3. What Kind of Person Must I Become to Achieve All I Want?

Ask yourself, What kind of person must I become to achieve all I want?

What you become helps you achieve, and what you achieve helps you become. The more you become, the more you can achieve. The more you achieve, the more you can become. Who knows which influences the other the most?

Maybe you need to become wiser than you are today. Maybe you need to become stronger. Maybe you need better health. Perhaps you need coaching to become the person you truly want to be.

If coaching will help you become the influence you want to be, then go get it—whether it is spiritual coaching, leadership coaching, or skills development coaching.

You must build an incredible reputation.

Ask yourself, “What kind of person must I become to attract all that I want in my life—the people I want, the opportunities I want, and the future I desire?”

When you knock on the door and opportunity opens, you must stand there as an attractive person, or you may not receive an invitation to come in.

One of the most profound phrases Jesus ever used was, “I stand at the door and knock.” If you opened the door to such an extraordinary person, wouldn’t you invite Him in? If you welcomed Him, He would come in, sit down, and talk things over with you.

Now ask yourself: if you knocked on the door of opportunity, and it opened, would opportunity look at you and say, “Come right in.”

4. Put Everything on Your List

The key is to take your dreams out of your head and put them on paper. You can dream about what you want, but when you commit it to paper, you begin to formalize it. Information starts to form a complete idea, and ideas can become hotels, enterprises, businesses, or a fabulous career.

Write everything down.

Whether you learn now or later, start putting everything on your list. If something is no longer important to you, remove it. You don’t have to accomplish everything on the list.

Suppose you had one hundred items on your list and accomplished eighty of them. Who cares about the other twenty? If you achieved the greatest share of what you set out to accomplish, wouldn’t that be enough? The answer is probably yes.

You can rearrange your list. You can change it. You can tear it up and start over.

You might say, “Last year I thought this was very important, but it isn’t important to me anymore. The things I’ve learned during the last twelve months have completely changed my goals.”

Two great words from antiquity are “Behold” and “Beware.”

Behold the possibilities. Behold the future. Behold the opportunities you have. Behold that spring has come. Behold that a new day has arrived, the sun is shining, and the shadows are disappearing. Behold that the next person you meet may become your lifelong friend or a trusted colleague. Behold is a positive word.

The second word is “Beware.”

Beware of what you become while pursuing what you want.

Throughout our lives, we must balance both behold and beware. When a child goes to school, they behold the opportunities but beware of the dangers.

Some things I pursued early in life cost me too much. I became so obsessed with certain goals that I later realized the price was far too high. Had I known better, I would never have paid it. Sometimes, however, wisdom comes after experience.

Don’t become so obsessed with achieving something that you lose your sense of reason or sacrifice your friends and family.

Never become so obsessed with success that you compromise your virtues and your values.

5. The Greatest Source of Unhappiness Is Self-Unhappiness

The greatest source of unhappiness does not come from outside circumstances. The deepest and most devastating unhappiness is being unhappy with yourself.

We should all have a healthy amount of concern, but we should never allow worry to control our lives.

For example, if you’re in New York and you’re about to step off the curb in downtown Manhattan, then you see yellow taxis speeding toward you, you should be concerned enough to step back onto the sidewalk. That kind of worry is simply caution. It protects you.

That is healthy fear and healthy concern—not the kind of worry that destroys your peace or consumes your life.

The same principle applies to hate.

You don’t need to hate your job. Save your hatred for the things that truly deserve it: evil, the weeds that destroy your garden, and the destructive ideas that try to influence your children.

You don’t need to hate everything. Some people spend the entire day saying, “I hate this. I hate that.” That is a misuse of hatred.

Reserve it for the things we truly ought to hate.

6. Start Thinking Forward

Begin this glorious journey by becoming meticulous, deliberate, and hardworking in setting your goals. Set goals for each day, each month, each year, for your family, your business, your career, your sales, and your relationships.

Start thinking forward.

As you do, you will become a major contributor—not only to yourself but also to your family, your friends, your community, and the world.

Read also Goal Setting: 8 Steps to a Successful Life

Inspired by Jim Rohn’s Message