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What do successful people have that you may be missing?
Goal setting is an essential part of how to become successful. Last time we discussed the After Action Review and the importance of taking stock of your last 12 months and making sure you continue on the path towards success instead of remaining stagnant.
Now we come to The One Thing that can make you extremely successful.
The One Thing that will propel you forward.
It’s what drives the successful to be successful.
It will drive YOU to be successful.
You just have to find it first.
What can drive you to success?
Tom Corley (author of Rich Habits) has spent a great deal of his time studying rich and poor people.
He has discovered one key factor in becoming successful.
Having a clear vision of who you want to be twenty years from now.
That begs the question ……
What do you want and who do you want to be?
Before you answer that question contemplate the passage below.
My Wage
“I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.”
- Jessie B. Rittenhouse
Life will give you what you want
Just dwell on that.
However, nothing is for free. Are you prepared to pay the price?
Now ask yourself again – What do you want?
Write it down (or type it). Let your mind and emotions go.
I want:
- To improve the lives of as many people as I can.
- To be content in the work I’m doing.
- To live my life in as little discomfort as possible.
- To be a great parent to my daughter.
- To be proud of the life I have lived.
- To go on beach holidays.
- To buy a really cool guitar and play it well.
- Be fit and healthy.
You might want to:
- Be a millionaire.
- Be a billionaire.
- Life a life of joy and happiness by creating and maintaining great relationships.
- Live a healthy, active and fit life.
- Be proud of the life you are living.
- Be sitting on a beach in 20 years time with $20m in your bank account and not having a care in the world.
- Be a great scientist/doctor/lawyer.
- Help the world by ……….. (be very specific)
- Create an electrician business.
- Start a side hustle.
- Be financially independent.
- Travel the world.
- Write a book.
- Become a pop star.
- Own a Ferrari.
- Lose weight.
- Win gold at the Olympic games.
- Get a pay rise or promotion in the next 12 months.
- Learn a language or musical instrument.
Go on. Write it all down. Everything that you want. Get excited. A complete brain dump on to the page. Don’t worry about organising it now.
They can be short-, medium- or long-term goals. Grand life ambitions and little things you want.
Think BIG. Think long term. But also small.
I’ll wait!
Now let’s organise those thoughts
It’s important to do this because you will most likely not be able to tackle all of these goals at once. Plus, you will have goals in different areas of your life.
Keeping it simple, let’s start with these 6 areas of your life:
- Career
- Financial
- Health
- Social
- Relationships
- Hobbies
If you don’t have a goal for each area. That’s fine.
In a word doc, an excel spreadsheet, your journal or a piece of paper arrange your wants under those headings. If you have wants that don’t fit, create a new category.
Well done.
The source of your success: Define your life’s ambition
In his book “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill talks of desire as the starting point of all achievement.
Desire – a strong feeling of wanting to have something.
He goes further to say it needs to be a burning desire to achieve what you want.
This refers to goals that resemble your life’s ambition. Really big goals.
I can’t remember who said it, but if you want success, wealth or anything of significance, you must want it more than the air you breathe. That sparks a burning desire.
If you are here spending your precious time with me, for which I am tremendously grateful, that tells me you are not interested in setting the bar low.
I hope you are after goals that are going to challenge you, push you out of your comfort zone, require of you new skills and knowledge, force you to face and manage failure, build you into a better person and make the world or the people in it better off.
To hammer the point home ….
A great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to make a decision which ensured his success on the battlefield.
He was about to send his armies against a powerful enemy whose men outnumbered his own.
He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to enemy’s country, unloaded the soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them.
Addressing his men before the first battle, he said, “You see the boats going up in smoke. That means we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice – We win, or we perish”
They WON.
Obviously, that’s an extreme example but the point is that great things can’t be achieved unless your desire to reach your goal is so strong that you can push through the hard times, setbacks and failures.
As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. Maybe you’re in a stressful situation right now and you feel trapped.
There are other steps to follow. But it all starts with a burning desire to achieve something greater.
