Many people tell me that maybe that kind of approach might work for me but for them they might need to do things differently. Maybe, they tell me, they might need to keep their feet on the ground and think a bit more realistically before they start setting the big goals.

To that I always give the simple answer that I’ve used for years with people who seem doggedly committed to thinking smaller than they should.

“If there is no enemy within, then there’s no enemy without”

If that sounds a little too cryptic, a little too metaphysical or a little too ‘flaky’ then let me explain it this way; the only true ‘enemies’ or obstacles to the achievement of your goals are the enemies and obstacles you yourself create within your own mind.

You see, greatness, that over-riding, all-consuming desire to be, do and have the extraordinary in your life is a choice that WE get to make rather than some external decision or some kind of ‘luck’ that only few of us will ever experience.

Greatness is the combined effect of the various choices we make day in day out, week in week out, month in month out and year in year out that shape our actions and, eventually, our destinies.

Make great choices and your destiny (your destination in life) is a great one, hence ‘greatness’.

Given that that’s true (and it is) why is it that so many of us fail to make those great choices that could lead us to the achievement of the great life we all claim to crave and desire so much?

Well, just a little examination reveals EXACTLY why we get pulled off course.

There are 7 reasons. Lets look at them:

1. Indifference – It’s crazy I know, but many people are just plain indifferent to creating a life of greatness. Sure, they may talk about what they’d like to do, they talk about ‘wouldn’t it be nice if…’ but for these people there’s just never enough of a reason to actually get up and walk their talk.

Shame really, because if they have the ability to even think about having more, they have the ability to have more. All they’re missing out on is a little passion, a reason, a WHY?

Having a powerful enough why would propel them into action faster than ever but lacking this they simply talk about, think about but never act on any of their dreams.

2. Indecision – Some people just can’t make a decision. In fact, MOST people don’t really know what a decision really is and so it’s no wonder that they’re stuck in that no-mans land where they take no action whatsoever.

For the record, the word ‘decision’ shares its latin word roots with the word ‘incision’ and means ‘to cut off from all other possibility’. Maybe that’s why most people struggle with making decisions. They never truly cut themselves off from other options and so they to and fro, to and fro between actions and pretty much go nowhere… fast!

A decision about stopping smoking means that you’re not going to ‘try’ to stop but rather ‘that’s it, I’m a non-smoker, I don’t do that anymore’ a decision about losing 50lbs means that you’re not going to drop out of your exercise plan or diet because it’s going slower than you’d hoped but rather “Ok, that just means it’s going to take a little longer before I can eat my first ice-cream or eat my first chocolate bar, but I WILL NOT do so until I’ve hit my goal”

A decision adds amazing strength to any goal. Indecision weakens anything and everything about it.

If you haven’t really made a decision, you haven’t really set a goal.

3. Doubt - It’s amazing how many people set out to pursue goals that they ‘know’ in advance they cannot achieve.

Of course, there’s no evidence that the goals are impossible, rather it’s the individual’s own mindset that says so, yet despite this they still claim to be chasing the goals and that they’re important to them.

Of course they’re not!

How can they be important and how can they possibly chase a goal that they ‘know’ they can’t ever get? It’s all a show. Smoke and mirrors stuff that makes them look like they’re being positive and proactive whilst really they’re looking at all the ways that they CAN’T have what they want.

Let me ask you, how hard would YOU work toward achieving something that truly believed you could never have?

The answer is, you wouldn’t. You’d take the minimum amount of action you could then you’d tell everyone that the goal was unrealistic and wasn’t meant to be, right?

Shame, because you don’t have to 100% believe you’re going to have something come true for you. Sure, it’s even better when you do, but for some of us that’s a big ask, right? Instead, you can just agree to suspend disbelief.

That’s it.

Just stop telling yourself why you can’t have it. That’s enough… for now.

4. Worry – You can’t really separate worry from doubt. They’re both sides of the same coin.

When you doubt the outcome of something you worry about what will happen instead. Will you waste time? Will you waste money? Will you look stupid? Will it cost you your job, your house, your relationship?

Worry can eat all of your personal power away to the point where it’s easier to be indifferent and indecisive than it is to actually pursue the goals that would change your life for the better. Worry freezes you to the spot wondering “what if it goes wrong?” instead of focusing on what it’ll be like when you achieve your goals.

Shame, because that’s the very simple cure and antidote for worry. Focus on the other ‘what if’. The ‘what if all this goes RIGHT?’

5. Over caution - Over-caution is born of worry. It’s the same thing but it’s sneakier.

Over caution may allow you to take some actions toward your goals but it’ll always have you taking the teeniest-tiniest, tippy-toe steps toward them on the pretence of ‘playing it safe’ or ‘reducing risk’ rather than launching a full-scale ‘assault’ of your goals with all your motivation, all your inspiration, all your passion and all your purpose.

