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You've probably heard that you can only get where you want to be if you know where you're going. This statement is as true now as the first time it was said. So how do you come to know where you're going, so you can get where you want to be? 

Goals are crucial. When we set goals, we're trying to bring each piece of our lives in line with our overall vision for ourselves. Using a powerful vision-setting process can help you set more effective goals since you can chart a course that will take you toward and support your vision. 

Have you written a vision for each area of your life? Your written goals will let you know where you're headed spiritually, socially, relationally, physically, financially, and more?

Use this process to help you create a vision that works for you: 

1. Write down your vision for a particular aspect of your life. Start writing about what you would like to accomplish in your life and what you would like to have also. There's no right or wrong. What you write down is not the finished product. It is a start, and it is crucial to get started. Remember, if you do not know where you are going, you will get there.

• In writing your vision, avoid focusing on what you don't want because this will only bring about more of what you do not want in your life. Turn off the negativity and focus on your new vision.
  
• For example, if you want more money, avoid wording your statement: "I don't want to be poor anymore." Instead, envision what it would be like to be rich, what you want, and write about what it would be like for you.
  
• Although you may feel challenged when first learning to focus on what you want, it gets easier. Plus, the rewards are spectacular when you can do it consistently. You'll start to notice that your life seems as if you can change it at will, which you can. 

2. Carry your vision statement with you. During the day, read the vision statement and imagine that picture in your mind. How does your vision make you feel? Are you excited and scared? This takes up 30 seconds of your life each time. A small investment to change your life.

3. If you feel excited and scared about your vision, that's great. If not, your goals are not big enough. Re-write your goals until you are both excited and scared at the same time. Continue refining the image of your dream life until doing your visualization feels spectacular. 

• At some point, you will be wondering when this process ever ends. It never ends. You will accomplish your goals regularly and need to write a new goal in alignment with your life's vision. 

4. Review your vision daily. Measuring your progress will keep you on track and show you where you need to make adjustments to your plan. Disciplining yourself to review your vision will ensure you accomplish your goals.
5. Create separate vision statements for all the areas of your life. Consider your finances, relationships, adventure, health, social life, and spirituality. If you can get all these visions to look just the way you want, imagine what your life will look like! 

Spend Time On This Process? 

Consider all the actions you take during the day. Are these actions a part of your plan or someone else's plan for your life? If you have not made a plan for your life, someone else will. Everything you do is either moving you closer to your vision or closer to someone else's dream. Wouldn't you rather help yourself reach yours?

Having a vision is the first step to creating the life you desire. Tweak your approach, not your goal. Do this at regular intervals. This gets easier with practice. 

Don't hesitate; create your visions today. Then, start reviewing and improving them immediately. Your life will change rapidly for the better. You'll then be spending your time making your visions a reality instead of making someone else's dream come true.

Change is a part of all of our lives. How we deal with change is often a determining factor in how happy and successful we are. Sometimes we get lucky, and change is gradual or even painless. Other times, change is hard, overwhelming, or downright scary. This kind of change will have a serious impact on our lives when we embrace it. How do we do that, though? Follow these nine tips to find out how. 

1. Make Change Normal

It would help if you changed your attitude about change in general. If you fear even the smallest change, how do you think you will react when changing is hard? Start fostering a more positive attitude towards change. Get used to embracing the easy changes in your life, so your mind is prepared for the hard ones.

2. Not Changing Is Just as Hard

Whenever change gets challenging or overwhelming, stop and make a list of what would happen if you didn't change. Quite often, the pain of not changing outweighs the comfort of not trying to change. If you need the motivation to change, imagine what would happen if you didn't. 

3. Bring a Friend Along

If you are struggling with making a significant change in your life, it can help to bring a friend (or more!) along for the ride. For example, maybe you haven't been able to change to a more healthy lifestyle. You might want to see if any of your friends are also struggling with this change. Doing it together will make things easier, and you will find yourself accountable to each other. 

4. What Can and Can't You Control?

If you are struggling because some massive change is brewing in your life, take some time to reflect. Think about what aspects of this change you can control and which parts are out of your hand. Once that is done, focus solely on the things you have control over. This way, you aren't wasting energy, and you are making sure this life transition will go as smoothly as possible. 

