You can achieve any goal in life. There are seven-step methods for achieving any goal or achievement that you can use, over and over, in any situation, to accomplish anything you could ever want for yourself. These seven actions make up a potent, tried-and-true strategy that you may apply right now to transform your life.
STEP 1: IDENTIFY YOUR EXACT WISHES
A real goal is clear, specific, measurable, and time-bound. A desire, a hope, or a non-goal is imprecise and ambiguous. It’s a fantasy floating in midair. Those who go through life hoping for the best are considerably different from those who have well-defined goals and know exactly what they want. Your ability to decide exactly what you want in each area of your life is one of the most important responsibilities of human life.
During my seminars, people frequently come up to me and ask what their objectives should be. I reply that only they can decide. It is amazing how many of them tell me how hard it is to set goals, and I agree with them. Although difficult, it is also necessary. With clear goals, you can do almost anything. Without them, you can do virtually nothing.
One of the major reasons that people fail in life is because they waste so much of their time doing things of low value or no value at all. And the reason they waste so much time is because they have no real idea of what they want. You can manage your time much more effectively once you have specific goals.
USE YOUR TIME WELL
Here is a way to decide whether something is a good use of your time. Asking yourself, “Does this help me fulfill one of my targets?” is all that is needed. If the activity helps you achieve a goal you have set for yourself, it is a good use of time. If it did not, it would be a pointless endeavor.
When you get into the habit of only doing those things that move you toward your goals, your life will take off. Your results will improve. You will soon find yourself busy every hour of every day doing things that are helping you in some way. You will have no time left to spend on activities that aren’t helping you achieve one of your goals.
When you set clear goals for yourself and know exactly what you want, you will become increasingly impatient with activities that are not helping you in some way. You will watch less television. You will listen to less radio. You will read the newspapers quickly, if at all. You’ll start choosing your friends and social activities much more carefully. You’ll only spend time with people you enjoy being with and who can impart knowledge and benefit you. But as they say, “If you don’t understand where you’re headed, any road will lead you there.”
STEP 2: WRITE DOWN YOUR GOAL
Write your goals down on paper. A very amazing process takes place between the hand and the brain. The Laws of Expectation, Attraction, and Correspondence are all concurrently activated when you take out a paper and pen and write down your objectives. You gain more strength and conviction in your ability to achieve your objectives. You feel in control and powerful just by putting your goals down on paper. Written goals increase your resolve and determination to do whatever is necessary to achieve them.
It’s almost unbelievable how quickly you’ll start to reach your goals once you’ve put them in writing. The very act of writing out your goals increases the likelihood of your achieving them by as much as 10 times—100 percent!
Thousands of my graduates have written to me or contacted me again to share the incredible things that have happened in their lives since they started setting down their goals.
STEP 3: BE READY TO PAY THE PRICE
Determine the price you are going to have to pay to achieve your goal. Make a list of everything that you are going to have to do if you want to make your goal a reality.
Will you need to arrive at work a bit earlier, put in a little more effort, and remain a little later each day? Write it down. Are you going to have to upgrade your knowledge and skills and take additional courses? Again, write it down. Are you going to have to change jobs, change industries, or change careers to achieve everything possible for you? Write it down.
The Law of Cause and Effect is the iron law of the universe. For everything that you want, there is a price that must be paid. This price must be paid in full and in advance. The Law of Sowing and Reaping is not the Law of Reaping and Sowing. You have to put in before you get out. You have to give before you receive. Before you can benefit from the prize, you must first pay the price.
Your willingness to do whatever you need to do, pay whatever price is required, go whatever distance is necessary, and make whatever sacrifice is demanded is the measure of how badly you want your goal.
Many people sabotage their success by deciding that they want a particular goal, and although they are willing to pay a high price for it, they are not quite willing to pay the full price that the goal demands. This is analogous to wanting to win a poker game but refusing to match the other player’s final wager. You end up losing the whole hand, just as by failing to make a total commitment, people end up losing the entire goal.
STEP 4: MAKE A DETAILED PLAN
Make a plan in writing. Recall that the master skill of success is the capacity to formulate stated objectives and make strategies for achieving them. A plan begins with you making a list of all the things that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. You can add new items to your list as they come to mind after you’ve created it.
Next, you arrange your list according to priority and order. Which tasks on the list are the most crucial for you to complete in order to reach your objective? Which tasks must you complete before moving on to the next one? Which items on your list are dependent on you completing other items first?
A plan of action gives you a track to run on. It boosts your degree of conviction and fervor for the objective. You gradually become convinced that your goal is possible and achievable for you. If you don’t have a defined plan, you start to discover opportunities that you would not have even known existed.
IN STEP 5, ACT ON YOUR PLAN.
Take action of some kind in the direction of your goal. Once you have set a goal, written it down, determined the price that you are going to have to pay, and made a plan, you must take some action immediately. Even if you only make one phone call or collect one piece of information, be sure to do something. In the Bible, it says, ”Faith without deeds is dead.”
Your willingness to move toward your objective with faith and a particular action, even though there is no assurance of success, has a great force. The universe appears to be triggered by your activity, in addition to a host of other powers and forces. To your advantage, you invoke the Law of Attraction. By taking action, you show others and yourself that you are committed to achieving your objective.
Until you have taken a specific, irrevocable action of some kind, you have merely engaged in an enjoyable exercise, like daydreaming. You have put your key into the ignition, but you haven’t turned it on.
STEP 6: DO SOMETHING EVERY DAY
Engage in daily activities that advance your primary objective. This is an essential success principle that energizes and inspires. For you to maintain your courage, confidence, and self-motivation, you must be doing something every single day that gives you a feeling of forward motion and progress. It is your responsibility to develop yourself to the point where you truly believe you are unstoppable. The only way to accomplish this is to consistently take action each day and to refuse to give up.
STEP 7: NEVER GIVE UP
Resolve in advance that you will never quit once you have started toward your goal. Determine that no matter how many failures or challenges you face, you will never give up and will persevere until you achieve your goals.
You offer yourself a psychological advantage by resolving ahead of time that you will persevere through any challenge. When difficulties do arise, you will be mentally prepared to plow through them rather than quit. Your willingness and ability to persist are what will eventually guarantee your success.