Do that and your goal achievement is certain but over-caution tells you that now is not the right time, to be careful, to take it slow.

Over-caution reminds you of the Lao-Tsu quote that ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ but forgets to remind you that the same 1000 mile journey can only be completed by continuing to take steps one after the other until the journey is complete.

6. Pessimism - This is the ‘grown up’ hybrid of doubt, worry and over-caution all rolled into one.

But pessimism’s more dangerous.

Pessimism doesn’t hint at why something may not be possible like doubt does, it doesn’t make you take small half-hearted steps toward your goal like worry does and it doesn’t have you advancing timidly, scared of what’s around the corner like over-caution does either.

Pessimism tells you straight out that what you want isn’t possible, that it’s not worth pursuing and that if you do then something is absolutely certain to go wrong.

Pessimism says to you “the mountain is to high, the path is too steep, the load too heavy and the reward too small small so why bother?”

But pessimism can be killed off by its alter-ego… optimism.

Optimism is merely the sum total of expectation plus excitement. If you can get excited about something and truly work on expecting it to happen then pessimism withers up and dies and bothers you no more.

7. Complaining - This is perhaps the most dangerous of all the enemies of goal achievement as it combines all the other six and brings them into the world in a very real way.

When you give voice to your indifference, indecision, doubt, worry, over-caution and pessimism you start to verbally persuade both yourself and others about how unfair life is, how tough it is to get what you want, how hard you’ve tried yet how many times you’ve been let down and more.

When you do this you create your own little pity-party, attracting to you others who agree with and reinforce your belief that you’ll never get what you want from life and how deluded those ‘positive thinking, goal setting weirdos’ are.

Complaining is dangerous because it manifests negative thoughts into negative reality. The ‘dark side’ of thoughts become things at it’s worst.

Misery loves company. Don’t give it any and it’ll soon look elsewhere.

So there you have them, the 7 deadly enemies of goal achievement. Let them into your life and you’re guaranteed a struggle with every single goal you set for yourself both now and in the future. On the other hand, learn to spot them and kick them out of your life the minute you spot them and your goal achievement is guaranteed.

Now, get to work! : )

Truth, joy and love

The MAGIC Hundred Goal Achievement Program

P.S – Don’t forget to leave me a comment and send anyone who might benefit from reading this on over too : )

I don’t know where I first came across the concept of grasping water. To be honest, I think it was in some cheesy martial-arts flick of some kind or it could’ve been a book, but whatever it was, the idea stuck with me and has made an impact that provides me with an automatic ‘reset’ whenever I’m getting stressed out by circumstances.

I seem to remember a martial arts master talking to an acolyte and explaining that the way he was going through life was like grasping at water.

As an example, he told the young trainee to throw his hands into the water of a nearby pool and grasp for all he was worth in his maximum effort to bring forth as much water as he could in a single attempt.

The young man took a stance, plunged his arm as deep as his elbow into the cold, crystal clear water, closed his fist and pulled his arm back up toward his face.

“Open you hand and show me what you have as a result of your efforts” said the master and the youth complied.

As you can guess, when he opened his hand, nothing but the fainted sheen of water could be seen upon the skin.

“Try again” said the old man and the youth did, this time moving faster, striking harder and gripping for all he was worth. Each time, the same thing happened; a slightly damp hand and nothing more.

Finally, the master walked to the edge of the pool, opened his hand and slowly placed it beneath the surface. With fingers together and his hand shaped into a shallow bowl he raised his hand from the pool to his lips and drank the cool water straight from his palm.

“More often that not” the old man said “in order to get the rewards you seek you have to relax and not try so hard. You have to work with the tools you’ve been given rather than force yourself upon circumstances.

The wise person knows that when what they seek keeps slipping through their fingers, that they’re probably trying too hard. When they realise this, they slow down, relax and cease grasping and water, and as soon as they do… their thirst is quenched”

I took some poetic licence with the story, of course, but that’s essentially how I remember it.

How does that help me and more to the point, how can it help YOU?

Well, like the master says, whenever you’re giving all you’ve got, whenever you’re pushing up against what feels like an immovable object, sometimes, in fact more often than not, the solution lies in slowing down, relaxing and taking the time to really think about whether you’re working as smart as you could be.

We can ALL work harder than we are, but since when was the answer to working too hard to work harder still?

Working smarter always beats working harder.

Always and in all ways.

Stop grasping at water!

Truth, joy and love

Dax Moy

The MAGIC Hundred Goal Achievement Program

P.S – If you liked this short post please leave me a comment. I’d love to hear from you

Have you ever noticed how many good, honest, hardworking people turn into liars at New Year?

It’s an amazing thing to watch as people from all walks of life, all ages and both sexes, go through the whole New Year’s resolution ‘thing’ and tell themselves lies about what the next 12 months will bring them.