5. Keep a Journal

Journaling is an excellent way to deal with change, especially if you have struggled to deal with it. Journaling allows you a safe space to get all your thoughts and fears out. You will find that some of your trepidation dissipates when the concerns from your head are put on paper.

6. Trust Yourself

A lot of the reason people struggle to change is that they don't believe in themselves. They don't believe they deserve "good change," and they don't think they can handle any negative change. Work on boosting your self-esteem first,  then you will naturally be more open to change. 

7. Your Basic Needs Still Matter

When dealing with a significant change, or life transition, don't forget to take care of yourself. Some changes are so substantial that they are almost all-consuming, but you can't forget your most basic needs. Sleep, diet, and exercise shouldn't be tossed aside because you are too worried about change. 

8. Make a Plan

Change is often scary because it is the unknown. You might be comfortable in your life now, and you aren't sure what happens when things change. If that sounds like you, then make a plan. Creating a plan of action to deal with a specific change will make it easier for you to make that change when the time comes.

9. Failure Isn't The End

A lot of people find making a change hard because they fear failing. The way we feel about failure is because of the way we have been taught. It was all wrong. School rewarded an incorrect answer with a big “Red” checkmark. Is it any wonder that we fear making a mistake after that conditioning. Remember that those “Red” Checkmarks were only a gauge of our memorization skills. Now is the time to stop using a grading method for memorization and start using what does not give you your desired result as information to help formulate the next step towards your goal. Failure isn't an ending. It's merely a signal for you to try something different.

Action Steps:

1. Define the change. Think about the change that you are struggling to make. Clearly define what that change is. Be as specific as possible.
2. Why do you want to change? List all of the reasons that you want to make this change. Focus on the positives. What will this change improve in your life?
3. What if I don't change? Now list all of the negative outcomes if you don't make this change. How will it affect you? How will it impact the people you love?

Studies show that putting your SMART goals into writing and reviewing them regularly will increase your chances of success. Some studies show that you are as much as 42% more likely to follow through with your goals if you write them down. Writing your goals down will help you get a clear picture of your plan and what you want to accomplish. Logging your goals will also help motivate you to complete the tasks needed to achieve your goal. Frequently reviewing what you’ve written will aid in reminding you of your plan, as well as remind you of your “why,” in turn, boosting your motivation to keep progressing toward your goal.

Writing your goals down as you set them; will help your brain encode the plan, further solidifying your goal. The mere act of writing an idea down makes it more likely you will remember it. This is why college students take notes in lectures. Note-taking provides a much higher probability of retaining the information. Similarly, when you draft your goal in writing, you have a better chance of success. After writing out your goal, be sure to place it somewhere that you can see it easily. Places like on the fridge, on your phone, on a mirror, at your desk are all excellent areas where you can easily visually access your goal. Seeing the words you wrote out serves as a reminder and motivation to continue with your efforts.

Not only will you be reminded of your goal by visually seeing the words written, but you should also take the time for an active review of your plan. Regularly, actively reviewing your written goal will increase your chances of success. A diligent study of your goal should include contemplating the reasons behind your motivation for the goal, your “why.” Thinking about the reasons you set the particular goal will boost your motivation by reminding you why the goal matters to you, why you set it and what you expect to gain from it. Reviewing your goal will aid in renewed purpose and incentive, ultimately bumping up your likelihood of success.

Countless studies find that writing out your goals produces higher success rates. Placing the words you’ve written in an easily accessible spot and reviewing them often will also help ensure that you follow through with the SMART goals you set for yourself.

Deadlines are essential motivators in goal setting. That’s why the T, in SMART Goals, refers to the term time-bound. Time-bound means the time you allocate for you to complete your goal. An obvious start and end date for your goals are an influential piece of your goal-setting plan. When you set beginning and end times for yourself, you are better able to stay on track, give you the ability to focus on your goal, and provide you with something to work toward. Mini-deadlines will help you keep up the motivation because you will celebrate your smaller successes along the way. Deadlines will also help with time management, making your goal more easily accomplished. Managing your time well will help you allocate your time where needed, toward achieving your goal. Parkinson’s Law states that work will expand to fill the time allotted. So, be careful not to allow three months to complete a task when it could be done in one month.

