I love the idea of thinking big about things. The other day this word ultimate kept showing up in my life and in my mind (once on the side of a truck), so I decided to pay attention and to think about it and, ultimately to write about it.
The first thing I did was look the word up in the dictionary. Some of the words that show up in the definition of ultimate are greatest, maximum, unsurpassed, and highest. These are big thinking words!
I wondered, what if we always thought in terms of what is the ultimate in all areas of our lives. For instance, when we are planning a project to add the word and meaning ultimate into the mix could inspire us to more lofty ideas- the word inspires! I find at times with my clients, and I have also done this myself, that when they are thinking of making big changes they tend to think in terms of the minimum they can get by on. I think there is some comfort in thinking this way. It makes things seem more do-able. It makes what we are about to do seem a little less crazy and then maybe the chances of failing are less likely. There is much less risk involved to shoot lower.
So what if we went for the ultimate instead? First of all, wouldn’t it be more exciting? Why settle for less when you could really go for it. The Brian Littrell quote “shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars” comes to my mind.
I have been taught to use the word ultimately to question things in order to clarify and get to the bottom line of what is most meaningful- “ultimately, what will all this do for you?’ “ultimately, what would you like the outcome to be?” “ultimately, how would you like to be spending your days, weeks, years?” “ultimately, what will this new habit allow you to accomplish in your life?” “ultimately, what would be like our customers to experience when they work with us?” “ultimately, what would I like my yearly income to be?” “ultimately, who would I like to spend time with?” “ultimately, what is the most important priority right now?”
You can see how powerful this word can be and how easy it is to use it to inspire your big thinking.
Go for the ultimate! Plan for it and have fun with it. Why not? The ultimate is the best, and you deserve that, your family deserves it, your clients and customers deserve it and really, anyone who comes into contact with you in any way deserves it. Ultimately, it’s a great way to live!
How will you use this word to increase the level of joy, satisfaction, peace and every other incredible thing in your life? Get our your pen and paper and start writing!