“What am I looking for?” is a straightforward question which, if answered incorrectly, will take you around all sorts of curves.

How often do we announce what we’re not looking for? That approach will take us away from the straight and narrow.

Let’s pretend that you’re an executive who has progressed to the point where you need and can afford an assistant. How much longer will the process take if you keep looking at all the things you don’t want in an assistant?

“I don’t want someone who . . . or does . . . or can’t . . .” That approach will delay getting who you do want.

The same is true for whatever or whomever else you’re looking for.

Perhaps it’s time to change focus and start looking for what you do want vs. what you don’t want.

Just this tiny shift in language can clear the fog and let you see what you’re looking for more clearly and more quickly.

Start monitoring your language and begin to notice how often you use the delaying tactic of “don’t want.”

When you catch yourself, replace “don’t” immediately with a statement or mental picture of what you do want.

Ask yourself the question now: “What am I looking for?” The answers you get will be a lot more direct and lead you in a direction towards your goal, rather than turn you round and round like an old barber’s pole.

All the best,

John