Time-bound goals have a start and end date. Setting a time frame for yourself when you expect to complete your goal will give you a sense of urgency. Time-bound goals also keep you focused on the task you have laid out for yourself by prioritizing your everyday tasks. It’s easy to get caught up in the things we have to get done in life. Work and family obligations often take over. Having a mentor or being part of a mastermind group will keep you from letting other tasks take over. When the goal is time-bound, it helps keep the goal in the forefront, with a sense of necessity.

Mini-deadlines are another way that time-bound goals help ensure success. You can set yourself some smaller deadlines within your primary goal and reward yourself for those mini successes along the way. For example, let’s say your goal is to walk for 30 minutes, five times a week for three months, in the evening, when you get home from work, to get healthier. The deadline here is for three months. An example of a useful mini goal could be at the one week mark. If you check-in with yourself every Friday evening and you have followed through with walking for 30 minutes every evening after work for that week, you have completed your mini-goal. If you allow yourself a small reward for achieving the mini-goal, you will further solidify success.

If you have not achieved your mini-goal, examine why you have not accomplished your plan. Then make the adjustments necessary to achieve the goal. Making these adjustments will ensure you hit your final destination.

Time-sensitive goals are an essential part of the SMART Goals method. Setting deadlines will increase your productivity and help ensure your success.

In goal-setting, “your why” refers to the relevance that the particular goal has in your life. Relevance is the R in the SMART Goals method of goal setting. This part of setting a goal for yourself is crucial because it’s about ensuring that the goal is important to you. There’s little point in putting time and effort into a destination that truly doesn’t matter to you. Goals should drive us forward towards something significant. The relevance of the goal you are setting needs to align with your other life plans. If not, you will need to adjust your other life plans. Decide the significance of a dream by answering a few questions about the goal and your current life.

Before answering these questions, it would benefit you to have a mentor or be part of a mastermind group. A mentor or mastermind group will keep you from setting your goals too low. What you see as attainable, the right time, or having the ability to achieve the plan will probably be seen through a set of limiting beliefs that are holding you to small dreams.

Questions like:

Does this goal seem worthwhile? Is the tradeoff of time and effort worth the result?

Does it align well with my other efforts and goals? Are other aspects of your life driving forward in the same direction?

Is this the right time for this goal? Does this goal fit in with your personal goals? Does it make sense financially?

Am I the right person for this goal? Is this goal attainable? Do I have the skills and ability to succeed in the plan?

Coming up with answers to these questions will help you determine the goal’s relevance in your life. Some of these questions are not necessarily straightforward, black and white. You will need to dig deep to answer some of these questions to find the real “why” of your desired goal, to know if it’s relevant enough to move forward.

An example of a goal relevant to one’s life might be for someone whose goal is to be promoted in their field, take available online courses, and gain knowledge and experience of their desired position. This plan is worthwhile because it provides professional expertise. They offer the courses online so that you can take them at a time convenient for the subject. Online courses are affordable, so most likely, they will make financial sense. The online courses will ultimately propel the matter toward an even bigger goal, the eventual promotion.

The relevance of a goal is an integral part of goal setting. Deciding if a goal is relevant helps you match your dreams to the rest of your life, helps you know if the goal matters to you, and if it is the right time to achieve the goal. Sometimes, one must genuinely examine themselves and their life to determine the relevance of the desired destination.

Measuring your progress for the goals you've set is the second part of the SMART Goals method. After all, you won't know if you're making progress or gaining on your goal without a way to measure it. When progress is measurable, you can track how far you've come, keep focused, and stay motivated by celebrating the small milestones you complete along the way. To facilitate assessing your progress, you'll need a set of criteria for the measurement of progress.

Similar to the Specific step used in SMART Goals, you will need to answer a few questions regarding your goal as a criterion for measuring progress data:

How many?

How much?

What is the indicator of progress?

How many or how much refers to progress as an indicator of what success for your specific goal looks like. The progress gauge signifies how you decide to track the progress you have made. This varies significantly depending on the goal. If it's a business goal, maybe the indicator of progress is gross sales. Or it might be the number of pounds lost per week if your goal is to get to a healthier weight. Tracking how far you've come within the plan is essential because it will keep you focused on your ultimate goal. Motivation is maintained by the ability to celebrate the milestones of the progress you have along the way.

