"Well it would be lovely to have this."

A goal says,

"I'm going to have this. I plan to have this. I plan to become this and to attain this."

Imagine you are running around the track in a race with a whole lot of other people. You are just jogging along saying,

"Well I hope I come first. I hope I make it to the end."

You will never accomplish anything.

Aim Your Sights at the Goal

You have to set your goal. You have to say,

"That is my goal and I am aiming for that mark. I am pushing with all that I can, and I'm going to attain that goal. I'm going to attain it in such and such a time, and I'm going to break the record."

People do not break records in sports by accident. They seldom do it by saying,

"Well I was just running along doing my best. And what do you know? I beat the record."

The person who made the record before didn't get there that way either. He made up his mind and said,

"That's it, the record is so many minutes. I'm going to do it in less. I'm going to push myself, I'm going to go for the mark and do it in less time."

He set a goal. He aimed for that goal and he fulfilled it. He made it happen.

You Will Do It

Do you want your dreams to become reality? Then they must now become very clear goals. The operative word in dreams was 'want'. The operative word in goals is 'will'.

In your dream you said,

"One day I would like to do this."

But when it comes to goals you say,

"By such and such a time period I will do this."

Can you see the difference? I thought I was setting goals in the past, but all I was doing was writing down my dreams. I found it difficult to answer the question,

"Where will you be five years from now?"

I thought, "Well I hope that within five years I will have reached a better stage than what I am now."

All I did was to pick a little goal that was a possibility.

Unrealistic Goals

Then you have those who try to shoot for the stars. They say,

"Well everything has gone wrong in my life, so therefore I am bound to be a success. I am going to get out there and become a millionaire overnight."

That is a good dream, but it's a fantasy. You ask them,

"So how much money have you been earning up until now?"

"Well I was just fired from my job."

How can that possibly qualify a person to become a millionaire?

You ask, "How are you going to reach this millionaire status if you couldn't even reach the status of getting your salary at the end of the month? What goal do you have and what plan do you have to reach it?

"Well, it's going to happen now. I'm just going to visualize it until it takes place."

Many people seem to think that's all it is. You just visualize it until it takes place. And some people think they can just pray until it takes place. They say,

"God will just do it all for me. If I pray hard enough it will happen. He will answer my prayers, and He will give me my dreams."

Somebody will come knocking on the door one day and say,

"Oh by the way, we just had instruction to bring this to you. It is one million dollars. Here it is, in a case."

You say, "Well I've been praying hard that this would happen, and that's what happened."

"And so after you prayed what did you do?"

"Well you know the Bible says that we should get down and say, 'Give us this day our daily bread.' "

"So then you went and stood outside, looked up into the sky and waited for your daily bread to come flying out of the sky?"

You Can't Just Wait

That's what many people seem to think. If you dream big enough and you pray hard enough, it will just come to you.

Have you heard the story about the man who was in a flood? He was praying that the Lord would save him from drowning. A boat came by and offered to pick him up and he said,

"No it's alright. God is going to save me."

Three more people came and offered to save him, but he gave the same answer each time. In the end he drowned, and when he got to heaven He complained to God and said,

"Why did you let me drown?"

God said, "I sent four boats and you never took them."

People have their dreams, their faith and their prayer, and they are just waiting for it to happen. They say,

"We'll just wait until it happens. Good luck and good fortune will shine upon me."

No, you have to DO something too. You have to open your eyes and see the opportunities that are around you. You have to take the resources that are available to you and aim for the goal.

Set a Time Period

Goals always have a specific time orientation. If you don't set a time you will not make the effort.

When you had a simple goal like graduating from High School, you had a certain time in which to do it. When you went to College and wanted to get a degree, you had a certain time in which to reach your goal. You didn't think,

"Well I'll just sit here at College for a couple of years until one day they just give me a degree."

No, you knew very clearly how many years you were going to study, what it was going to require, and by what year you were going to finish. Then you were going to write the exam, you were going to qualify, and then get your degree.

You Need to Do Something

It has to have a deadline, and you have to know what is involved. You have to say,

"I'm going to have to attend lectures every day. I will have to buy some books and read. Then I'm going to have to do a lot of writing, and I will have to write examinations."

There are things that you will have to do along the way to attain those goals. You had better know what they are, and you had better be prepared to do them, otherwise don't aim for the goal.

If you plan to aim for the goal, you need to know how long it will take. You need to know what it is going to cost you in time and effort. You need to make a commitment that says,

"That's it. I am aiming for the goal and I will pay the price."

Release Forces to Make it Happen

Now what happens when you set that thing in motion; when you set the goals and you commit yourself to them? You begin to release the forces that will bring your dreams to manifestation.

Goals release the forces that will create and bring into manifestation the things that you dreamed of. Goals have that power, and without goals they are just dead dreams and visions.

Once you have a goal, you make a commitment to that goal. You set a deadline, and prepare to do whatever you have to in order to reach that goal.

You've taken your dream out of the realm of fantasy and brought it into the realm of reality. You have said something like,

"By the age of 35 I will be a millionaire."

"Before I turn 40 I will have traveled to many nations in the world."

You must put this substance into your goals.

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