help you know what to concern yourself with. That is what you should focus on, and the corollary to that principle, which is the glance-gaze principle that tells you what happens when you focus on something or someone. The third concept is this the goals versus desires principle. This one's really the key to it all, because it provides a practical, everyday understanding of what you can actually do in your life to put it all into practice. As you see, that's really the key to the whole thing. What are you going to do? What are you going to do differently after you learn this stuff or anything? What are you going to do differently in your life because of what you've learned? That's really what it all boils down to.

Speaker 1: 3:54

So with that, let's jump into the details about these three principles right now. Number one was the clarity principle, and that's this was the clarity principle, and that's this. You must have a clear picture of what you want, why you want it and how you're going to get it. What, why and how. That, what has to be yours. It has to be your own. It can't be about somebody else. It can't be about somebody else. It can't be what somebody else tells you that you should want, or what you think you should want, or what society says is the next best thing to do. It's got to be what you really and truly want for your life. This is not what mom and dad or a spouse or a best friend or your boss or a stranger on the street or somebody on TV or whatever else. It's not what they say you should want. It's got to be what you want and what your vision is for the future a clear picture of your life. What your day is going to look like is really what it is. That's the way I do it for myself. What do I want my day to look like when I reach my desire? A clear and detailed picture, or even a movie, of what you want for your future. That's your desire. That's your what. Now, why do you want that? That's the second question why? Why is it important to you?

Speaker 1: 5:25

This one might take a little bit more work to dig deeply, to really understand why you want whatever it is that you said you wanted in number one. This answer is probably going to tug at your heart a bit and might even generate a tear or two. Let me put it this way your why should be wrapped in passion and fueled with emotion. Wrapped in passion and fueled with emotion Because this is what's going to get you up in the morning when it's cold outside and the alarm clock goes off and you want to press. You know, sleep another 10 minutes. This is what's going to get yourself up and put your feet on the cold ground and get you going. Got to be wrapped in passion, fueled with emotion. This why that we're talking about, this is your fuel. This is what you need to be able to get your work done and to be the person you want to be, to get to your goals, to do what you need to do to grow your business, to do what you need to do to grow your business. That's probably the most important thing you can do is to become totally clear and connected with your what and your why.

Speaker 1: 6:33

If we were live and in person, I'm sure I would have heard somebody say hey, stop with all the dead gum fluff. I want a successful business. That's what I want, and why do I want it? Well, I want it so I can pay the bills that keep coming in every month. Jeez Morris, that's reality. How real and true is that answer? It is exactly where many of us are, and I know I felt that way a whole bunch of times. Nobody said I had to like my work, but the bill collectors kept asking me for money. Nobody said I had to like my work, but the bill collectors kept asking me for money. You can have a job or a business, and you can have that job or business with the purpose of earning money and keeping the bill collectors off your front porch. What I'm suggesting here is that you can have more than that if you want to, and it starts by figuratively putting the bill collectors in a box in your brain and put them over in the corner and tell them to just hush, just y'all, just y'all, just just shut up, leave me alone and let me think about this and get your clarity principle straight. Then you can answer those three questions very deeply from your heart and your head and leave the bill collectors in the box for now. We'll take care of them later.

Speaker 1: 7:52

The third question in the clarity principle is how. How are you going to get what you want? Well, the answer is your strategy for your business. How are you going to do it? Well, here's my strategy. This one's hard to understand sometimes, so let me throw this into a quick example for you. What if you want to go to Washington DC, because you want to go there to see the Vietnam Memorial, because you have a friend who died in Vietnam and their name is on that huge wall? Now there's your what and there's your why name is on that huge wall. Now, there's your what and there's your why. Now, how are you going to get what you want? What's your strategy for getting to Washington? Alright, think about it. You could walk, ride a bicycle, drive a car, take a train, fly on a private jet or fly on American Airlines in a Ronald Reagan International Airport. You could do all of those things. You could probably even take a boat. Each of those things is a strategy. Now, how are you going to get what you want in your business? This one takes some thought and we'll go through a process to help you get to that answer in another podcast, but you can do it right now If you just think about the big picture and get a feel for how am I going to get from here to there, and focus it down.

Speaker 1: 9:09

You don't want 20 strategies, but one, maybe two, all right, focus it down. You don't want 20 strategies, but one, maybe two, all right. So at this point you clearly know what you want, you clearly know why you want it and you have a big picture strategy of how you're going to get there. That's the clarity principle. Now, where do you start? Well, what's the most important thing that you have to do?

Speaker 1: 9:34

Now we're going to look at that second concept the circles of control. You want to do what's most important, so you want to get started. But geez, you know you want to start with the most important things, but how do you know which ones those are? How do you know what you need to do to really impact your business, right? Well, you start with the things you have control over. If you were to draw two concentric circles, you know, draw one circle and then, outside of that one, you draw a bigger circle, two concentric circles. In that center circle you list all the things pertaining to your desire that are inside your strategy that you have total and complete control over.