Using the same goal as above, to lose 10 pounds by exercising more. More precisely stated, "I will go to the gym to work out for 45 minutes every weekday morning before work, to lose 2 pounds per week." Now that the goal is specific and clearly stated, we have added the quantity of measurement for the objective, 2 pounds per week. In this case, the indicator of measurement would be the scale. In the arena of business, an example might be, if the goal is, "I will build brand awareness through social media, to increase gross profits by 10% per month." The quantity of measurement and indictor is the profit increase in comparison to previous months.

Putting the SMART Goals method to use has proven to produce a higher success rate for goal achievement. Measuring your goals is an integral part of this process. When you track your progress, you will have the ability to stay more motivated towards your goal and keep a stronger focus.

Specificity is crucial as it relates to mapping out the goals you set for yourself. Overly generalized goals will produce a lack of direction and the ability to focus on what’s important. Goals that are too vague will end up setting you up for failure. For example, let’s say you want to drink more water per day. “I will drink more water every day” is far too general. Lack of specificity will enable you to make excuses. The wording doesn’t hold you accountable; it is not enough of a detailed plan to follow through. Instead, clarify the specifics. Answering some questions about your goal will pinpoint your intention and narrow down the specifics. You must answer what’s known as the “5 W’s” of necessary information gathering; Who? What? When? Where? Why? Answering these five questions will help you develop specific clarity and motivation towards your goal. Answer these five questions to draft your goal:

Who will this goal involve?

What exactly do I want to accomplish?

When do I want to accomplish this goal?                                                                        

Where will you achieve this goal?

Why is this goal important to me?

After answering the questions, you can set your goal with a definite plan. Your goal will look something like this: “I will drink eight glasses of water every day - 2 glasses in the morning before breakfast, two glasses with lunch, two glasses after the gym, and two glasses before bed to become healthier. This goal is specific and direct. It explicitly states what your expectations are for yourself and enables accountability.

Another example of a goal without detail and focus is “I will exercise more.” This goal is positive and relevant. However, it lacks specificity, and therefore it becomes a setup for failure. Answering the five w’s will provide the specifics you need to set meaningful, constructive goals that will give a higher rate of success in achievement. After answering these questions, you will end up drafting a plan that sounds more like this, “I will exercise at the gym for 45 minutes, every weekday morning before I go to work.” This statement is a detailed plan for what, where, how, and when you intend to accomplish your objective. Its details will ensure a higher goal success rate than that of the first, vaguer statement.

S stands for specific, in the acronym, SMART goals. Drafting specific goals is the first step in coming up with goals that stick and are successful.

We can define goals as objects of a person’s ambition or an aim at the desired result. Most of us have some goals set out for ourselves to improve our lives. We can relate our goals to personal or professional progress. Either way, without goals, there’s not much room for advancement, and without the challenge of reaching a goal you’ve set for yourself, life would be stagnant.  But the process in which we set goals for ourselves matters. Although you are responsible for whether you follow through with the goals you’ve set for yourself, how you set them has a hand in determining how successful you’ll be in achieving them. The term SMART Goals refers to a process in which you set the goals that will give you greater success. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. The SMART goals method will help you with your organization, focus, and clarity with your goals. Research has shown that using the SMART goals method can save you time and simplify reaching your goals. SMART goals are easy to implement and can be used by anyone to improve their life by setting and achieving goals.

The SMART Goals method of goal setting works because it lays each step out for you. The S stands for specific, meaning the goal needs to be clear and specific. When setting a goal for yourself, you must steer away from generalized statements. The more precise the goal is, the better. M is for measurable. Measurable goals refer to tracking your progress. Your goal will be easier met if you can assess progress along the way, giving you more motivation and focus toward your ultimate ambition—next, A. The A is for attainable. Although your goals should help stretch you outside of your comfort zone and push you to the next level, the goals you set must remain achievable. R, relevant objectives are imperative to your success. This means that your set goals should be important to you and aligns well with your life and other goals you have set. Finally, T, for time-bound. Your goals should have a deadline to achieve them. This will help keep you on track and focused and give you opportunities to celebrate your small wins along the way. By implementing the SMART Goals system, you will gain the ability to achieve your goals faster, and with a higher success rate.

Continuing with your goals after experiencing severe failures is not easy, and it may seem impossible. Nonetheless, there are quite a few things you can do to ensure you keep working on turning your dreams into reality, no matter how many times you fail.

