How You Can Be Clear and Be Active

Ever wonder why some businesses thrive while others struggle despite similar market conditions? The answer might be simpler than you think. 

Morris Sims reveals the two fundamental pillars that underpin all successful business ventures: clarity and action. Drawing from his own entrepreneurial journey, Morris shares how he spent two years waiting for clients while "hearing nothing but crickets" before realizing he lacked true clarity about his business. This personal revelation led him to develop a framework that has transformed countless businesses since.

The clarity pillar requires answering three critical questions: what you truly want (creating a vivid mental picture of your desired outcome), why you want it (finding your emotional driver that's "wrapped in passion and fueled with emotion"), and how you'll achieve it (developing a focused strategy). Morris uses the powerful metaphor of rivers versus swamps to illustrate why focusing on a single strategy creates deeper impact than spreading yourself thin across multiple approaches.

The action pillar introduces a life-changing distinction between goals and desires that Morris learned from his mentor, Dr. Randy Marshall. This concept—that goals are entirely within your control while desires depend on external factors—provides the key to maintaining mental health while pursuing business success. By focusing your energy on achievable goals that increase the likelihood of your desires being fulfilled, you create a practical roadmap to success without the anxiety of attempting to control the uncontrollable.

Ready to transform your business approach? Listen now to discover how these simple yet profound concepts can help you create a clear vision, develop a focused strategy, and take consistent action toward your business goals. The path to success starts with being clear and being active—and Morris is betting on you to make it happen.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Business Foundations
• 0:39 Being Clear: What, Why, How
• 3:22 Being Active: Understanding Goals
• 6:28 Goals vs Desires Characteristics
• 8:48 Closing and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Hi Morris Sims here, and this is a special edition of the Commission Code Podcast. I've been working on a presentation and I just thought maybe you might like to know about it. I'm not going to try and do the whole thing here I won't take up that much of your time but instead I thought I might just share the gist of it all. Okay, here goes. There are two foundational things that are critical to any business. In fact, they're really critical for any endeavor in business, or in life for that matter. You must be clear and you must be active. I'll do that again. We've got to all be clear and we've got to be active. Okay, clear about what? Well, there are three things to be clear about what, why and how.

Speaker 1: 0:59

I thought I was clear when I started my business back in 2016, but you know, it took me two years to figure out that I really wasn't. I wasn't clear and I wasn't focused. It was amazing. I thought I had it all together. I did everything I thought was right to start a business, but I sat back and waited for the phone to ring and waited for somebody to send me an email and say, gee, I want to hire you, and all I heard were crickets.

Speaker 1: 1:29

So you've got to be clear what do you desire? What do you want? What is it that you want for your business, or for anything for that matter? But we must be very clear and specific about what we want. What's your desire for your business? What's it going to look like when you get it? Paint a very clear picture in your mind and then you can refer to it every time that you choose to do something about it, and that way you make sure you're moving in the right direction. Now, why do you want? Whatever it is that you answered when I asked gee, what do you want? Whatever it is that you answered when I asked gee, what do you want? What's your desire? Why do you want that?

Speaker 1: 2:12

Now, this one, what you want, comes from your head. This one comes from your heart. I like to say the answer to the question comes from deep within, because it does. It comes from your heart and it's got to be wrapped in passion and fueled with emotion. Don't you love that line? It's got to be wrapped in passion and fueled with emotion. Your why is what gets you up in the morning? It gives you the fuel to run the race. It's your purpose, it's your reason for doing whatever it is that you're doing to reach your desire.

Speaker 1: 2:48

And finally, how? How are you going to go about getting whatever it is that you said you wanted? This is your strategy in business. This is your business strategy. Now, we're going to delve deeper into strategy at another time, but we'll talk about at that time, we'll talk about what makes a great strategy and all those kind of things.

Speaker 1: 3:07

But for now, just answer the question how are you going to get whatever it is you said you wanted? That's what it all boils down to. You see, you've got to have one strategy. One answer to how? Not 10 or 5 or 20. One strategy One answer to how? Not 10 or 5 or 20.

