Confusing Hope and Intentions With Results

I recently bought, at a garage sale, an almost new Nordic Track Achiever Cross Country Ski exerciser. Perfect condition, hardly any wear on it all all. Still stiff from not being used. Paid $40 for a $500 machine - great deal for me!! I wonder just how many millions - possibly billions of dollars have been spent on exercise machines that now occupy the furthest corners of basements and attics and garages ? I call them the "feel good" machines.

The purchasers really felt good when they bought them. The act of buying had value in itself. They were on their way to better health, weight loss, attractiveness.

They were all bought with the best of intentions and expectations. Buying them was the first step to the result of self improvement. Then, for 90% of the purchasers, the next step, persistent action, proved too difficult, and the machines were left in place until facing them and failing to use them became so burdensome that they were hidden away. Some got sold to second hand stores, some given to Goodwill, some sold throught ads, some at garage sales. All of these exercise machines have one thing in common - the purchasers confused hope and intention with action and results. Their purchases were emotional - based on the best of reasons, and then abandoned to the scrap heap. I wonder what I would have to pay to corner the market on gently used Thighmasters?

There are lots of other examples of this behavior - purchasing something to give ourselves the feeling that we had taken action to solve a problem. I 'm looking at software to learn Spanish and French - I installed it on my computer - I wanted to learn two foreign languages - that's as far as I got. They've been on my computer for two years now - I still haven't studied them.

How many books have been purchased based on the emotional appeal of losing weight, getting rich, investing like the pros, becoming a successful leader, or being able to raise kids the "right" way? Every purchase represented hope - hope that the contents will improve the readers condition. But, just like the exercise machines, that's as far as most people get - and the second hand stores are full of barely opened copies.

Companies are no different - take safety as an example. Rersearch has shown that 90% of accidents at work are due to unsafe acts, but most safety expenditures are for equipment, not to develop safer behaviors.

Cars are another example - more and more safety equipment, more and more regulation designed to make driving safer, and yet the primary reason for accidents remains unsafe acts by the nut behind the wheel.

So what's this rant about? It's about recognizing that the purchase of something is a good thing - if it leads to commitment and resolve to see your hope and dreams through to completion. It means I won't be finding many more $500 Nordic Tracks for $40, and a lot more Thighmasters will break from use, but that just means more people translated dreams into realities - and good for them!

Look in your own bookcases, in your attics and garages and basements, then resolve to use what you bought when your were full of hope. Do it - today.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group LLC, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph:602-795-4200; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: www.coxconsultgroup.com

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