If you master the seven things that have the power to help you remain motivated to continue reaching for your dreams, you will be unstoppable. No form of failure can get in the way of succeeding in anything you do.

1. Look at the failure from a different perspective.

   “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill. We all experience failure from time to time. The difference between quitters and those who continue working on their goals is that high-achievers know that it doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It only matters how you choose to respond to failure. 

The world’s famous high-achievers reached their breakthroughs after experiencing severe failures because they decided never to give up. Steven Spielberg is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter who is one of the most famous producers and directors in film history with a net worth of 3,6 billion USD in 2020. 

None of what he has accomplished would have been possible if he gave up on his dreams or himself after being rejected from the University of Southern California School of Theater, Film, and Television three times. He knew what he wanted to accomplish and kept moving forward. Today he has won over 15 awards, and he also co-founded DreamWorks pictures along with other outstanding achievements. 

2. Take valuable lessons from the bad experience.

   Every failure comes with an important lesson that can get you a step closer to your goal. You just have to recognize what that lesson is. Thinking “What valuable lesson can I take from this” will always help you look at failure from a different viewpoint. 

3. Keep moving.

    I understand how difficult believing in something that didn’t turn out the way you expected is. Nonetheless, no matter what happens, you have to keep believing in what you intend to accomplish if you are going to make it happen. Keep believing and keep moving, even if it means taking the smallest steps. The little steps you take after a disappointment will add up in the long run, and you will be grateful for them. 

4. Do not let the failure define you.

   One mistake you can make after an awful defeat is to let the fact that you failed at what you were working on define you. If you do that, you will be blind to the things that you can change and spend most of your time thinking about the things you have no control over. Think of failure as a stepping stone toward your destiny instead of letting it define you.

5. Have a strong support system.

   Sometimes you need a mentor telling you that everything will work out fine in the end. It is that kind of assurance that can make a huge difference in your life. Surround yourself with people who will be there for you when you need them. Strengthen ties with people who are more inclined to say, “This is hard, but you can still come up from it” as opposed to “At least you tried, you gave it your best.” 

6. Rediscover your energy and zeal.

   What is the main thing that has the power to revive your spirits and get you excited about your goals or life in general? That is what you need to be doing when you feel you don’t have the strength to go on. If you are empowered by spending some time alone, try going on a vacation and make sure you leave your life behind once you arrive. Your next best idea can come up when you are away from everything and just focusing on yourself. 

7. Come up with a different plan.

    Your failure may have been caused by the plan you have in place or your implementation of it. Consider coming up with a different plan or another way of executing the strategy you already have in place. Sometimes all you need to succeed is a different approach.

'Your success in any endeavor depends on your willingness to never give up, even when the reward is delayed.' - Harvey Mackay.

Susan B Anthony was an advocate for American women's rights to vote in the late 1800s. The majority opinion was that women didn't have to vote or be equal to men. They labeled anyone who wanted to change that notion a troublemaker. For that reason, some admired Susan while others despised her. She let nothing deter her, soldiering on until she had a significant following. At one gathering thrown in honor of her work, she received flower bouquets and joked about a particular time in her political career when people had thrown plenty of things at her, which were not flowers. Before her death, people asked Susan if her pursuits had been worth all the things she had gone through. Her answer was a definite yes. They enacted the law allowing women to vote around 1920, several years after her death. American women and the rest of the world, in general, will always attribute their ability to vote in the present and future times to Susan's persistence and determination to fight the system on their behalf.

Perseverance separates the success stories from failures. It separates the winners from the quitters. Any exceptional person significant enough to write about in the world's history books has faced tremendous challenges in their various pursuits. What clinches success is the determination to win despite those challenges. We should never leave success to chance or luck—Hard work, persistence, and an attitude that refuses to take no for an answer shape it.

Why perseverance is essential.

Everyone wants success in whatever they start, but we forget the hardships lying on the path to that success. Here is what separates us. Some make a decision with their heart, and others use their emotions to start towards their goal.  A frothy emotional appeal will get you to the point where the trials come. If you made a decision with your heart, no matter what gets in your way, you would surmount it. We are human enough to fall short of our goals a couple of times, despite our meticulous planning and goal-getter mindset. Any failure you encounter will chip away at your confidence and self-belief. It becomes easier to believe that you do not have what it takes, and that results in a great temptation to throw in the towel and settle for something less risky.  

