Reaching The Goal

“All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.” - Orison Swett Marden

It does not matter how you get there, it matters that you move towards your goal.

A dream is seeing something you want for your life, vision is how you will move towards your goal.

The first and each subsequent step taken brings you closer, so fix your eyes upon the goal and do not let set backs keep you from succeeding.

Once you arrive at your goal, the path taken may have seemed odd. But you will have arrived. You will achieve what you set out to accomplish.

Stay inspired my friends!

Dream and Act Big

“All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.” - Brian Tracy

Ever have a big idea; one that you wanted to do or attempt?

A big idea that had you excited and ready to jump in a new direction?

Then you sat back after the initial excitement and started thinking about it. You began to size up what would be involved and took a realistic view of all that would need to be done. Others may have offered advice that dampened your enthusiasm.

As the days went by, your enthusiasm started to wane and you began to develop a negative thought process. The negative thoughts began to drown out the possibility of doing something big in your life.

All of this negativity shrunk your world back down to a small and compact little environment. You could even hear the slamming door of opportunity echo in the back of your mind.

Small thinking keeps us from accomplishing big things in life.

Our tendency is to think small.

Life is much bigger than that.

You can think big and take big steps to achieve greatness. Do not allow yourself to be limited or confined to a small world. Open yourself to the big world that is out there.

A bigger life awaits you outside.

Stay inspired my friends!

Then What

"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light." - Albert Schweitzer

There are varying levels of 'anguish' or 'turmoil' in each of our lives. I refer to a myriad of issues that could be going on in our daily struggle to exist. It could be someone struggling with alcoholism, trying as he might to break from its hold of his life. There are other forms of addiction that affect people from alcohol and drugs to criminal behaviors which all tear a person's life apart.

Many times this way of life is a 'me' oriented journey. And for those that choose to put their lives in order will find the going tough. It is not an easy journey.

But when the decision is made to change...then what?

Your addiction is treated, handled, put under control and those basic needs in life become evident again. In example, finding a job enters back in as a need for your life. You re-educate yourself so that you can enter the work place. Finding a job that will enable you to afford a place to live, food to eat and some glimpse of a future...then what?

As time passes, you become a model work place employee. You meet someone nice and start to develop a relationship. You might even establish your religious faith again. The motion of life seems to be in order, all is going well...then what?

Even from the most messed up lives, we can achieve a level of stability in which we become comfortable. It is in this comfort that we risk developing our 'me-oriented' thoughts. But you need to keep asking yourself...then what?

The 'then what' is turning your life from 'me' to 'others'.

The 'others' are those we extend a helping hand to. The 'others' are those that need your help is bringing order to their own lives. If it were not for 'others', your own life could not have been brought back from where it was. We turn our attention to serving and helping others where we can.

As my friend Dean Sweetman has said, "Do not help people by making them into a project. Help people by loving them with a sincere concern for their well being."

Then what?

When you release yourself from a 'me-centered' life, good things will flow back into your life in unexpected ways. There will always be the "...then what" in our lives which is simply a call from your heart to do more. Find your life and then turn your goodness outward.

Stay inspired my friends!

Get Up and Go

"Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the thing that he can least afford to waste or lose. " -Thomas Edison

Do you waste your time on things that are not productive to your life or others? If so, this is a call for you to get up, do something and not just sit around wishing things were different.

If you sit and do nothing, you will achieve nothing but waste a life time.

When you get up and make a move, your life will begin down a path of living a great life, great achievement and establishing great memories for those you leave behind. As a character in a book by Stephen King (Shawshank Redemption) says, "get busy living or get busy dying."

You can sit and live out your life watching it wash away from you. Or you can begin doing something to live your life before it is over. When you make the move to do something, not everything will go as planned but you will learn, experience and grow. The act of failure is merely a step towards new experiences.

You keep going, you keep trying, you keep living.

Time has a different finite point for each of us. None of us know when that end point will occur. So get busy living it, don't waste a minute of it, live a great life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Set Sail

“The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good.” ―Brian Tracy

You have likely heard someone tell you that "your life has great potential" in an attempt to inspire and motivate you. Even I have written about each of our own potential to achieve great success in life. But in one sense, does that also strike a certain amount of fear in you?

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard called it "...the dizziness of freedom."

It is described as "a man standing on the edge of a tall building or cliff. When the man looks over the edge, he experiences a focused fear of falling, but at the same time, the man feels a terrifying impulse to throw himself intentionally off the edge. That experience is anxiety or dread because of our complete freedom to choose to either throw oneself off or to stay put. The mere fact that one has the possibility and freedom to do something, even the most terrifying of possibilities, triggers immense feelings of dread."

Does the thought of stepping out of your normal create fear inside of you?

I am sure it does but we need to overcome our perception that possibility is paralyzing. We can achieve quite a bit in our lives when circumstance seems to dictate otherwise. There are hundreds of examples that exist in which very successful people started with nothing. These were people that did not have a boat or shore to set sail from in sight. But these people embraced their own potential and searched out the shore, built a boat of possibility and set sail.

Each of us has the freedom to overcome our fears and pursue that possibility.

We will each find our own achievements, we will each find success in our life. All we have to do is step into the boat and set sail.

Stay inspired my friends!

Risk Reward

"Fear stifles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation. I have known talented people who procrastinate indefinitely rather than risk failure. Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence, and the downward spiral begins." -Charles Stanley

Are you a risk-taker?

Really think about that question and ask it of yourself again. What you will realize is that all of us are risk-takers. From our very beginning, we are born into an unknown future of which living it is risk in itself. As a teenager we want to drive a car for the feeling of independence. But driving has the risk of accidents. Even with independence is the risk of failing to support one self properly.