To live pain free
My burning desire is to be pain free. As mentioned in a previous post, I have a degenerative back problem. Clearly, my health and being pain free is my number one goal. Nothing gets in my way in the achievement of this goal. Am I perfect? Absolutely not. But I try to be.
I have been so single-minded in the achieving of this goal that other areas of my life have suffered. Most notably, my career but also enjoyment of life.
My belief is/was that I can’t be pain free if I work full time. There was a duelling of objectives. Be pain free or be successful in a career. Is it possible to achieve both?
I so desperately want to protect my back but at the same time I have always been searching for something significant with regards to my career.
So now I am testing my beliefs. So far so good.
I am at the stage where I can successfully manage my back. But the spectre of further damage to my back holds me back (no pun intended!).
To reach the point of achieving full-time work (a home and office combination), I have a $2,000 recliner (not the grandma type, it’s awesome), a sit-stand desk and a desk treadmill at home and a sit-stand desk and another $2,000 recliner at the office. This is the only way I can do it. I can’t sit in a normal chair for long.
I actually have a third recliner in the lounge because I can’t sit on the couch. That was the original one and that spawned the possibility of being able to work full-time. It worked. The number of chairs I’ve tried, the money I’ve spent on potential solutions. Crazy, but persistence pays off. Whatever it takes (within reason).
Now I’m working full time and trying to create a new venture after-hours. I’m really testing the boundaries. Cross fingers! For the first time in my life I feel like I know what I have to do in my career and I’m really excited about it.
Back to your dreams and your success
Looking back at the list of your dreams/goals/wishes/wants, how excited are you about them?
Let’s rate them. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being 100% critical that you achieve it, rate each goal.
How many 10’s do you have?
If you haven’t got any. Stop, go back to the start of this article and restart the exercise. Think long and hard about what you really want out of life. DO NOT HOLD BACK.
Dream Big.
Anything below a 6 is of average to minimal significance. This is not enough to create the necessary call to action. You’ll be mildly chuffed if you can tick these goals off your list. There’s nothing wrong with these goals/wants but they won’t ignite massive action.
Tony Robbin’s speaks of creating your compelling future (Awaken the Giant Within). You get to design the life you want through setting goals, big goals. You can create a future that inspires you.
The only limit to what you can have in your life is the size of your imagination and the level of your commitment.
Tony Robbins
Your designed future must be compelling enough to get you away from spending hours wasted in front of the TV, on social media or getting drunk with the next day written off due to a hangover.
Your future should be so exciting that you can’t help but get moving towards your goals.
If it isn’t, then go back and start the exercise again. At this stage don’t worry about the how. Just the WHAT.
The numbers have it
Statistics say that 80% of people never set goals. Of that 20% that do, only 8% actually achieve their goals.
Let’s start with 1000 people. 200 will set goals and only 16 will achieve them. That’s 1.6% of the starting 1000.
1.6% of people will actually achieve their goals.
From 2019 statistics there were 1,180,000 millionaires in Australia and a population of 25.36 million. 4.7% of the population are millionaires.
This is not saying one causes the other but there must be some sort link here.
To be successful in attaining your big life goals, maybe you need to be abnormal!
Dare to think and do differently.
Crystal clear visions
The next step is to provide intricate detail on the 10’s.
If you want a Ferrari, what model, colour, options? What is the cost?
If you want to look fantastic, what does that mean for you? Lose weight? Build muscle? What image do you wish to project to the world (as long as it is congruent with who you are)? What does your wardrobe look like?
If you want to build a business? What value will you provide to the world? What will you sell?
If you want to win a gold medal at the Olympics, what sport? What event? Which Olympics?
If you want to be a CEO. What industry? What company?
If you want wealth. Exactly how much do you want? Down to the dollar.
The details are essential because what you NEED to do is imprint your desire so clearly and strongly on your brain. It becomes a significant component of who you are. It drives you forward every day, the good ones and the bad ones.
Another important element of creating a burning desire is to attach emotion to your goal. To set a goal without passion is more like creating a task. It’s something I have to do today.