The road to success is not a straight line. It requires a level of alertness to navigate the bumps and steer clear of the failure-sized manholes waiting for your fall. Perseverance takes you to your destination despite those setbacks. What guarantees you success is getting up after every fall. Determination and persistence mean you will fight for your dream, despite the temptation to give up. It means that you know that the journey is rough but will risk the discomfort to get the rewards when you reach your destination.

Rewards of perseverance.

• Reaping the fruit of your labor.

Agricultural metaphors can represent the story of success. There is a lot of groundwork before you can see the harvest. The planning stage is preparing the land. Next, you plant something to reap. Part with something of yourself in your pursuit of success, pouring it into the ground and waiting for it to yield fruit. After that, nurture the plant by watering it regularly and weeding out whatever is hindering it from growing. Invest in your dream by watering it with the required resources. See what has the potential to choke or compete with your vision and weed it out. All processes involved are not glamorous. They demand hard work and persistence. Only then can you expect fruit to break forth. You also need to be patient, as fruits will not grow overnight. Pour what you can into your dream and be patient before you quit. 

• Building confidence for future

Accomplishing a challenging task will bring you a lot of confidence when you tackle the next leg of your journey. Your excitement to take on more tasks comes from knowing that you persevered in previous endeavors, including those that seemed impossible. You develop the confidence to deliver better on your goals. This also does wonders for your repertoire. You can give your clientele reasons to choose you over your competitors when you articulate your past successes. Eventually, you come highly recommended in your sphere, which is the greatest reward for anyone whose dreams offer a service to others. Persevering and winning because of it will always open doors for the future.

• You learn more about who you

The journey to achieving your goals is often long and trying. Being determined to succeed teaches you a lot about who you are. If you quit easily, you get to know your low threshold for patience. If you persevere, you also get to learn about your strengths and limitations, so you can work the strengths to your advantage and find ways through your limitations.

Rewards are not always instant, but with perseverance, they are a guarantee.

Be willing to persist in the face of challenges, and you will be well on your way to success.

Never give up if you know you are right.

Remain courageous and confident when you know the odds are against you.

Permit no one to intimidate you or shake your belief in yourself.

Take new courage and resolve from the many successful people who faced incredible challenges to find greatness.

To succeed, you might have to fail without giving in to the temptation to quit. Have the courage to go after what you want, regardless of the many times you will miss the mark. Seeing your dream come true will bring fulfillment in ways that will overshadow any failure you encounter. Giving up will only bring a lifetime of regrets. So instead of quitting when the going gets tough, push forward and claim your victory.

The myths around failure.

When people commit to their dream, the expectation is that passion, coupled with excellent planning, will prevent failure. The truth, however, is nothing worth pursuing is that predictable. Many unforeseen circumstances can still knock your legs out from under you, even with all the planning. You could expect setbacks and still be ill-prepared to handle them. Certain things might catch you off-guard. You need to accept that reality if you are to build resilience in the face of adversity.

At ten, doctors diagnosed Kieran Behan, a young boy with a dream to become an Olympic gymnast, with a cancerous tumor on his thigh. The doctors decided on an operation to remove the tumor, but it went so bad that he suffered nerve damage. He received the news that he would never walk again. With great determination, Kieran started his journey of recovery. After fifteen months in a wheelchair, he found his way back to the gym, only to slip from a top bar a few months later. He sustained a head injury that took him out of school for a year. His determination to become a professional gymnast saw him retraining his brain to get his co-ordination back. Years later, he persisted and qualified for the European Championships. Unfortunately, the strain he had put on himself had caused several fractures and a blown knee. The youthful man was ready to give in until he remembered his goal. He pushed himself past the pain to become the Challenge World Cup floor champion in 2011. He realized his dream of competing at the Olympics when he qualified as a contender in 2012. Though he never won the gold medal, the young man's resilience brought him where the expert doctors had said he would never walk. Kieran did not let anyone steal his dream from him.

Failure does not always mean that you should rethink the vision. Sometimes, it means your methods did not work the way you thought they would. It could be the right indicator towards a better way of tackling the work ahead. Do not quit because you failed once. Instead, give yourself room to fail a few more times before throwing in the towel. Somewhere along the way lies victory. Don't miss it just because you encounter a few stumbling blocks.

