I was watching cartoons on the weekend with my daughter, Sophie, and I was thinking about all my favourite cartoons when I was a kid.
One of my all-time favourites being Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
For those of you who know me, I am an incredibly tenacious bloke and I think that’s why I kinda liked Wile E.
He was totally focused on his goal – the Road Runner.
He knew exactly what he wanted, he salivated whenever he thought of the Road Runner and did whatever it took to win his prize.
In his case, this was roasted Road Runner.
Now like me, I bet you are wondering whether he ever caught the Road Runner?
A quick internet search and Wikipedia tells me he actually did! Good news, or so I thought?
Here’s where it gets funny.
It was an episode called Soup or Sonic where Wile E. finally catches the Road Runner.
Low and behold he had been shrunk down to a minute size and is dwarfed by the Road Runner.
Poor Wile E., recovering from the shock, he then turns to the viewer and holds up two signs that read: “Okay wise guys, you always wanted me to catch him”. and “Now what do I do?”
In my opinion, what went wrong was Wile E. had mastered two of the three criteria required for him to have been truly successful.
Firstly, he knew exactly what he wanted – the Road Runner.
Secondly, he had laser like focus of getting his Road Runner, at all costs.
Thirdly was where he failed. He was so focused on getting Road Runner that he failed to consider whether catching him was his actual goal, and then what to do next.
As a financial adviser I see variations of this all the time.
People don’t know what they want, or end up either having nothing to focus on (or they focus on all the wrong things).
Worst of all, they nail the first two steps, put in all the effort, only to realise that when they get to their objective, it is not what they wanted, or what they sacrificed wasn’t worth it.
I reckon, the Wile E. Coyote lessons are simple and can be applied to your whole life.
So my suggestions to you for the month is invest 30 minutes with a pen and paper and work out what is your “Road Runner”?
Are you salivating over it and totally focused on catching and roasting it (if you aren’t then go back to step one).
Consider what life will look like when you catch your Road Runner; and what’s next?
- Financial adviser, Ben Law, from The Financial Bloke, is one of The Land's new columnists talking all things finance for farmers and graziers.