I want to do my job well. Meh.
I want to rise through the ranks of my career quickly so I can achieve the life I desire for myself and my family. I want annual holidays to all the nicest beach resorts in the world. I want to send my kids to the best school. I want a fantastically comfortable retirement. That’s a life goal with passion behind it.
The WHY is a must for building the burning desire
Next to each want, write down why you want it. You need to get the core of why it is so important to you.
A couple of examples (not my personal ones):
I want the Ferrari. Why? Because I want to look cool. This reason won’t push you for long.
Why do you want to build a successful business? So I can be wealthy.
Why do you want to be wealthy? So I can live a more comfortable life.
Why do you want a more comfortable life? Because I’m sick of just getting by. I grew up poor and we never had anything. I don’t want my family to have to deal with that.
Why is that important to you? It created so much tension at home that it was a terrible environment in which to live. I can’t have that for my family.
The key is to look deep into yourself and find your true WHY. If you don’t get to the true why, you won’t be driven enough to succeed in attaining what you want in life.
Notice how each answer was responded to with another question. The goal is to find the pleasure or pain point.
The clearer and more emotive the message you send your brain, your brain will retain it. And through repetitively imprinting that message with passion, your brain will accept your goal as fait accompli. It will happen.
Have pictures of what you want on the wall in your study, on the screen of your computer, on your mirror in the bathroom. A vision board.
Natalia Walker (a friend of mine), founder of Inner Creative, runs vision boarding workshops. Vision boards are a great way to enhance the emotion you feel towards your goals. Place the board in your bedroom or study so you see it every day. A constant reminder of the important whys of your life.
Live it, breathe it every day. Drill it into your brain every day.
This turns desire into a burning desire.
It turns hoping you’ll succeed into knowing that you will succeed (eventually!).
Your burning desire becomes your driving force in life.
Your burning desire gets you up in the morning, excited about the day.
Your burning desire helps you to say no to things that don’t help you move towards your goal. Your burning desire pushes you through failure because you know success will come.
Means goals or End goals
In Vishen Lakiani’s book “The code of the extraordinary mind”, he discusses the difference between means goals and end goals.
The term means to an end:
“it helps you to achieve what you want, although it may not be enjoyable or important itself.”
Vishen warns of a focus on means goals.
Examples:
- Get a university degree.
- Hit $100,000 pa income.
- Work at a certain company.
Why are these major goals? When you achieve these goals, what happens? You look to the next goal, then the next. Will the achievement of these goals bring joy or fulfilment into your life?
Perhaps. For a short time.
Are they a source of real motivation?
Could be. For a short time.
On the other hand, end goals are about creating a fulfilling life.
What do you truly want?
Do you want a job that pays $100,000 pa or do you want sufficient funds and flexibility to be able to have fantastic holidays, spend more time with friends and family or enjoy what you do because it makes a difference?
Examples:
- Build a great network of friends.
- Have amazing holidays.
- Impact people in meaningful ways.
The journey to a means goal ($100,000 pa) may be a grind. Once you get there, you may be burnt out, hate your job and your family has forgotten what you look like! A worthy goal?
Whereas working towards an end goal has happiness and fulfillment as part of the process.
Earning $100,000 pa is not a bad goal. But will the journey towards it make your life better? I guess that comes down to how you define better.
Vishen asks three questions:
- What experiences do you want to have in this lifetime?
- What does your love life, social life, financial life and the overall quality of your life look like?
- How do you want to grow?
- How are you meeting your health, intellectual, emotional and spiritual needs?
- How do you want to contribute?
- What are your visions for your career, your character, your family life and your contribution to society?
At the end of the day, you want what you want, and I hope it’s for the right reasons.
When it’s all said and done and you are looking back on your life, how do you want to feel about your time on this planet?
Did you do everything you set out to achieve or experience?
Have you made a positive impact on people, especially the ones closest to you?
Did you make a difference?
Do you want to look back and think I worked my butt off miserably for 50 years and for what?