How to stay motivated when quitting is easier. 

• Remind yourself why you started.

Remember the excitement you developed upon discovering your passion? Everything seemed so possible, so within reach until you encountered the first few hurdles that showed you, it would not be a walk in the park. When you doubt yourself and your ability to perform well in your endeavors, take time to remind yourself why you chose that dream. Remind yourself of the strides made so far and how those achievements validated your pursuit. Remind yourself of how it felt to see things falling into place, and it will encourage you to jump right back into it.

• Keep your eyes on the prize. 

Many people lose sight of the bigger picture when things take a sticky turn. This loss of focus is dangerous as it amplifies failures. It becomes easier to compare your progress with your peers, and comparison seldom yields any good. Keeping the end goal within your sights will help the vision seem closer and more attainable. Visualize the feeling of contentment you will get once the rewards come through, and it will motivate you to pull through towards your victory. 

• Take the road less traveled.

Successful people are risk-takers. They will do what no one else is comfortable doing. Whatever seems daunting to the ordinary person is fodder for a winning mindset. While it is essential to plan, one can easily quit at the planning stage because they feel they are not up to the task. If you are going to win, you will need to perfect the art of leaping into challenging tasks before you are ready. Do not allow room for stagnancy. It only brings a greater level of discomfort and disappointment in the event of setbacks. Always stretch yourself to build resilience for adverse seasons. Set a few challenging goals that will shake off complacency and gear you up for tough times.

• When it's overwhelming, ask for help.

No man is an island. While you must be ready to pursue your passion alone, you will need others to achieve your dream. Surround yourself with a healthy support system. The kind that does not clip your freedom to try things and that is available to help build your confidence back up when things are not going your way. Find people who can provide a safe space in which you can discuss your fears with no fear of judgment or ridicule. Reach out to people who have gone ahead of you and find out how they stayed the course when faced with challenges of their own. Stay away from people who say, "well, at least you tried."

When quitting is tempting, look at yourself in the mirror and repeat, "I will not quit until I am living the life I dream of!"

 Are you losing motivation? It happens to the best of us. But there are tricks to staying motivated, many of which involve taking a hard look at your goals. With a little preparation and solid planning, there’s no reason why you can’t stay motivated through whatever project you’ve set out for yourself.

How?

1. Start with the big picture. What is it you’re trying to accomplish? Having an idea of the eventual goal will help you to stay on track. The clearer the vision, the more likely you are to keep going, even when times get tough. Ask yourself what it is you’re trying to achieve – and then picture yourself achieving it. The visualization step is the most important one here. We tend to perform in the way we expect to. So if we expect to fail, we do. By seeing success, you’re more likely to attain success.
2. Now that you’ve gotten the big picture, make sure this is YOUR goal. At first glance, that statement seems ridiculous – why would you make a goal that isn’t your own? This answer can be found most easily in asking WHY you want to accomplish this goal. If the word “should” comes up, then chances are you might want to re-evaluate what you’re doing. We often set goals because we feel like they’re something we’re supposed to do, and not because they’re something we want to do. You’re less likely to stay motivated when you’re on the path of ‘should.’
3. Next, you’ll want to break those tasks down into something manageable. Now that you have a goal and are sure it’s something you want to do, you might feel a little overwhelmed about how you’re going to accomplish that goal. By breaking it up into smaller pieces, you regain the feeling that you’re doing something possible. Like a pro tip? Celebrate the small successes as you go. That will help keep the motivation levels high.
4. If you’re still a little overwhelmed, get organized. It might be that you don’t feel prepared to work on this project because you lack the research or supplies. Figure out what you need and then go about making sure you have the proper tools to get the job done. It’s easier to stay motivated when you have what you need to succeed.

5. If all else fails, remember why you set the goal in the first place. It could be you only need a little reminder of your previous motivation to find the fresh motivation to keep going.
6. Take care of yourself. If you do not eat nutritious food regularly, rest, and relax, you will become run down, tired, and irritable. Motivation will be hard to maintain when you are tired and cranky.

Motivation isn’t something you have to lose as you work on a project. You can keep your motivation levels high with a little forethought and planning. By staying on track with your goals, you’ll find that motivation will likewise keep on track, guiding you through the job at hand until completion.

