***How to Set and Achieve Your Goals

Here are five conditions that must be worked into your goals. All are essential. Hitting four out of five is no good ?leave one condition out of a goal, and that goal won’t be reached. Put all five conditions into a goal, and you’ve got one that will become a reality in your life.

1. Your ...Here are five conditions that must be worked into your goals. All are essential. Hitting four out of five is no good ?leave one condition out of a goal, and that goal won’t be reached. Put all five conditions into a goal, and you’ve got one that will become a reality in your life.

1. Your goals must be believable.Let me repeat that; your goals must be believable. To whom? To only one person in the whole world ?you. It doesn’t matter who else believes in them; in fact, most of your goals should be too personal to reveal even to your spouse. But unless you believe that you can achieve them, you won’t.

2. Your goals must be clearly defined.If they’re confused, or if you’re not exactly sure what your goals are, you don’t have goals. Wishes maybe. Hopes perhaps. Goals, no. They must be specific, and the more specific, the better. You can say, “Tom, I want to increase my net worth substantially?but that’s not a goal. That’s only an idea or a starting place for a goal. What would make a goal? Deciding on the exact amount of net worth you want to have at a specific future date ? one million dollars by December 31, 2000, for example. That’s specific. That’s clearly defined.

If you tell me, “My short-term goal is to buy a new automobile. I really want one, Tom. I need to feel the pride that’s associated with owning a new car.?All that is fine; it shows that you’re gearing up to commit yourself to a goal. To make that goal happen, decide on all of the specifics: what make, model, engine, color, and when? Will you buy or lease? How much money will it take? Exactly how will you earn that money? You must be specific to be terrific.

3. Your goals must be ardently desired.Not merely desired, ardently desired. When you want something so much that it eats on you, you’ll get it. How do you cause yourself to ardently desire something? Read on.

4. Your goals must be vividly imagined.If you can see yourself in possession of your goal, it’s half yours. Several times a day, form the habit of vividly imagining yourself having your goal. Do that, and it’s in the palm of your hand.

Let me give you a very personal example of a believable, clearly defined, ardently desired, and vividly imagined goal. Several years ago, my sister Julie, whom I love dearly, weighed 279 pounds. When you’re five-foot-two, that’s a major problem.

When I realized she was ready to make a change, I spent an hour going over my goal-setting knowledge with her. Nineteen months later, she had lost over 155 pounds. If you could see her happiness today at being able to wear a size 8, you’d not only know that this material works, you’d know the joy of making it work is worth far more than the effort involved.

The key element that I suggested, the one she credits with making it possible for her to lose all that weight, was a very small thing. I asked her to go out and take a picture of the dress she wanted to wear. Then I told her to stare at that photo of a size 8 dress three times a day. While she was doing that, she was to imagine herself happily slipping that dress on and wearing it proudly.

Please believe me ?when you weigh more than an eighth of a ton, when you hit the scales at nearly five pounds to the inch, wearing a size 8 looks as impossible as making a fortune looks when you’re broke. She had to go through some pain to achieve her goal, didn’t she? I’m proud of her for facing and beating that pain, more proud than words can express.

There’s no change without pain. But Julie isn’t feeling any of that pain anymore ?that’s all forgotten. She’s changed her self-image enormously. She has the cutest little shape now, and she’s loving it, but the changes in her personality and life have gone far beyond that. Now she’s an entirely new woman; she has a new sense of self-esteem, new interests, new opportunities, new confidence ?and a whole range of new goals and successes. It all came from accepting the pain of change in order to attain a specific goal. Most people don’t realize how quickly the pain of change is forgotten, and how long the benefits of achieving goals last and are enjoyed.

5. Your goals must be in writing.Why is it important to have written goals? I know that unless you put your goals in writing, your chances of achieving them are quite small. When you have achievable goals written down, you then have a plan and can contribute the most you possibly can into getting what you want from life by achieving your goals.

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