Choose wisely.
Faith and Expectation
Faith
Imagine what you could achieve if you knew you couldn’t fail.
With regards to faith, I’m not talking religion. I’m talking about faith in yourself. Napoleon Hill in “Think and Grow Rich” dedicates a chapter to Faith. “Faith is a state of mind which may be induced, or created, by affirmation or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind, through the principle of auto-suggestion”.
Any amazing achievement is rarely attained through luck. It’s done through persistent hard work and the achievement of a big goal may take years.
Why do people persist?
Because they believe they are moving towards a worthy goal and they believe they will achieve it. How else can you handle rejection and temporary failure!
Therefore, you must believe that you can achieve your dreams and goals. The second you start to doubt yourself, your efforts starts to diminish and your dreams will stay just dreams and disappear from your reality.
Your subconscious mind is like a computer program. As they say, garbage in, garbage out.
You can deliberately reprogram your subconscious to run in a way that benefits you. If you leave the programming to chance then your results will be random. Your subconscious will be programmed by your environment and your responses to your environment.
You can, however, design how you want your subconscious to run by filling it with carefully constructed running instructions.
Through repeated instruction (e.g. daily affirmations), you can tell your subconscious how you want it to run.
I am fit and health
I want to help people to become successful.
I am confident.
I am a great dad.
I am determined.
And so on.
And do you know what happens. If you do the affirmations daily, when faced with a situation like a cake in a bakery, your subconscious will say “I am fit and healthy”. It’s like a circuit breaker that stops the habit of poor eating, your subconscious makes you think and then decide not to buy the cake. This happens to me.
Just remember that faith alone won’t cut it. You still must do the work.
“You will discover that your greatest weakness is lack of self-confidence”
Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich)
Expectation
Not only must you develop self-confidence and have faith that you can achieve all that you want in life, you must expect that it will happen.
“Desire without expectation is nothing more than wishful thinking”
Bob Proctor (You were Born Rich)
When you expect to achieve your dreams, your actions change. Instead of thinking, if I don’t do it today it doesn’t really matter, I will do this today because I am delaying getting what I want if I don’t do it.
I will start that course, read that book, chat to my manager about getting to the next level, turn off the TV or laptop and do something beneficial.
Your desire to achieve your goal moves you in the right direction, however, the expectation of achieving it is the attractive force that will move your dream in your direction.
Are you starting to see where the secret of your success resides?
It’s not in a course, book, YouTube video or get rich quick scheme. They are just bits of information to assist in moving you forward, or away from it it if you get scammed.
Your success starts within you. Nowhere else. So stop looking for the “secrets” of success. You won’t find it “out there”. You must start looking inwards. You and you alone will be the source of your success.
Let me say it again …
The secret of your success can only be found within you.
FIT Wealth can provide the general instructions of how to become successful, wealthy or whatever, but it’s you that has to decide to move your life towards a better destination.
Success without a burning desire?
Imagine a life without achieving all or even some of what you want. Does that excite you? It should scare the crap out of you.
Look. It is possible to do moderately well without a strong desire. The corporate world is full of people who clock on at 9am and turn off the computer the second that 5pm comes around. The TGIF crew!
These people may make slow progress. But the ones with strong desire will fly straight past them. They will be in management positions (or whatever) at 30 not 50.
The Wrap
Remember back to the values that you determined will guide your decision making, providing the compass for your life. If your wants and desires are not congruent with your values you may end up in a place that you don’t want to be.
You have two choices:
- You decide the life you want to live on your terms. You are the captain of your ship setting the course.
Or
2. You can see where life takes you. You are in a dinghy without paddles, at the whim of the tides and the wind. You may get to where you want but most likely not. And if you get lucky and find yourself there, it will not in the desired time frame.
The great thing is that anyone from anywhere can move themselves to a better place. But it must start from within. A crystal-clear vision of your life. A burning desire to achieve your dreams and the expectation that you will achieve your dreams.
Up next …..
SMARTER goal setting will drive your success.
Take action in your life.
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