Journaling is not just for 12-year-old girls! Journaling can be a powerful weapon in your get-it-done arsenal, and it’s easy to do. You can and should put all kinds of things in a goal journal, not just your thoughts and feelings on a given day.

Journaling is just one way of tracking your actions and successes, and yes, even your setbacks and failures. It also keeps your goal right in front of your face, so you stay on top of taking action steps every day. It keeps all your ideas and revelations in one place so you can go back and review whenever you want. For example, you are having trouble getting motivated because you feel like you’ve been working hard, but making little progress, going back into your goal journal is a wonderful way to help you see that all of those small actions are paying off in a big way. So what should you keep in your goal journal? Start with these ideas and add to them as you see fit.

1. Detailed goal--Write down your exact goal in as much detail as possible. Describe it in a way that makes you feel excited about what your life will be like when you achieve your objective.
2. Your Why--Your Why is the big reason why you want to reach the goal you have defined for yourself. It’s the reason you are willing to take the massive action steps needed to change your life for the better.
3. Massive action plans and schedule--When you make the plan for how you will go about reaching your goal, write it here. Writing it down is essential so that you can track your efforts so you can see what actions are creating the most results.
4. Braindumps--A brain dump is just a list of actions that you need to take in no particular order. Sometimes all the tasks you need to take build up in your head, making you confused about where you should start and what you should do next.
5. Prioritize--After you do a brain dump, organize the tasks into a priority list and add them to your daily and weekly to-do lists.
6. Daily to-do list--Write out your to-do lists here, so they are always handy.
7. Aha’s--As you take massive action, you will have inspiration or aha moments when something becomes apparent. Capture those ideas here so that you can refer to them later when you are ready to put them into action.
8. Journal entries--Yes, you should journal. Sometimes there’s nothing better than a stream of consciousness writing to help you solve a problem or get your worries off your chest. It’s a therapeutic and inspirational way to work.

The most important single step to huge success is Shoot for the stars. We had all dreamed big when we were kids. Most of us dreamed of being the President of the United States, sports star, astronaut, actor, model, writer, or a rock star... Being a writer was one for me.

These goals are pretty universal for most of us. Whatever your goal as a child was it did not take long for it to be labeled as foolish or impractical. If this did not happen to you, feel lucky. The adults in our life started to indoctrinate us into the world of practicality. All though well-meaning, practicality is not the path to fulfilling your dreams.

Very few of us were shown how to shoot for the stars. Our school systems are designed to get us to fall in line and be practical. There is no other way the schools can operate. You just need to know that this is the case so you can find the tools you need to find and follow your real dreams.

The most important single step to massive success is to find the talents God gave you and choose a big dream to use these talents. After you have found this dream make a decision to own it as your own.

What Does it Mean to Shoot for the Stars?

 Quite simply it means pulling out all the stops and doing everything you possibly can to get to where you need/want to be in life. Need and want's become one. If they are divided, then you will fail. When you find what your God-given talents are and you discover this dream inside you, it becomes a need. It is your destiny and purpose in life. This means putting 100% effort in and doing everything you possibly can to accomplish your aims.

I will use myself as an example. I always read a lot. When you read a lot, you dream of writing a book. I quit school. I was taught that this meant most doors would be shut to me when I quit school. My Dad taught me to work with what I had and never stop till you get it done. This took years before I figured out how to follow that training. In 2012 I stood in front of a group of men and told them if they were back in 2013 I would hand them a copy of a book I wrote.

At the time I did not know how to write, publish, design the cover, or pick and research a topic. I  shot for the stars. With only a dream and the commitment to write a book in 2013, I handed that group of gentlemen the book that I had written and published.

Accomplishing that dream empowered me to shut down the voices of practicality that warn me against failure and suggest the safe path in life.  The accomplished goal reminds me of what Henry Thoreau said: "most people lead lives of quiet desperation."  Since then I have written three other books. My last book "Discover Yourself Through Gratitude - A Journal" was the motivation to follow a dream of starting an online community where people can come and talk about developing Gratitude in their lives. That is how The Good Life Mall became a reality.

An indispensable tool in following my dreams is the people I choose to associate with. I need people

who dream big in my life. If you can not find other successful dreamers, use the people at The Good Life Mall till you do. Remember, the most important single step to immense success is to find your dream and go for it.

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