Speaker 1: 10:16

But be careful. Don't let stuff in there that you think you control but in reality you probably don't. For example, you might say I want to be promoted to senior vice president and you put that in the center circle senior VP and you think I've got control over that because I'm going to work harder than I've ever worked before to get that promotion. Do you control the outcome? Do you really control when and how the company is going to promote you to senior vice president? I don't think you do. It's outside your control. It goes in the outer circle. We call that the circle of concern. The center circle is the circle of control. The outer circle is the circle of concern. You care about the stuff in the circle of concern, you're concerned about it, but you don't have control over it.

Speaker 1: 11:10

The action step for this principle is to get a real handle on the things that you can control and the things that you do not control, and then focus on what you control. And that leads us to the corollary to that principle, which is the glance-gaze principle. Imagine a large flip chart on stage and we're here together and you're out in the audience and you're listening to me and you're watching what I'm doing, and we're here together and you're out in the audience and you're listening to me and you're watching what I'm doing and I go over and put a little red dot down to the bottom right-hand corner of that big flip chart. I don't tell you about it or even mention it. The red dot's just there. Well, you start focusing on that red dot and wondering why in the world did Morris do that? So you keep looking at the dot and you can't focus on what I'm saying because you keep looking at the damn dot. The more you gaze at the dot, have you noticed what happens? The more you focus on that, the more you gaze at it, the bigger the dot becomes. It happens every time. I've done this on stage time and time again and it really does work.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Here's the principle the things you focus on are going to become bigger and bigger in your mind and in your life. It just happens. When you gaze at something, it becomes more important and it gets bigger and bigger in your vision. If you're gazing or focusing on things that you don't control, they're going to just get bigger and badder and meaner unless you change your mindset. Unless you change your mindset, they're going to block out everything else in your mind and that's going to be all you can think about is the stuff you don't control, and probably start going down a negative path, right? So the action step here is to glance at the stuff that's important, but you don't have control over Things like sales results. I'm going to glance at that, I'm going to look at it, I'm going to know where they are, but that's not going to be what I'm going to focus on and where I'm going to take action every day. I'm going to gaze or focus on the stuff that I can control that specifically affects the outcome of our sales results, or what I want. Glance at sales results and then focus on the actions you have control over, because that's what's going to make a difference in helping you get what you want. That's what's going to make a difference in helping you get what you want. Now, the third concept that I mentioned is probably well, it's a practical implementation of the first two principles, and we call it goals versus desires or the goals versus desires principle.

Speaker 1: 13:48

Let me tell you a story, if I may. I have a friend and this is a true story, by the way. I have a friend, his name is Randy, and actually Randy's been a mentor and a friend of mine for well over 40 years of friendship and he's mentored me in my work and still does, even to this day. Randy is a professional speaker and he was delivering a message at a training conference I was running. We had over 100 people there and I was responsible for this training event. So I'm in the back listening to Randy deliver this message and he did a great job, as he always does. And he comes up afterwards and says well, how did I do? And I told him. I said man, that was super, that ought to become your signature message. Well, it did, and that's another whole story. We'll talk more about that later. But I can tell you this much I'll never deliver the message as well as he did, but I can tell you the story.

Speaker 1: 14:42

You see, randy was struggling, just like many of us do from time to time, and he went to a friend of his, a mentor of his and a guy that he really trusted, and he shared all of his struggles of not knowing what to do about his business and how it all felt overwhelming and kind of out of control and concerned for the future. Well, after a lot of discussion and talk, randy's friend told him Randy, your problem is that you don't understand the difference between a goal and a desire. That's it. That's all there was to it. His friend went on to explain that when you get those two concepts mixed up, it results in exactly what Randy was feeling that feeling of a lack of control over what's going on in his life. Now here's how Randy shares with us what he learned about the difference between a goal and a desire.

Speaker 1: 15:35

Goals are things that you have total and complete control over. Desires are things that you want, but you're not in total and complete control Goals. You control desires. You don't Wait now. Hang on, morris.

Speaker 1: 15:53

That person in the back just said it again. He said gee, isn't that really just semantics? Isn't it words? I mean, come on, goal desire, give me a break. Well, not really. If you'll give me a few minutes and just let it sink in, I think you'll find that this particular thing is going to be well worth the price of admission. A goal you control. So let's do a little test you ready? Is it a good goal to have a loving and caring marriage based on our definition? No, it's a terrible goal. You don't have control. There's somebody else in that marriage with you. You individually, do not have control. Is it a good desire? Yeah, it's probably a good desire. We'll work on that later. Is it a good goal for your business to have over a million dollars in gross revenue in fiscal year 24 and 25? No, it's a terrible goal, but it's a great desire. You don't have control over people who are going to choose to buy your products or services. They decide if they're going to buy or not. So it might be a great desire, but it's not a goal. Now grab your pencil or pen your piece of paper and write these things down.

Speaker 1: 17:10

I'm going to give you three characteristics for a goal and three characteristics for a desire. You ready, here we go. Goals have three characteristics. Number one a goal is totally and completely under your control. Number two a goal is something you can schedule. You can put it on your calendar and you know exactly when you're going to do it. Number three you do not need anyone else to give you permission or take any action or make a decision in any way for you to be able to accomplish a goal.

