One of the skills most useful to the self-reliant individual is the ability to set and chase goals. You want an emergency fund, increase your earning potential, or become skilled in home repair? Thing usually don’t just happen, either. What you want is not going to happen until you make it happen. One of the best ways to make it happen is to make goals.

Napoleonic Goal Setting

The chapter on desire in “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill contains a formula for what he calls “transforming desire into money,” however, this method of setting and reaching goals really could be used to transform desire into pretty much anything you pick. In his own words, here are the six steps:

First. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as to the amount.

Second. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.)

Third. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.

Fourth. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.

Fifth. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.

Sixth. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning. AS YOU READ- SEE AND FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.

There’s no great secret here. Choose a definite goal. Be willing to do what it takes. Think about how you’re going to reach it. Do something to move yourself closer to the goal every day. It’s simple, straightforward, and effective.

Setting real goals and chasing them with a positive attitude is a recipe for success. It shouldn’t be that hard to do, but very few ever seem to do it. Why is that? I think it’s because it sounds too easy, and deep down people want the solution to their problems to be difficult. The hardest part is getting off your backside and beginning the process.

Focus On One Goal

In The Art of Money Getting, P.T. Barnum Wrote:

Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it. A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last, so that it can be clinched. When a man’s undivided attention is centered on one object, his mind will constantly be suggesting improvements of value, which would escape him if his brain was occupied by a dozen different subjects at once. Many a fortune has slipped through a man’s fingers became he was engaged in too many occupations at a time. There is good sense in the old caution against having too many irons in the fire at once.

The sun puts out a tremendous amount of energy, but no matter how dry the wood is, just setting it in the sun will never start a fire. Alone the sun may burn your skin, warm your water or dry up your garden, but it will never be enough to light a candle. However, when focused even with a small magnifying glass, the sun will almost instantly produce smoke, and soon fire.

Just like the fire, our goals require focus. Focus makes success possible. When we are striving to reach a big goal, our energies must be focused. Spreading out our time and effort among too many goals is a waste.

Just pick one big goal and concentrate on it. Keep concentrating until you have achieved. You will get it soon enough, and then you can work on your next goal.

I believe there is an Irish proverb that sums it up best, “If you want to do many things, do them, one at a time.”

Persistence, or “Got Cannon?”

In An Iron Will, by Orison Swett Marden we read:

We hear a great deal of talk about genius, talent, luck, chance, cleverness, and fine manners playing a large part in one’s success. Leaving out luck and chance, all these elements are important factors. Yet the possession of any or all of them, unaccompanied by a definite aim, a determined purpose, will not insure success. Men drift into business. They drift into society. They drift into politics. They drift into what they fondly and but vainly imagine is religion. If winds and tides are favorable, all is well; if not, all is wrong. Stalker says: “Most men merely drift through life, and the work they do is determined by a hundred different circumstances; they might as well be doing anything else, or they would prefer to be doing nothing at all.” Yet whatever else may have been lacking in the giants of the race, the men who have been conspicuously successful have all had one characteristic in common–doggedness and persistence of purpose.

It does not matter how clever a youth may be, whether he leads his class in college or outshines all the other boys in his community, he will never succeed if he lacks this essential of determined persistence.

…

Persistency of purpose is a power. It creates confidence in others. Everybody believes in the determined man. When he undertakes anything his battle is half won, because not only he himself, but every one who knows him, believes that he will accomplish whatever he sets out to do. People know that it is useless to oppose a man who uses his stumbling-blocks as stepping-stones; who is not afraid of defeat; who never, in spite of calumny or criticism, shrinks from his task; who never shirks responsibility; who always keeps his compass pointed to the north star of his purpose, no matter what storms may rage about him.

The persistent man never stops to consider whether he is succeeding or not. The only question with him is how to push ahead, to get a little farther along, a little nearer his goal. Whether it lead over mountains, rivers, or morasses, he must reach it. Every other consideration is sacrificed to this one dominant purpose.

The success of a dull or average youth and the failure of a brilliant one is a constant surprise in American history. But if the different cases are closely analyzed we shall find that the explanation lies in the staying power of the seemingly dull boy, the ability to stand firm as a rock under all circumstances, to allow nothing to divert him from his purpose.

I like the metaphor of the journey of a ship at sea. If the ship has no set course, no set destination, it could end up anywhere and will almost assuredly not end up anywhere useful. The ship will eventually get to port only if the crew continually checks their course and move towards it. If there is a storm and the boat gets knocked off course, the crew can reset the course, point it back to the chosen destination, and press onward. If an island gets in the way, the ship just goes around it.

So it is with our goals. If we have unclear, constantly changing goals, we will end up wherever life takes us, probably not anywhere spectacular. If you we take note of where are life is going and act to accordingly, we reach our goals. When we have a setback, we can just pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start again. If there is an obstacle in our way, we have to search until we find a way around it. If we set our goals and are relentless in pursuing them, we have no other option than to eventually attain them.

Again from The Art of Money Getting, P. T. Barnum writes:

Take two generals; both understand military tactics, both educated at West Point, if you please, both equally gifted; yet one, having this principle of perseverance, and the other lacking it, the former will succeed in his profession, while the latter will fail. One may hear the cry, “the enemy are coming, and they have got cannon.”

“Got cannon?” says the hesitating general.

“Yes.”

“Then halt every man.”

He wants time to reflect; his hesitation is his ruin; the enemy passes unmolested, or overwhelms him; while on the other hand, the general of pluck, perseverance and self-reliance, goes into battle with a will, and, amid the clash of arms, the booming of cannon, the shrieks of the wounded, and the moans of the dying, you will see this man persevering, going on, cutting and slashing his way through with unwavering determination, inspiring his soldiers to deeds of fortitude, valor, and triumph.

Along our various paths of life, we are sure to encounter obstacles. There’s no way to avoid them. What separates the winners from the losers is what we do when encounter them. The easiest thing to do in the moment of trial is to give up, at least for a time. The problem is, when we stop, our goal becomes that much harder to reach. Continual action toward the goal allows us to succeed.

I believe it was coach Vince Lombardi (or maybe Abraham Lincoln) that once said, “Good things come to those who wait, but only that which was left behind by those who hustle.”

Taking action is what leads us to success. If we stop to pout at every setback, we are lost. But, if we set definite goals, focus on them, review the goals and our progress often, and persist through the setbacks which are sure to come, we will reach our intended destination. We will be prepared for a medical emergency or a natural disaster. We will have the garden or yard we always wanted. We will be able to give a speech without freaking out and stumbling over our words. We will achieve whatever it is we want to achieve.

We will become self-reliant.