You know what I mean.

11.59pm on New Year’s Eve you turn to a loved one and say “This year is going to be different. I’m really going to achieve some great things!” and for that one minute, that one moment in time, you mean it.

You REALLY mean it!

You are fired up, raring to go and ready, willing and (despite the glass of champagne in your hand) able to commit to that new diet, getting that payrise or new job, starting that company, writing that book and a whole host of other great sounding things.

Then the bells ring in the New Year and a funny thing happens.

January 1st rolls around and, whilst the goals are still in your head, they don’t seem as important anymore. (maybe it’s the champagne?)

January 2nd comes and by lunchtime you’re telling yourself that some of your goals are ‘just silly fantasies’ and you scratch them off your list.

January 3rd arrives and, despite a much shorter list than you had just 2 days before, you start to tell yourself that “I’ve got all year to do this. I don’t have to start right now. Let me just ‘settle in’ to the year first and ‘get myself sorted’ and THEN I’ll work on my goals”

Like I said, all lies!

In fact, there are FOUR lies that are used more often than any others at this time of year. Pay attention and you might recognise a few of them from New Year’s gone by…

Lie number one: ‘This year is going to be different’

For some reason, this seems to be one of the most popular of all the lies we tell ourselves yet, the truth of the matter is, for most people, sad though it is, 2010 is going to be EXACTLY the same as 2009 was.

Why?

Because, despite their initial optimism and excitement at what they new year will bring, their strategy is EXACTLY the same as it was last year and, as the saying goes, if you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

Most people aren’t looking to MAKE many changes, they just WANT changes to happen.

They’re not really looking to address CAUSES of their shortcomings, they just want the EFFECTS to go away all by themselves.

Sound familiar?

Lie number two: ‘The goals don’t seem as important anymore’

Fibber!

Yes they are!

They’re every bit as important as they were 24 hours ago it’s just that somewhere deep down you’ve started to persuade yourself that your goals are somehow unachievable and, if the truth be known, you’re scared about failing so instead you lie about their importance.

If not that then you’ve suddenly realised that the price to achieve them is a little more than you’re actually willing to pay.

That new diet.

The new training program.

The savings account.

The new job.

Sure, you’d like the new body, the better health, the extra wealth and freedom but DOING what needs to be done is the problem so you lie and pretend that the goals are no longer appealing.

Tsk, tsk!

Lie number three: ‘They’re just silly fantasies’
This is a continuation of lie number two but much more harmful.

With this lie you’ve started to rationalise and justify why your goals are impossible and use all kinds of excuses disguised as ‘reasons’ as to why your goals are unrealistic… the biggest lie of all!

Every single one of your goals is yours for the taking if you’re committed to making them happen.  EVERY one!

All you have to do is commit. Make a decision that you want the reward, commit to paying the price and you WILL have that thing or those things come true for you.

When all’s said and done, most of us want pretty simple things. A better home, better health, better relationships and maybe a few baubles thrown in for good measure. What’s so unrealistic about that?

Don’t use the ‘unrealistic silly fantasies lie to keep you from taking action on your goals or you’ll doom your life to a groundhog day repetition over and over and over again while you ‘play it safe’ and ‘be realistic’.

Lie number four: ‘I’ll settle in first and do it when there’s more time’

What a great lie!

This is an ‘I’m not giving up, I just need to get back into the flow at work or school before I attack these goals’ kind of lie that you use to delay things until the time is right.

But wait a minute…

Wasn’t work, school or your other favourite excuse the reason why you couldn’t achieve your goals BEFORE New Year?

No, you know full well that lie number four is simply a delay tactic, that ‘one day’ lie that we all tell ourselves in order to get out of taking action when we know we could, when we know we should. You know, ‘one day when I have more time…’ or ‘one day when I have more money…’ (or whatever else you use to delay your goals).

Regardless of your ‘one day’ excuse, the results are the same… zero. Just like they are every year.

Now, if you’ve read this far you’re probably recognising many of these lies as ones you’ve told yourself in the past, and maybe even ones you’re still telling yourself now. But, like many people, you have no real idea about how to break free from the habit of creating ‘wish-lists’ and then lying about why they didn’t come true.

In short, you’re not really that sure about how to make 2010 any better than 2009 was are you?

Well, if that’s the case then you definitely need to keep reading because I’m about to lay out a strategy so simple, yet so highly effective that, if applied as I describe (the important bit) simply cannot fail.

Interested?

I bet you are!

Well, here’s the thing. It requires 6 steps.

Just 6.

Follow them all and seriously great things will happen for you, miss one and it’s game over on your goals. I can’t put it any clearer than that.

Ok, here is success in 6 simple, straightforward, easy-to-understand steps:

1. Know what you want

2. Know why you want it

3. Know when you want it by

4. Write it down

5. Know the price

6. Pay it

If your first reaction to that list is one of ‘is that all?’ then you’re underestimating the power of simplicity for achieving great things.

