Robin Sieger Blog

I recently bought a bike which is a real beauty, I had long admired the brand and when they reduced the price as part of their summer special, I went ahead and made the purchase.

It is a carbon frame road bike with precision engineered gear, brakes and wheels, best of all it weighs about 16 pounds compared to the 30 pounds my previous bike weighed. Now apart from being a wonderful bike, I went through a process of trying to decide if I should buy it. The usual questions are asked: Do I need it? Can I afford it? Will I use it? Once we have decided the answer to each question is ‘yes’ then the purchase is always easy and satisfying.

I had given it a lot of thought, intuitively I knew I really needed this bike to enable me to train with other cyclists in longer Sunday morning road trips, the cost would be a personal commitment to the usage, and if I wanted to improve I had to invest in the right equipment for me.

How often by contrast have I (and you) bought something or made a business decision, for no other reason other than we wanted it, rather than needed it. I cannot start to imagine how many gadgets I have bought at airports, electronic stores or via the internet because I simple wanted them, and how many am I still using today (which had not broken, become obsolete or I quickly discovered that I had no real use for) - very few.

In life and business I believe we make more rapid progress towards our personal achievements when we focus long and hard on what we need. Those things which move us forward, which enable and empower us in the pursuit of personal and professional purpose. I have sat through many meetings where nothing was agreed, responsibilities not acknowledged, and we ended up with some compromise type of outcome, which is most definitely not what was needed. In truth it is possible that it was not wanted either, but the burning issue of need was not addressed.

So look at the next two weeks of your life both at home and at work, and ask yourself what is it you need to do. Personally you may determine you need to be kinder to members of your family, need to do exercise, need to update your resume and look for a new position, need some quiet time to yourself. At work, you may need to call a prospect and just ask for the business, you may need to ask for a pay rise, you may need to call all your customers and tell them “thanks for being a great customer”; only you will know what you really need.

So ask yourself when you have a choice ‘do I need this, or is it something I simply want because it is available?'

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