This might seem a bit controversial.

But I’m going to say it anyway.

Sometimes, it’s good to be selfish.

Yep, sounds horrible at first. doesn’t it?

We’re told all the time that we need to be more selfless, not more selfish!

However, when I say “selfish” I’m not talking about take, take, taking all the time…

Or depriving people of things…

Or hoarding stuff…

Or queue jumping….

Or disregarding the feelings of others.

I’m talking about finding that thing which TRULY drives you to so something like creating a course or starting a business.

It’s that goal you really want to reach, deep down.

It’s that desire that burns like a fire inside of you… that will push you beyond your limits… that will make you persevere and put up with all kinds of doubt, suffering and fear….

And all because you WANT that outcome so much, you’ll dare to step outside your comfort zone and risk it all.

It’s what is known as the ‘selfish why’.

It’s really worth having a think about what yours might be, because it could be the key to your success.

And it starts with you asking yourself this question….

“What is it you really want?”

I don’t know if you remember those Miss World competitions from the 70s and 80s…

But there was always a segment where the contestants would be interviewed.

Often, they’d be asked what they most wanted.

Inevitably, many of them would say something like “World peace”.

But you’d know that what they probably wanted – more than anything – was to win Miss World and become famous.

They were hiding their selfish ‘why’.

Now, that might be a good thing to do if (heaven forbid!) you want to win a Miss World contest.

But if you want to successfully build a profitable digital course, there’s no point pretending or lying to yourself.

There is sure to be a driving reason why you want to do this.

And it’s usually not “money”, because money on its own doesn’t mean anything until you spend it – in which case….. what is that money for?

How will it make you feel?

Why do you want it so much?

Besides, there are many other deeply emotional reasons why you might want to create a successful course and earn your own income.

It might not be something you admit to others because you are afraid of being judged badly.

An example might be that you did poorly at school… or people thought you’d fail in life… and you are determined to prove them all wrong and show them what you can do.

Another example might be that you desperately want to leave a career that you feel trapped in.

Maybe you hate your boss. Maybe you dream every Sunday night of walking into work the next morning and telling everybody to get stuffed because you found something better.

Maybe you’re sick of your partner lauding it over you with their better job and bigger income, and you want to take control.

There could be any number of reasons.

In fact, let me give you mine….

After I gave birth to my son, I really didn’t want to go back to an all-hours job, even though I was good at it and I had friends there.

Deep down, I just didn’t want to.

But I had to earn money and – this is the selfish bit – I WANTED to have lots of money too… I just like some of the finer things in life like a big house, beach holidays, fashionable clothes and fancy restaurants.

So what drove me was a desire to find a way to raise my son without reducing my income or quality of life.

That’s quite a general ‘why’…

You can actually drill down to much more specific ‘whys’.

It could be that there is a rare sports car you really want… or you’ve always dreamed of having a house with a swimming pool… or you’d love to emigrate to Australia.

These are even better selfish whys because they give you specific targets to hit.

And here’s why this mental trick can be so effective…

The secret of perseverance

A strong desire for a goal will help keep you going through all kinds of obstacles.

For example, let’s say your internet connection goes down and you’re on the phone to BT for the entire hour you’re supposed to be working on the course.

(You might be able to tell that I speak from bitter true experience;-))

Or perhaps the dog’s ill… you’ve got a cold… and there’s a leak in the roof… so the idea of working in your spare time that week seems impossible.

Or perhaps you’ve hit a part of the course creation process that you find really hard… maybe writing content… or making a video… or writing a sales blurb… or dealing with tech.

These can all slow you down…

Sometimes they can grind you to a complete halt.

And when that happens, it can be hard to restart at all.

But this is far less likely to happen if you have a deep desire burning inside of you to reach your ultimate goal.

When you focus on your true selfish desire, you’ll be amazed at how you can push through all the obstacles.

In the same way as adrenaline can make someone run faster, or jump higher, a selfish desire can give you superhuman course creation powers!

The key is to think deeply about what you want.

Recognise it.

Embrace it.

And then go for it!

To help you, I’ve created a special free resource that I’d like you to download. It will help you focus on achieving your own ‘why’.

You can get it here: Download your free resource now (it’ll download straight away 🙂