You see, that those 6 steps, whilst simple, really do form the most powerful goal achievement strategy on the planet. You’ll be hard pushed to find a single successful person on that planet who isn’t committed to using these six steps on a daily basis.

1. Know what you want
Sounds obvious really, but ask almost anyone what they want to achieve from their diet, their exercise plan, their career and even their life, and you get vague generalities at best.

Let’s be clear on this; Things like “lose weight” or “get fit” or “earn more” are not goals.

They’re not!

They’re simply wishes that are so vague and meaningless that you can pretty much guarantee that they’ll fail.

A real goal, on the other hand, is very clear indeed. It tells you exactly what you’re setting your sights upon meaning that you always have a reference point as to how near or how far you are from completing it.

For example ‘lose weight’ becomes ‘lose 30lbs’ or ‘weigh exactly 120lbs’. ‘Get fit’ becomes ‘run the marathon’ or ‘do 50 pushups’ and ‘earn more’ becomes ‘earn $100,000 a year after tax’

See the difference?

One is open ended and allows for excuses and get out clauses whilst the other hangs the target in plain view allowing you to measure your current level of success and adjust your course as appropriate

So, just what is it that YOU want? (Write it down on a sheet of paper RIGHT now!)

2. Know WHY you want it
It never ceases to amaze me that people will happily set goals that they don’t really care that much about.

They say ‘I’m going to do this’ or ‘I’m going to do that’ yet when you ask them why they can’t explain it.

This is the surest sign that a goal is doomed to failure and is a definite warning sign you should look out for when setting your own goals.

You see a goal, any goal, is nothing without desire to fuel it into action and, in turn, desire cannot exist without a strong WHY behind it.

But not just any old WHY. It takes the ‘true’ why to put any real power into your goals. Let me give you an example;

I coached a lady earlier this year who, for many years had struggled with her weight. She set goals all the time, sometimes reached them but nearly every time found that she quickly regressed back to her old weight and very often added a bit extra into the bargain.

When I asked her why she wanted to lose weight she looked at me incredulous, like I was really dumb. “Can’t you see how overweight I am? Isn’t it obvious?”

“So are many people” I replied, “but that doesn’t explain why YOU want to lose weight.”

“Because I want to fit into nicer clothes” she responded “I want to wear pretty things”

“Why?” “Because prettier clothes will make me look prettier” she said with her
discomfort now becoming obvious.

“Why is that important?” I went on.

“Because…” (she started to cry now) “…I feel ugly the way I am now….” She went on “… and I want to feel pretty so that I can meet someone and I won’t be alone anymore… I want someone to love me…” and the tears flowed.

Now, you might be sitting there thinking ‘poor girl’ and wondering why she had to be put through such an ordeal just to help her set a goal. It might even sound cruel in some way.

Well, let me finish the story and let you decide for yourself.

From the moment the coaching session ended, this lady began an amazing metamorphosis.

She lost over 50lbs (and is still losing more), looks happier, feels happier and now has a relationship with someone who loves her like crazy.

I asked her not long ago “What was the turning point? What changed everything for you?” and her answer was simple “I stopped lying to myself. I told the truth about why I wanted to lose weight, and as soon as I did I realised that not only should I lose weight, but that I MUST if I was ever going to be happy”

That’s what WHY does for goals.

It takes all of the shoulds in your life and transforms them into things that MUST happen, and that’s when the magic begins.

You see, the things you could do and the things you should do aren’t anywhere near as powerful as the things that have the power of MUST behind them.

Once you take your could’s and should’s to the level of MUST, you no longer look for reasons, justifications and excuses or other ‘get out clauses’ and instead you focus making things happen.

Turn YOUR should’s into MUST’s by defining WHY you want your goals.

3. Know WHEN you want them by

A goal without a completion date is like a book without words in it. It’s meaningless.

Until you define the timescale that you’re allowing yourself to complete any given goal you’re simply reverting back to the ‘one day’ lie and the ‘wouldn’t it be nice if..’ wishes that most people make.

In effect, you’re giving yourself an excuse not to take action and, as you’re well aware, without action nothing changes.

That’s why, whenever you know what you want and why you want it you MUST set a date for getting it. This adds a sense of urgency to your goal and reinforces the feeling that ‘every second counts’ which, in reality, it does.

You also get to measure whether or not your goals are on schedule or falling behind and, if necessary, exactly what actions it’ll take to bring you back on track.

So, WHEN do you want your goals to come to life for you?

4. Write your goals down and read them regularly

There is a definite sequence to taking a goal from concept to reality and it can best be summed up in three words.

Thought – Word -Action

Up to now we’ve been dealing with thought and deciding what you want, why you want it and when you want it by. This is all mental work and, whilst vital to the achievement of your goals, is by itself, not enough to bring your goals to reality.