Speaker 1: 3:27

One strategy, all right, maybe you could have two that are related, but more than two, and you lose focus and you don't have time or effort or ability to get deeply involved because you've got too many strategies and you become a swamp instead of a river. Think about it A swamp is shallow, it doesn't go deep. A river is deep and it cuts wide, like the Colorado River did when it created the Grand Canyon. Right, you want to be a river, so you have to be clear. What do you want? Create a picture, why do you want it and how are you going to get specific about it, wrapped in passion and fueled with emotion. Write it down. Write it down and then you can read it often, especially when you're starting to work on your business. You can read that Make sure that everything's congruent, that you're moving in the right direction to get what you want.

Speaker 1: 4:27

The second concept that we're talking about is you've got to be active. You've got to be clear, but then you've got to be active. What are you specifically going to do to get what you want? What are you going to focus on? Well, I guess first you have to decide what you can do and then you have to decide what comes first and get some focus and start making things happen. But to do that, you need to know the key to mental health. You've got to know the difference between a goal and a desire. If you don't, if you get those two confused, it causes anxiety and fear and just all kinds of bad emotions going on in your brain and in your life. Now, this is a concept that my friend and mentor taught me some 35 years ago and I got to tell you I was blown away. I was blown away then and I've used it in my life ever since and I taught it to my children. I was listening to this guy do this presentation. I'd hired him to speak at a training session for some hundred people or so. It really did. It blew us all away and it's been taught to new agents ever since in that company. Here's how my mentor, dr Randy Marshall, who developed the concept in his life and teaches it A goal is something you control.

Speaker 1: 5:51

Nobody else is needed. You can do all that's necessary to reach your goal. A desire, on the other hand, it's exactly the opposite. You're not in control. Somebody else has to make a decision or enter into the process somehow.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Now, maybe a quick example will help here. Let me ask you a question Is it a good goal to have a great marriage? If you think it is, raise your hand. Okay, it's a podcast voice. No, it's not a great goal. It's not a great goal to have a good marriage, but it probably is a great desire, right? Why? Well, because there's somebody else with you in that marriage and they have a will of their own. After 47 years of marriage, I can tell you that they've got a will of their own. There's no doubt You're not in total control. So what might be a good goal to get you to a great marriage, to get to that desire? So what might be a good goal to get you to a great marriage, to get to that desire? How about this? I will invite my spouse to go out to dinner twice a month, just us, so that we're going to have some time to talk and share our thoughts and feelings, and I get to hear from my spouse about their thoughts and feelings. That's a goal. It's a goal because I'm in control of making the invitation and then planning a wonderful night out.

Speaker 1: 7:19

Goals have three specific characteristics. Number one you and you alone are in total control. You don't need input, help or assistance from anybody else in order for you to reach your goal. Number two goals are predictable. You can plan and schedule a goal. You can put it on your calendar. I'm going to invite Carla to dinner on Tuesday because that's when I'll have it all planned out. Number three you can work toward reaching a goal. You get to work toward reaching a goal because goals have to do with activities.

Speaker 1: 7:59

Now, desires have three characteristics as well For a desire. Number one desires are outside of your control. Somebody else has to be involved. Number two desires are unpredictable. Sometimes a desire comes to pass, I don't know, serendipitously, it just happens, without you doing anything. Somebody calls up and says hey, I heard about you from Joe and I want to hire you to help us. I want to buy your product, I want to do business with you, and you didn't do anything to start it. It just happened. And number three where we work for our goals, we pray for our desires. That's the concept Be clear and be active.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Now the rest of the story. Well, randy taught goals and desires for 40-some-odd years on six different continents and a whole bunch of different countries to business owners, religious organizations and I don't know other sort of groups of people. But he has anointed, if you will, two people to carry the message on, and I got to tell you I am terribly honored to be one of them. So there you have it Be clear. Know what you want, why you want it and how you plan to get there. Be active. Create your goals that are designed to get you what you want, and then get active about it and go do the work necessary to reach your goals.

Speaker 1: 9:36

Is it easy? Probably not. It takes time. It takes time to really dig deep and answer the questions what, why and how, and it takes self-discipline to go out and do the work that you set out to do when you created your goals. Now, here's the good news when you put it all together, you have a plan and then you can make it happen. You can implement your plan. I'm betting on you. You can do this. Be clear and be active. I'll see you again next time. I'm Morris Sims.