The Psychology of Shortcuts from Masters & Millionaires
Philosophers and great leaders throughout all of recorded history have disagreed on just about any and every subject we could name. Notice that I wrote "...just about any and every..." There is one area in which all great minds appear to agree, literally without exception. This alone commands absolute attention from any rational thinker seeking a better way, and more so the thinker who seeks a faster way.
Harvard University, Princeton, Stanford's Brain Trust, many other universities and research organizations, along with individual giants in the fields of psychology and motivation, such as Dr. Abram Maslow, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Anthony Robbins, Denis Waitley, and countless others, have all demonstrated time and time again that high achievers and peak performers are consistent... perhaps even obsessive goal-setters.
People who have long & consistent histories of being low achievers? Once they begin listing and pursuing their goals on a literally day-to-day basis, end up being SUPERperformers! I understand that 90%-plus of U.S. millionaires go broke at least twice... and then rebuild their fortunes. A ship's captain doesn't get to see his destination -- or target (goal) -- for fully 99% of his voyage. Many times along the way, wind, tide, mechanical problems, & other factors will take him off-course. By making the necessary corrections along the way, he'll eventually get to where he wants to go.
Is your life, or mine, any different? We ALL have places that we'd like to go... enjoying a better relationship with our spouses or children; obtaining a higher position in our organization; travel to foreign lands, or even within our own country; learning a new trade; earning more money in our current field; maybe entering a new career that we dreamed about as teenagers... your chances of making it happen actually multiply when you take the trouble to put your wish on paper, & break it into smaller steps. This empowers you to notice what corrections need to be made along the way.
The more I study, the more impressed I am with the sheer simplicity and effectiveness of goal-setting; and of how much it changes the lives of people who accept the importance of setting goals... written goals.
So why is it that only 4 to 5 percent of us really reach out & strive to change those dreams from a "Gee, I wish I..." into hard fact? Are you willing to live the remaining years of your life with the knowledge that those we leave behind will NOT be able to say about us, "Yes, he lived his life as he wished;" or "Yes, she reached out for her lifetime goals by taking daily steps year in and year out"??
We get one shot at Life. That "shot" is today. If you screwed up yesterday, that's cool... because today is one single day in which you can change the direction you've been headed in. If you have no written goals & plans, then I'll bet that most of the past 100-500 days have found you doing the same old thing, day in, day out, w/ barely-noticeable digression from consistent mediocrity.
In one study alone, as Senior Associate Director of the Who's Who Registry, I asked several thousand -upper-level decision makers-"To what do you attribute your success?" The most consistent response I received from Chairmen of the Board, Presidents, CEO's, and other top executives, was: "Setting specific goals... and referring back to them over and over.."
It seems to me that we have a responsibility to get the most out of our one lifetime. More importantly than what I think, I'd like to know what YOU think. Talk is cheap. Why not pick up pen & paper right now? Put a date on a dream, it's not a dream any longer; rather, a finite target and goal, with an attendant ability to measure every finite step of progress. Your willingness to accept and act upon this within the next minutes of your life has an equal and opposite power to make it happen for you faster and faster and faster than you've ever approached a worthwhile desire in your life.
Answer this question to yourself with as much honesty as you can:
Should you personally interview four thousand self-made millionaires, and more than three thousand and nine hundred of them specifically refer to written goal-setting in identfying how they got so rich, would it be enough for you to realize that the act of writing a goal is in itself a huge and powerful tool that is guaranteed to bring you closer, and faster, to your greatest desires?
How hard can it be to write down the 3 things you'd most like in life, and then breaking each one down into thirty or forty or sixty smaller steps? How about one step for each of the next 30 months?
A thousand days might sound like a great deal. In reality, life flashes by so quickly that you can remember the last thousand days of your life as if they were just a few weeks or months. The thousand days ahead of you will zoom by as quickly as these past 1000 days have flown by. Stick a ten-dollar bill in a jar every day for a thousand days and you've got yourself seed money for two or more businesses, don't you?
We'll close for now with just one question, one we hope you'll give at least fifteen solid minutes of consideration to between this minute, and the minute you next put your head on a pillow to sleep.
Let's consider having more than enough time, money, support, and whatever other resources you might require. Answering ONLY yourself for now,
Those few of you w/ enough sense to answer in WRITTEN detail will notice impressive advances--
in the next 10 to 30 days!! I think
it's time to stop talking...... and get busy writing, yes?
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