You could say that, up to this point, you have a more clearly defined wish or dream but that, nevertheless, it’s still a dream.

To take it from a dream it needs to become real in some small way, either by verbalising it into words or, better still, writing it down.

It’s been shown that the act of simply writing your goals down increases the likelihood of their achievement by anything from 500% to 5000% and that reading those words aloud on a daily basis, even several times a day, increases the effectiveness even further.

Certainly every successful person I’ve ever met or interviewed has told me that they not only have a written list of goals, but that they read it numerous times a day and many carry their list with them at all times.

Why does it work?

Well, it’s simple really. You’re reminding yourself that your goal is important to you. More than that, you’re laying down thought patterns that turn into habits, habits which turn into actions and actions which, when carried out regularly, lead ultimately to your goals.

(If you’ve simply been reading this report and not putting your goals into the boxes I’ve provided, now is the time to go back… fail to do so and nothing changes, your choice!)

5. Know the price

Many people start out setting goals correctly, they know what they want, why they want it, when they want it by and they even write their goals on paper and yet, despite doing everything right up to this point, they find that they never make any real headway toward achieving them.

I believe this is because they often don’t think about the cost of achieving their goals beforehand and so, when the time comes to pay, they’re shocked, stunned and unwilling to do so.

The truth is, every single goal has a price that must be paid.

It might be financial, it might be time, it might be a change of lifestyle, it might be a relationship cost or any number of things, but rest assured, there WILL be a price.

Certainly, at the start of my own career (and even now to a lesser extent) my determination to have my own business, to become a journalist, TV presenter and author meant that I would have to pay the price of longer hours at work, less time with my family and a high degree of financial risk.

That was the price. I didn’t have to pay it but then, if I didn’t I wouldn’t reach my goal. My choice. What is the price of YOUR goal?

Figure it out now, up front so that you can decide before you start whether or not the cost is too steep and if it is, set another goal that you can live with and still be happy.

6. PAY The Price!

Hand in had with step five goes the obvious step of paying the price.

It gets its own category because, unlike knowing the price, paying it is an ongoing investment that you must consciously make every day until the goal is yours.

What we’re talking about is the consistent day by day, step by step ACTION that many people are simply not willing to take.

Sure, they come out of the gate well, they’re motivated to get their goal but, well, like just kinda gets in the way. One day they don’t take any action toward their goals, then two, then three and, before you know it, the goal has fallen by the wayside.

What happened?

They stopped paying the price.

Here’s the thing most people don’t get;

If you’ve been paying the price, and paying the price and paying the price for days, weeks, months and even years, then one day you wake up and stop paying the price the every single payment you made was a waste.

A waste of your time.

A waste of your money.

A waste of your effort.

A waste of your life!

You see, the only way to possibly get your investment back is to achieve the goal.

Anything less than that is throwing away a chunk of your life.

This might sound a bit over the top but nevertheless it’s true.

Once you start paying the price, stay with the goal until it’s achieved.

That’s it!

That really is all there is to getting what you want from life. I know I’ve simplified it somewhat but still, if you apply those 6 steps you’ll get what you want faster than any other means I know of.

I want to sincerely thank you for taking the time to read about the four lies we tell at New Year and the Six things that you can do to make 2011 your best year ever.

I know you’ve got lots of other things you could be doing rather than reading my blog and I appreciate you taking the time to read the whole thing.

I’ve done my very best to convey the exact steps that are required in order for you to achieve bigger and better things than you did in 2011 but, as in all things, what actually happens for you in 2010 is totally up to you.

You could brush this off as an interesting little read or as something that ‘you’ll get around to’ but, as I’ve laid out for you here, to do so would simply be to continue lying to yourself and, in the long run, bring about the failure of your goals.

The other alternative is to actually follow the 6 steps laid out for you.

Not kinda, not sorta, not almost but follow them exactly and see what happens for you.

Now, I can’t guarantee specifically what that’ll be but I do know that it’ll be something great and that, whatever your goals are they’ll be that much closer to coming true for you.

The choice is yours as to which route you take, but I do know this; one of those choices leads to certain failure and the other, certain success.

You now know which is which…

It’s time for you to choose!

Truth, joy and love

Dax Moy
P.S – If you’re looking to make some DRAMATIC changes to your life in 2011 then I highly recommend my 100 day goal achievement program The MAGIC Hundred which will guide you step by step through how to make the first 100 days of 2011 the most powerful and impactful 100 days you’ve ever had. But hey, I’m biased in this : )

The Magic hundred is the exact program I used to go from struggling to successful and is the program that Bob Proctor of ‘The Secret’ raved about back in January 2008 and since then the program has been updated and improved upon!

Go check it out for yourself at http://www.themagichundred.com!

Are you ready to do what it takes?