Going to college and selecting a major subjects us to possibly making a wrong choice. Marriage and there is a risk of divorce. Risk can be defined in almost every decision we make in life. So in most respects, all of us are risk-takers whether we believe we are or not. What defines the outcome of risk is how we respond to it.

Does risk rule you or you rule it?

So if risk is around us in most everything we do, how is it that some people take additional risks while others play it safe? There are at least two reasons that can answer this question.

One is that we the need for security keeps many of us from taking risks. As human beings, we have a need to want to stay with the familiar and predictable. We like things we can control and understand well. It was Helen Keller who said "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

Secondly, fear and doubt keep us from taking risks. For a dreamer, these two things are their worst enemy. The Irish author, Gareth O’Callaghan has this advice, “Do not fear risk. All exploration, all growth is calculated. Without challenge people cannot reach their higher selves. Only if we are willing to walk over the edge can we become winners.”

How do we overcome the safety from and fear of risk?

Well, you can start by asking yourself these three questions:

- What would I do if I were being more courageous?
- How will inaction cost me one year from now if I do nothing?
- Where is my fear of failure causing me to over-estimate the size of risk, under-estimate myself and holding me back from greater achievement?

Whatever answers come into your mind, be aware that your answers are trying to point you to a greater future. Only you can create that future by taking bolder, more decisive and courageous actions. There will always be risk involved, just know that our human condition is created to overestimate the size of risk and to underestimate our ability to handle them.

As written by Lao Tsu in the 6th century BCE, “You are capable of more than you think.”

Stay inspired my friends and "Fortes fortuna adiuvat" or “Fortune favors the brave.”

Believe It

"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."
-Norman Vincent Peale


Stand strong through your hard times and know you can change your circumstances.

Believe in your visions and dreams when others try to destroy them.

Achieve all that is possible and impossible.


Stay inspired my friends!

Overcome To Achieve Greatness

"For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

So here I am, currently flying at 36,000 feet in a Delta 757 airplane, writing and making my way to Seattle. The landscape below me is much too far away for me to discern anything other than a few roads, mountains or fields.

If I look really hard though, I can pick out certain things such as certain large bodies of water or rivers famous to all. The most famous of course being the Mississippi River and as we passed over the Great Salt Lake. All look small and rather insignificant from such a long distance.

Even the Rockie Mountains and the Cascades look tame from such a far distance. They appear to be mere road bumps on our way to a destination. The goals we set for ourselves are at the end of that journey. Our destination looks easy from a distance.

While the distance seems to be much too far, the obstacles do not look all that intimidating. But as we get closer. As we come in with the distance being shorter, those obstacles all of a sudden get bigger. As we see them grow taller and wider, the mountains tops are greater and the rivers much broader than we expected.

It is at this point we might become discouraged. It is at this point many people may quit. What it reminds me of are the pioneers that made their way across the the great plains. These brave souls had a goal in mind and that was to find the west coast, to find fortune in the California, to find new opportunity.

Can you imagine as they slowly made their way across the flat lands, the heat, the wind and everything else they had to endure. I imagine them getting well into the area we now know as Colorado, only to be greated by the peaks of the Rockie Mountains.

The discussions that must have taken place had to have been heated. How far would they have to go. Would they make it before the cold and snow of winter set it. Some people must have said forget it, we'll stay here and go no further. They gave up on their dreams and settled for what they had.

Others pushed on, seeing the mountain tops as gateways to their dreams. They didn't seem them as obstacles blocking their way. They knew to rise up to the top would allow them to see the destination even clearer.

Many of those people made it through, dreams fulfilled and greatness achieved. The mountains, the rivers, canyons, or wide lakes did nothing to deter them from grabbing hold of what they wanted.

You will have similar obstacles in life. There will be mountains to face and wide rivers to cross, but each can be overcome and they will be overcome. Keep reaching, keep moving forward and move those mountains, part those waters and reach your destination in life. I know you can.

Stay inspired my friends.

Expect It

"Quit now, you'll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you'll be halfway there." ~David Zucker

Give it up people, you'll never be a success. There is no way that all of your hard work and effort will pay off. Face it, you're just not talented enough. Quit now and accept your life as it is.

More than likely you have heard one of those phrases at some point in your life. The words of discouragement that people try to speak into your life. The words that work to keep you down and feeling unworthy of success.

It is very likely that you have spoken these words into your own life. I have heard Dr. Wayne Dyer say, "if you would like to accomplish something, you must first expect if from yourself." If you speak into your life disappointment and discouragement, it is a pretty good bet that this is what life will be for you.

Expect great things in your life, expect that you will accomplish your goals. Expect you and than others will expect that you will.

Disregard the naysayers, disregard the negative talk and believe in yourself.

Victory Achieved

“Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.” -Louis L'Amour

There are hundreds of small victories won each and every day. All you have to do is look for them and accept them for what they are; victory in your life.

We spend way too much energy and effort on acknowledging our failures. There is cause analysis done and much angst over that which we fail to achieve. To look at and understand what we may have done wrong is okay. To review and see what it was that went wrong is just fine. You then need to move on from it.

But lots of times we dwell on it, which gives it power over us. It causes us to lose confidence in little bits and pieces. So why not give as much time and acknowledgement to all of the little victories. With each and every one, we build a bigger mountain to stand upon. We deserve those victories. We deserve to acknowledge and accept those victories in our life.

So get on with letting go of the failures, any and all. Get on with adding up your victories in life, large or small. One victory after another will lead to achieving those goals in life.