Dreams are absolutely critical if we're really going to be successful in
life, the only difference is you dream with your
eyes wide open and not while you're sound asleep only.
The difference between a dream and a goal is simply a goal
is a dream with a deadline.
So we need to have that vision and that dream and then we need to start going through the
process, the formula of working towards reaching it.
Let me tell you what I do with my audiences on every seminar.
I start by asking how many of you are honest and every hand goes up.
Second question, how many of you the day before you go on vacation
generally get more done than you normally get done
in two, three, four or five days?
And everybody goes up there, “of course I do”.
All right, and let me tell you why you do that.
First of all you focus on exactly what you've got to do.
Second, you make a list of what needs to be done.
Third, you prioritize those things as to what is important.
Fourth, you get after it with a considerable amount of enthusiasm.
Fifth, you accept the responsibility that if you don't do it
somebody else is going to do it.
Sixth, you make the commitment to do it and seventh, you become a team player.
Now, if that works out well before you go on vacation,
why not do it every day?
Now, let me emphasize a point, by doing it every day one of two things will
happen, you'll either move up the ladder very quickly
or else you will finish what you need to do much more quickly
then you can use the extra time for recreation, personal growth, family time, spiritual goals
are all of the other things.
Lack of time is not the problem, lack of direction is the problem.
Talk to me a little bit about goals, setting goals,
how do we go about doing that?
We begin by writing down everything we want to be, do or have.
Let it sit for 48 hours, then after each thing we've written down
write one word, that is : why?
And if we can articulate in one sentence why we want to be, do or have
then we eliminate that one at that time as a goal
because it's just an idle thought, it's nothing sincere or serious.
How could we tell, what we're serious about?
How can we really design something for our lives that's perhaps
wishful thinking as opposed to reality?
Well, actually, there are seven steps.
You look at what it is that remains on your list
and then you write down, number one : why do?
You write the goal down as number one.
Number two, why do I want to reach this goal?
In other words, what will my benefits be if I reach this goal?
Number three, you identify the obstacles that you will have to overcome to get there.
Number four, you spell out the people, the groups or organizations
you need to work with to get there.
Number five, you identify what you need to know to get there.
Number six, you devise a specific game plan to get there.
And number seven, then you put that date on it.
By the time you've done that, that will eliminate another 90 percent of
all the things you've written down and that saves you enormous amounts of time.
Filtration system.
So many people for so long have been told so many times
what they cannot do they really don't know what they can do.
They have no idea what they want because they don't know what's available for them.
And that's the key for them, they can say, “you or anybody else can get it but not
me”.
The image they have of themselves, the picture they have of themselves
is not that of a winner and until we can persuade them to change the
picture and show them how to change that picture
they're not going to set those goals because they say in their own mind,
“I can’t get them anyhow, what's the use?”
That's the problem there.
How can a person create a healthy self-image if perhaps they don't have a great opinion
of themselves?
Well, one thing they can start, my friend Joe Barton gave me this one,
you list the victories you have had in your life.
I mean, from the day that you can first remember, you'll be astonished to realize that a typical
25 year old person can identify at least two hundred things which
they have done that have been successful, that have been
victories and then when things are not going well
they look at those and that gives them encouragement.
Number two, identify the positive qualities which they have.
And that is anybody can honestly say, “I could be just as honest as the next guy”.
“I can work just as hard”.
“I can be just as enthusiastic”.
“I can develop just as much motivation”.
“I can become just as good as student”.
And anybody with these qualities has got to accomplish that,
the way you dress even can have an impact on it.
The message I try to deliver to people is, play to win, don't play to avoid loss
because the things you fear are the things that's going to happen to you,
set that target on something positive, work for it, expect it.
Bobby Knight at Indiana University says, “the will to win is nothing without the
will to prepare to win”.
Everybody wants to win, but are you willing to prepare to win?
One of the major points I often make is what you do off the job
determines how far you go on the job.
Every athlete, every actor, every singer, every entertainer knows that,
most doctors and attorneys and professionals know that.
Specific example, in the typical American plant
the hourly wage earner watches 30 hours of TV a week,
the person in charge of the land watches 25 hours of television a week,
the foreman watches 20 hours a week, plant superintendent watches 15 hours,
the vice president watches between 12 and 15,
the president watches between 8 and 12, and the chairman of the board watches between
4 and 8 hours of TV, and 50 percent of that time he or she is watching
training videos.
Now, my question is, what would happen to that land worker who watches 30 hours a
week if he were to take away 10 of those hours
a week and study and plan and prepare?
I guarantee you he wouldn’t stay on the land very long.