What it takes to move your life from where it is to where you want it to be?

What it takes to build that business that’ll provide you the income you need to live the life you’ve always dreamed of?

What it takes to write that book, that song, that screenplay, that piece of music that you’ve always promised yourself you’d get around to but never have?

What it takes to get into the kind of shape you feel proud of seeing when you look into the bathroom mirror?

The truth is, everything you already have in life is the result of having done what it takes to get it. If you hadn’t, you simply wouldn’t have it now, right?

So why do you think those things that are eluding you and frustrating you are any different?

They’re not.

If you don’t have them, you’re simply not doing what it takes to get them.

You can change that… TODAY.

Just do what it takes.

Then do what it takes.

Then do what it takes some more and some more still until you have ‘the thing’.

It’s not rocket science.

It’s not complex.

Figure out what it takes then DO it!

Truth, joy and love

The MAGIC Hundred Goal Achievement Program

Is this the moment?

Is this the moment you step up to the mark and actually DO what you’ve always said you’d ‘like to’ do but never gotten around to doing?

Is this the moment when you put all of your excuses aside and FINALLY take action on your biggest, boldest dreams?

Is this the moment when the desire to make that change is finally bigger than the fear of making it? Is this the moment when settling for less stops being your default setting and stretching for more replaces it?

Is this the moment when you align your thoughts, words and actions into one single lazer-like focus of power, passion and purpose?

Is this the moment?

Well, is it?

YOU get to decide if this is that moment… or not.

What do you decide?

How are you going to use your moment?

Truth, Joy and Love

Leave me a comment to tell me how this post made you feel or think. I’d love to know!

Many people tell me that maybe that kind of approach might work for me but for them they might need to do things differently. Maybe, they tell me, they might need to keep their feet on the ground and think a bit more realistically before they start setting the big goals.

To that I always give the simple answer that I’ve used for years with people who seem doggedly committed to thinking smaller than they should.

“If there is no enemy within, then there’s no enemy without”

If that sounds a little too cryptic, a little too metaphysical or a little too ‘flaky’ then let me explain it this way; the only true ‘enemies’ or obstacles to the achievement of your goals are the enemies and obstacles you yourself create within your own mind.

You see, greatness, that over-riding, all-consuming desire to be, do and have the extraordinary in your life is a choice that WE get to make rather than some external decision or some kind of ‘luck’ that only few of us will ever experience.

Greatness is the combined effect of the various choices we make day in day out, week in week out, month in month out and year in year out that shape our actions and, eventually, our destinies.

Make great choices and your destiny (your destination in life) is a great one, hence ‘greatness’.

Given that that’s true (and it is) why is it that so many of us fail to make those great choices that could lead us to the achievement of the great life we all claim to crave and desire so much?

Well, just a little examination reveals EXACTLY why we get pulled off course.

There are 7 reasons. Lets look at them:

1. Indifference – It’s crazy I know, but many people are just plain indifferent to creating a life of greatness. Sure, they may talk about what they’d like to do, they talk about ‘wouldn’t it be nice if…’ but for these people there’s just never enough of a reason to actually get up and walk their talk.

Shame really, because if they have the ability to even think about having more, they have the ability to have more. All they’re missing out on is a little passion, a reason, a WHY?

Having a powerful enough why would propel them into action faster than ever but lacking this they simply talk about, think about but never act on any of their dreams.

2. Indecision – Some people just can’t make a decision. In fact, MOST people don’t really know what a decision really is and so it’s no wonder that they’re stuck in that no-mans land where they take no action whatsoever.

For the record, the word ‘decision’ shares its latin word roots with the word ‘incision’ and means ‘to cut off from all other possibility’. Maybe that’s why most people struggle with making decisions. They never truly cut themselves off from other options and so they to and fro, to and fro between actions and pretty much go nowhere… fast!

A decision about stopping smoking means that you’re not going to ‘try’ to stop but rather ‘that’s it, I’m a non-smoker, I don’t do that anymore’ a decision about losing 50lbs means that you’re not going to drop out of your exercise plan or diet because it’s going slower than you’d hoped but rather “Ok, that just means it’s going to take a little longer before I can eat my first ice-cream or eat my first chocolate bar, but I WILL NOT do so until I’ve hit my goal”

A decision adds amazing strength to any goal. Indecision weakens anything and everything about it.

If you haven’t really made a decision, you haven’t really set a goal.

3. Doubt - It’s amazing how many people set out to pursue goals that they ‘know’ in advance they cannot achieve.

Of course, there’s no evidence that the goals are impossible, rather it’s the individual’s own mindset that says so, yet despite this they still claim to be chasing the goals and that they’re important to them.

Of course they’re not!

How can they be important and how can they possibly chase a goal that they ‘know’ they can’t ever get? It’s all a show. Smoke and mirrors stuff that makes them look like they’re being positive and proactive whilst really they’re looking at all the ways that they CAN’T have what they want.

