In today’s world we are often looking for the secret, the shortcut or the hack. What if there was no secret, shortcut or hack but, there was a question.

Not any question; Life's Most Powerful Question - What's Important Now? 

A question that can serve as a guide to help you prioritize the choices and decisions you are faced with every day. A question that can help you overcome life's challenges, obstacles and road blocks in the chaotic and complex world you live in.

I first heard about the question What’s Important Now? (represented by the acronym W.I.N.) while reading the book Winning Every Day by the famous college football coach Lou Holtz. Coach Holtz used to remind his players at Notre Dame to ask themselves this important question throughout the day; when they awakened in the morning, in class or study hall, the weight room, the practice field, on the sidelines during a game (regardless of their role on the team), when they were on the field during a game when they were at a party outside school hours and when they were approached by some alumni or agent who was offering them a financial incentive that may jeopardize their collegiate careers. 

This question had a profound impact on me and ever since I first read about it I have incorporated the W.I.N. concept into every presentation I do as a professional speaker and trainer. It has been applied in countless ways by people from all walks of life and in at least 14 different countries in the world. The concept had such an influence on me I went back a couple of years later to reread the chapter on What’s Important Now only to discover it was two sentences in the book. 

There is a powerful lesson to be learned from ‘Coach’ for all of us. Every day during our personal and professional lives we are faced with a number of critical choices and decisions. Our responses to those choices, the decisions we make, have a lasting impact on our health, our relationships, our careers and our finances. In order for us to achieve excellence in our lives we must ask ourselves this simple, but powerful question throughout every day – What’s Important Now? 

The simple act of stopping to ask this question causes us to briefly pause while our mind imagines the impact of the choices we have and almost immediately brings to mind the most desirable choice. When I say most desirable I do not mean the choice that will give us the most immediate gratification. I mean the choice that will have the most positive impact for us in our lives, based on the foreseeable future. This one powerful question allows us to prioritize decisions, choices, actions, and events in our personal and professional lives. The reason What’s Important Now is such a powerful question is that it is about both the present and the future.

Brian Willis

Contact me at winningmind@mac.com for more information or to book me to speak at your event.