The #1 Reason Most People Struggle in Life and Business

By Guest Blogger: Noah St. John

It’s Not What You’ve Been Told

Why, with all this time, money and energy being spent on “self-help”, are so few people actually living the life they really want?

Another way to ask this is:

Why are millions of people who’ve spent so much time and money trying to improve themselves STILL going down the road of life with one foot on the brake?

There actually IS an answer to this seemingly unanswerable question. But like most vexing problems, to answer this question, we must first ask a deeper question. The deeper question we need to ask is:

What Causes Human Behavior?

While there may be many ways to answer that question, here’s what I’ve found to be, at once, the simplest and most accurate answer to that question. It’s a simple answer, because I’ve found (and I’m sure you have, too) that the simplest solutions tend to create the best results.

The Scales of Success

Picture a balance, like the scales of Justice you’ve seen in one of those courtroom TV shows. It’s an instrument for determining weight that has a fulcrum at the center, from each end of which is suspended a plate.

On one plate, imagine that we have something called Your Why-To’s. These are your internal motives or Reasons Why to do something. On the other plate, we have Your Why-Not-To’s – your internal Reasons Why Not to do something.

Let me give you an example from your own life. Why are you reading this article right now? The answer is very simple. You’re reading this article because you perceive that there are more Benefits of reading this (another word for Why-To’s is Benefit) than Costs of doing so (another word for Why-Not-To’s is Cost).

Your perceived Why-To’s or Benefits of reading this article might include:

- I want to learn what the world’s most successful people do, so I can do that in my own life

- So I can stop sabotaging myself

- So I can make more money

- And finally get my foot off the brake

- And this will make me happier, because I can live the life I’ve always wanted

- And quit this job I hate

- And take more vacations

- And have better relationships

- And lose weight

- And find the love of my life

- And buy a new car

- And a new house

- And get out of debt

- Did I mention I’ll finally get my foot off the brake?

What about your Why-Not-To’s or Cost? Those might include:

- I have a million other things I could be doing right now.

- Who is this guy, anyway, and why should I listen to him?

- What if I get to the end and still haven’t learned how to get my foot off the brake?

- What if it works for everyone else, but not for me?

- What’s he trying to sell me? I’ve been burned before and I don’t want it to happen again.

- Did I mention all the other things I could be doing right now?

Your mind is like an infinite weighing machine — every moment, your mind is weighing your perceived Benefit against your perceived Cost of doing any behavior or activity you can think of.

Can you see that every decision we make is built upon our Why-To’s and Why-Not-To’s?

- Where you live

- What you wear

- What you eat (and how often you eat it)

- What kind of car you drive

- What you do for work

- Who you decide to marry — or not marry!

- What you had for breakfast this morning…

All of these were determined by your Why-To’s and your Why-Not-To’s. In fact, every decision you’ve ever made in your life was based on your internal Why-To’s and Why-Not-To’s: your reasons why you thought you should do the thing vs. the reasons not to do that thing.

Click Here and Listen To An Amazing Interview With Noah St. John!

About Noah St. John

Noah St. John is the #1 bestselling author of The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness
(published by HarperCollins).

Jack Canfield says, “Noah’s work represents one of the most significant breakthroughs in the study of success in decades.”