Let me ask you, how hard would YOU work toward achieving something that truly believed you could never have?

The answer is, you wouldn’t. You’d take the minimum amount of action you could then you’d tell everyone that the goal was unrealistic and wasn’t meant to be, right?

Shame, because you don’t have to 100% believe you’re going to have something come true for you. Sure, it’s even better when you do, but for some of us that’s a big ask, right? Instead, you can just agree to suspend disbelief.

That’s it.

Just stop telling yourself why you can’t have it. That’s enough… for now.

4. Worry – You can’t really separate worry from doubt. They’re both sides of the same coin.

When you doubt the outcome of something you worry about what will happen instead. Will you waste time? Will you waste money? Will you look stupid? Will it cost you your job, your house, your relationship?

Worry can eat all of your personal power away to the point where it’s easier to be indifferent and indecisive than it is to actually pursue the goals that would change your life for the better. Worry freezes you to the spot wondering “what if it goes wrong?” instead of focusing on what it’ll be like when you achieve your goals.

Shame, because that’s the very simple cure and antidote for worry. Focus on the other ‘what if’. The ‘what if all this goes RIGHT?’

5. Over caution - Over-caution is born of worry. It’s the same thing but it’s sneakier.

Over caution may allow you to take some actions toward your goals but it’ll always have you taking the teeniest-tiniest, tippy-toe steps toward them on the pretence of ‘playing it safe’ or ‘reducing risk’ rather than launching a full-scale ‘assault’ of your goals with all your motivation, all your inspiration, all your passion and all your purpose.

Do that and your goal achievement is certain but over-caution tells you that now is not the right time, to be careful, to take it slow.

Over-caution reminds you of the Lao-Tsu quote that ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ but forgets to remind you that the same 1000 mile journey can only be completed by continuing to take steps one after the other until the journey is complete.

6. Pessimism - This is the ‘grown up’ hybrid of doubt, worry and over-caution all rolled into one.

But pessimism’s more dangerous.

Pessimism doesn’t hint at why something may not be possible like doubt does, it doesn’t make you take small half-hearted steps toward your goal like worry does and it doesn’t have you advancing timidly, scared of what’s around the corner like over-caution does either.

Pessimism tells you straight out that what you want isn’t possible, that it’s not worth pursuing and that if you do then something is absolutely certain to go wrong.

Pessimism says to you “the mountain is to high, the path is too steep, the load too heavy and the reward too small small so why bother?”

But pessimism can be killed off by its alter-ego… optimism.

Optimism is merely the sum total of expectation plus excitement. If you can get excited about something and truly work on expecting it to happen then pessimism withers up and dies and bothers you no more.

7. Complaining - This is perhaps the most dangerous of all the enemies of goal achievement as it combines all the other six and brings them into the world in a very real way.

When you give voice to your indifference, indecision, doubt, worry, over-caution and pessimism you start to verbally persuade both yourself and others about how unfair life is, how tough it is to get what you want, how hard you’ve tried yet how many times you’ve been let down and more.

When you do this you create your own little pity-party, attracting to you others who agree with and reinforce your belief that you’ll never get what you want from life and how deluded those ‘positive thinking, goal setting weirdos’ are.

Complaining is dangerous because it manifests negative thoughts into negative reality. The ‘dark side’ of thoughts become things at it’s worst.

Misery loves company. Don’t give it any and it’ll soon look elsewhere.

So there you have them, the 7 deadly enemies of goal achievement. Let them into your life and you’re guaranteed a struggle with every single goal you set for yourself both now and in the future. On the other hand, learn to spot them and kick them out of your life the minute you spot them and your goal achievement is guaranteed.

Now, get to work! : )

Truth, joy and love

The MAGIC Hundred Goal Achievement Program

P.S – Don’t forget to leave me a comment and send anyone who might benefit from reading this on over too : )

Of all the struggles you’ve been through.

Of all the barriers to your success and happiness that have popped up time and time and time again across the course of your life.

And when I saw it I thought “Wow, if he can do it then so can I can so can everyone else!”

Michael sees what he wants in his life as his natural birthright, plain and simple.

Losing the loss of his legs in an accident hasn’t stopped him from doing what he wants and achieving happiness, so the problems that face you and I daily shouldn’t stop us doing the same, right?

Watch this short and beautifully filmed video and tell me that you can’t find a way to claim YOUR birthright, just as Michael has…

BIRTHRIGHT from Sean Mullens on Vimeo.

Truth, Joy and Love

Author Of The MAGIC Hundred Goal Achievement Program

Don’t Forget To Leave Me A Comment : )

It’s been a couple of days since I updated the MAGIC Hundred blog here, not because I haven’t had anything to say but because a lot of my time’s been taken up with trying to figure out how I and my family are getting home to the UK.