Speaker 1: 17:49

Now, desires have three characteristics as well. A desire is totally outside of your control. You cannot make a desire happen. Other people are involved. Number two you cannot schedule or plan for a desire. A lot of times, desires happen serendipitously and all of a sudden that big sale just falls into your lap. And serendipitously, all of a sudden, that big sale just falls into your lap. I know for me. I just picked up a couple of new clients that I didn't do anything to generate it, they just sort of happened. No-transcript, it worked. Number three you do need somebody else to make a decision or to do something for a desire to become a reality. All right. So three things for goals, three things for desires. How do you bring all that together? How do you make all that work? Well, first thing is you focus on those things you can control. You gaze at it. We're talking about goals now. Focus on what you can control. You gaze at it. We're talking about goals. Now. Focus on what you can control. You gaze at it. You put your effort and time into the things you have control over, because those are the things that are going to positively impact your desire. So those things, as I said, those things are your goals.

Speaker 1: 19:07

What might be a good goal for somebody who desires a great marriage? A good goal for somebody who desires a great marriage. Well, maybe my goal is I'm going to invite my spouse on a regular date night on Fridays. From here on out, every Friday is going to be our date night and I'm going to ask my beautiful bride to go out on a date with me on Friday nights where there are no kids and the two of us can go to dinner and talk about whatever is important to us right then. Now, do I control if I go on that date or not, personally, whether I do it? Yeah, I'm in control of whether I go. Am I in control of setting up the date and making the reservations and putting it all together? Yeah, that's a goal. I can do that. Nobody else has to be involved. This is what we're talking about. Those are the things that I control. Now, do I control that that date actually happens in the outcome of the date? No, I'm afraid Carla has to get involved in that decision. So that's a desire, but I have goals that I can control and I can do everything in my power to make that date happen. All right, so that's how this works Now. This is a couple of things that work out really, really well. You find a couple more goals to make time for and it works toward your advantage.

Speaker 1: 20:35

In business, you focus on what you can control. What are some good goals for reaching a desire that your business has a revenue total business revenue of a million dollars in a particular year? Well, a specific activity goal might be having initial sales conversations with at least 20 ideal clients every week. Could that possibly impact your sales results? Yeah, do you control making a list of 20 people to call on this week that are potential clients? Sure you do. Do you control actually making those appointments or stopping by to meet 20 people this week? Not that the appointment will happen, but do you control attempting to get those appointments? Yeah, you do. Well, that's how it goes. Will that possibly help you make more sales if you go out and talk to 20 people a week about your product and service and see if you can find a way to help them solve their problems? Sure, it can, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 21:33

So again, you create the goals of things you can do that you have control over that are going to get you to whatever it is you desire. So let's get really practical. What are you going to do with all this stuff? We've been talking about all the stuff that you've learned today. What are you going to do with it? Well, obviously I've got an idea. I'd suggest you build a strategic action plan. A strategic action plan tells you exactly what you're going to do, things you control we call those goals right.

Speaker 1: 22:05

So a strategic action plan tells you what you're going to do, when you're going to do it and by when. That's an action plan, by definition. What am I going to do and when am I going to do it? Right, that's it. What are you going to do, when are you going to do it and when are you going to get it complete? That's the key.

Speaker 1: 22:28

So how do you do that? Well, first you review the clarity principle and you make sure that you have a clear picture of your desire. What do you really want in your business? Why do you want it? And that why has to be wrapped in passion and fueled with emotion. And then a strategy for how you're going to get it. That's number one. Get the clarity principle going on. Number two create four specific action plans. Together, these four things make up your overall strategic action plan. Here are the four things. We'll get into more detail later on.

Speaker 1: 23:04

Four things First of all, a marketing plan, a marketing plan that makes you visible to your ideal prospect. Secondly, a sales system. A sales system that focuses on helping your prospective clients get what they want. Thirdly, an operation system, or a set of systems really and truly in this one, a set of systems that defines how you're going to run your business on a day-to-day basis. I'm talking about things like product procurement and delivery, things like how are you going to handle accounting and bookkeeping and keeping track of money and the flow of money in and out and around your business, how do you hire people for the team, and what are your business philosophies about how you work together and with your customers. That's three your operation system and then, finally, an implementation plan.

Speaker 1: 23:59

This is where you take all the goals in each of those three action plans marketing, sales and operations and you put them on the calendar with specific milestones for you to meet. I'm going to do this thing and I'm going to do it before July 1st. That's it. That's where I would suggest you go today the clarity principle and then begin to think about creating your strategic action plan. That's it for now. We'll get into the goals that go into each of the parts of your strategic action plan later, but for now, start with those two things Get clear and create a specific action plan, or two or three that are going to be the goals for implementing your strategy.

Speaker 1: 24:41

You can do this. You can make things happen for you and your family and your business. Well, that does it for this episode of the Commission Code Podcast. This is the place where we want to help you find the commission code to success in your business. Remember, go to morrissimscom for more information and in the meantime, hey, have a great week, get out there and meet somebody new, and we'll see you again next time right here on the Commission Code. Best wishes. I'm Morris Sims.