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  Introduction

  Are you getting what you want in life? Do you have high hopes of getting key employees to step up, drive growth, or improve production? Would you like to be able to relax in the knowledge that they will reliably take charge while you are away for a couple of weeks on vacation? Do you want to extract yourself from the business you started so you can enjoy the benefits of your hard work and investment? What about better cooperation with a partner, or improved relationships with important people like your spouse, children, siblings, or parents?

  Three decades ago I started a consulting business. It was my fourth career but my first experience with my own business. One day while I was driving across the county, it occurred to me that almost every other house I passed housed a business of some kind. Until that moment I had not realized how many small businesses existed. Since then I’ve focused most of my attention on working with entrepreneurs who choose to develop or run businesses.

  I also sometimes work with individual professionals. Whether they are in marriage relationships, are experiencing career transitions, or are young people trying to decide what to do with their lives, I see a common theme: Getting what they want seems to elude them. And when that has been the case, I have been able to help them get back on track and achieve the satisfaction of actually getting more of what they want.

  “How can I get more of what I want out of life?” If you have ever asked yourself this question, there’s something for you in this book.

  Read on.
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  Chapter I: What do you want?

  In my consulting business, new clients often tell me about situations that frustrate them. They feel their desire to move forward or to improve their life is being thwarted somehow. After spending some time listening to them, I ask, “What specifically is the outcome you wanted? Almost without exception the next thing I hear is a repeat of what they just told me. So I listen a little bit more, and then I try again: “What specifically did you want to see happen?” To this I get even more of what the person is angry about or what is not happening. I then ask, “What is it you don’t want?” To that I typically get an even more energized rerun of their previous response. They haven’t yet answered my question, but their frustration and fatigue have been made crystal clear.

  For example, I was meeting with a business owner, and when I asked her how things were going for her, she told me about a family situation that she was struggling with. She had just had a heated exchange with her teenage son, and she felt angry and sad. I asked her to describe what was happening.

  She said she had complained all evening about how bad the garbage smelled in the kitchen and how nice it would be if someone would do something about it. By bedtime nothing had changed. She had worked all day and was tired, and she determined that she was not going to be the one to do anything about the garbage. She went to bed hoping her son would take the garbage out by the time she got up in the morning. But no, that nasty garbage odor still greeted her when she came down to the kitchen the next morning to make coffee. She called her son into the kitchen and really got on him for not caring about her and not doing his part, and generally made sure he knew how disappointed she was in him.

  After she had told me what had not happened, I asked her what she wanted to have happen. She began to tell me in great detail. She wants the garbage in the kitchen taken out to the garbage bin outside the house twice each week, on Thursday evening after dinner and on Sunday evening after dinner. If enough garbage accumulates to fill the bin earlier, she wants that to trigger a one-time adjustment in the schedule, followed by a return to the weekly pattern.

  She also wants a fresh plastic garbage bag placed in the receptacle after the used bag with garbage in it is taken out, and the container returned to the location where it’s typically kept. Then she wants the full bag immediately tied shut and placed in the outside garbage bin.

  Actually when my client says she wants her son to carry out the garbage, she expects even more. She wants him to go around and get all of the household waste cans that collect nonrecyclable trash and empty them into the garbage bag retrieved from the kitchen trash can. That way all the trash will get taken out twice a week.

  But that’s still not all. One further expectation is included in this “take out the garbage” assignment. In this household, some rooms also have a waste can for recyclables. She keeps recycling bins on the back porch. Once a week, on garbage pick-up days, the city picks up the recyclable material as well and hauls it away--that is, if someone has taken it out to the curb. So in the request, “take out the garbage,” she expects all recycling to be included.
• About the Author
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  Gary Brunson is a management consultant with 35 years of experience. He is co-owner of Clear Focus LLC, a consulting practice providing business owners and top executives in the mid-West region with advice and counsel focused on overall effectiveness in business leadership and best practice. He guides business owners through purchase, sale, restructuring, expansion, and reinvention of themselves and their businesses. His skills unlock the genius in each business leader to be more effective and efficient in getting what they want from their business and their life. In addition to his experience, Mr. Brunson draws on a strong formal background in education and training, psychology and therapeutic process, and business and economics.

  To connect with Gary online:
  gary@myclearfocus.com
  www.linkedin.com/in/myclearfocus
  www.tabnci.com
  www.myclearfocus.com

  To get more of what you want, contact Gary at gary@myclearfocus.com for a free ½ hour consultation. Briefly describe what you want to accomplish and the best way to contact you.

$4.95