We were supposed to fly out yesterday but the volcanic ash over UK airspace has meant that we’ve had to stay put here in Phuket.

I know, I know… a real hardship, right? : )

But hey, my mind is that I’m supposed to be back at work now with work goals and work challenges filling my day so instead of just sitting around I put some action in place to move closer to achieving some of my financial goals. In this instance I spent most of the day making changes to several new websites that I’m going to launch real soon as well as working on my new book and writing copy for my London personal training studios advertising.

So I got a LOT done!

My point?

Well, I guess it’s this…

Sometimes your day doesn’t go to plan. Sometimes things get in the way that are just outside of your control.

I certainly couldn’t shift the ash clouds, right?

But look, just because you’re off the specific plan it NEVER means that your overall goals can’t be achieved. It just means that you have to find another way to get there than the one you had planned for yourself.

Too many people see something get in the way of their goals and instead of figuring a way over, under, through or around it, they quit. They give up. They say “it wasn’t meant to be”

But imagine what your life would be like if instead of quitting you just said to yourself “I need to find another way” and got up off the floor, dusted yourself off and kept moving toward your goals.

I can tell you from personal experience that it would change pretty much everything about your life and how you feel about yourself as you go through it.

No-one likes to feel a quitter yet many of people have gotten into the habit of quitting by default. Whenever something gets in the way they simply quit. And, at first, they get that queasy feeling in the pit of their stomach that tells them that something isn’t right. That quitting wasn’t the right thing to do.

Trouble is, often these people become serial quitters, quitting so many things that it’s more ‘normal’ to them to quit than it is to succeed. The real shame about this is that they start to identify themselves as quitters, take the actions (or not take them!) in life that quitters take and get the ‘rewards’ of quitting too, which is to say frustration, disappointment and unhappiness.

So don’t quit.

As corny as it sounds, when life throws lemons at you, make lemonade or when life throws a big volcanic dust cloud in the make…. volcano juice! : S

(I couldn’t think of anything to go with it) : )

Point being, ‘stuff’ happens all the time.

If you quit because ‘stuff’ makes your neat little plan look not so neat, not so simple, not so easy then you’ll never get anywhere, least of all where you REALLY want to get to in life.

So by all means have plans. Build GREAT plans and work them as closely as you can when you can. But don’t for one minute fall into the trap of thinking everything will or should fall into line with your plan. That creates massive frustration and causes you to quit.

Instead, know what the target is and spend your time developing multiple routes, ways and means to hit that target and I promise you, more often than not you’ll get more accomplished, achieve more success, experience more happiness and achieve it faster than ever.

Keep moving…

…And DON’T QUIT!

(Here’s Why I’m Not Too Stressed About Being Delayed In Thailand)

Truth, Joy and Love

Well, I’m 7 days into my latest MAGIC Hundred goal achievement challenge and things are going great so far with bungee jumping, go-cart racing, visits to temples and all manner of great things getting crossed off my list.

It’s been a really great start so far but by far the biggest dent has been made in my education goals with 3 audio programs listened to so far, 7 books read (5 of them on my MAGIC hundred list and 2 ‘bonus’ books and a bunch more waiting to be read between now and getting home to the UK on Tuesday night : )

I admit it, I read fast. REALLY fast!

I’ve never actually learned to speed read through a course or anything and I certainly don’t skim-read as I truly enjoy reading but I seem to plough through books faster than anyone else I know.

Not a bad thing, right?

After all, I’ve always believed that leaders are readers and that success is kept on the top shelf and the only way to achieve it is by standing on all the books you’ve read… so I read : )

The way I look at it is simple. The gap between where you are and where you want to be is dictated by what you know and what you don’t know and by what you act on and what you don’t.

That being the case, I seek to know more when I go to bed than I knew when I woke up EVERY SINGLE DAY of my life and have done for years and years. More than this, I take action on every new piece of information I learn by promising myself to take a MINIMUM of one new action in my life as a result of what I’ve read or learned.

Does it work?

Well, it’s done me well so far, right? : )

10 years ago I was broke and living on a housing estate yet now I make a very nice living and live a very nice life. I’m even taking a six-month mini-retirement in August this year to move to Thailand with my family so yes, it works : )

But here’s the deal… education doesn’t just happen to you. You have to seek it. You have to buy the books and draw out the meaning within them.

In fact, that’s what the word ‘education’ means when translated from its original latin ‘educos’. It means to draw out.

Read all the books.

Learn what you don’t know. Draw out the meaning and most of all, apply it to your life.

Do this and your goals are a cinch!

Most people take tons of clothes on holiday… I take an extra suitcase just for my books : )

Have a great day and go get those goal!

Truth, joy and love

P.S – If you haven’t got a copy of the fastest goal achievement program on the planet yet, get it here : )