Built on "creative imitation": copy proven success methods, then improve on them. If you lack a major definite purpose, "make finding your major definite purpose your major definite purpose."
The 12 steps
- Desire — burning, personal, and honest ("I want a raise" is a goal for your boss). "If you're not lying in bed at night staring at the ceiling with your heart pounding, you're probably not trying hard enough."
- Belief — the subconscious only accepts commands the conscious mind believes. Aim for a 50/50 probability of success — your "next logical step" (lose 5 pounds, not 30; raise income 50%, not 10x), then re-ratchet.
- Write it down — not writing goals is unconscious commitment-avoidance ("if you never write it down, nobody can tell you you didn't accomplish it"). Make them clear, specific, and in vivid emotional language.
- Ask why you want it — "reasons are the fuel in the furnace of achievement." Goals can change; the reasons why stay the same.
- Analyze your starting point — know your position like a commander before a campaign (weigh yourself; measure current calls, closes, average sale).
- Set a deadline — "a goal without a deadline is an exercise in self-delusion." Break one year into 6-month, 3-month, and 1-month goals. Build a reward schedule — small rewards for small achievements.
- Identify the obstacles — "obstacles come to instruct, not to obstruct." If there are no obstacles, it's not a goal, just an activity. Find the Rock — the single biggest obstacle — and "swarm all over it."
- Identify the knowledge required — "ask your way to success"; people don't ask because they fear rejection. Millionaire's advice: "become a negative thinker" — take your idea to experts who can tear it apart; if you can't plug the holes, it isn't good enough.
- Identify your customer — everyone makes their living satisfying somebody. Laws of Compensation, Service, Return, and Overcompensation ("always do more than you're paid for"). Everybody's favorite radio station: WII-FM — What's In It For Me. Be a go-giver, not a go-getter.
- Make a plan — a list of activities organized by priority and time; act and continually revise.
- Visualize — "worth all the other ten": replay the goal as already realized on the screen of your mind.
- Persist — "persistence is to character as carbon is to steel." The average self-made American millionaire has been broke or nearly broke 3.2 times. Churchill: "Never give up. Never, never give up."
Quote
- "Every time you persist in the face of adversity, your belief in yourself increases until you become unstoppable."