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Most people destroy their own future not because they're lazy, but because they never decide what they truly want. In this episode, Jim Rohn explains why having a powerful dream changes everything. And if you're ready to turn discipline into a daily system, grab the Self Discipline Hacks playbook in the description.

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Now let me give you a little simple formula for goal setting. Okay? We take two, two and a half hours on the weekend for the whole 10 year plan. We don't have time for that tonight. But let me get you started with a little simple formula Mr. Shoaff gave me and maybe this will be helpful. First of all, I've divided goals into two parts. First is long range. Long range goals, that's your dreams. Your dreams for the next 3, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 years. Actually the rest of your life. Your dreams. You've got to keep dreaming. Ronald Reagan, President said to the joint session of Congress a few weeks ago, the Republic is a dream. And if we don't keep dreaming, we will lose the Republic. Your better future is a dream for yourself and for your family. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? What do you want to be? What do you want to see? You've got to dream. Dreams. There's a Bible phrase that says without dreams and visions, people perish. You've got to have something to go for that inspires the heart and the soul. Dreams from the children of Sanchez. It says, take the crumbs from starving soldiers, they won't die. Take the bread from hungry children, they won't cry. But without dreams, we all will die. You've got to dream. Don't lose your dreams for yourself, for your future, for your family. The dreams of love and enterprise and travel and doing things, becoming something unique on your journey here, don't lose your dreams. Do some dreaming. That's long range goals. You got to have those. So that's number one. Here's the second part of goals. Short range, short range goals. That's your goals for tomorrow, this week, this month, this year, the immediate future. We call these confidence builders. Because if you set up something short range, go for it, get it, latch onto it, work hard, accomplish it. That starts building your strong feelings to go for your dream. Now, I've divided goals into three categories. Here they are. Number one is economic. That's your goals for money, income, business, profits, production, economics. Make sure you've got your economics well planned. Economics plays a major role in everybody's life. Economics is major, which means it ought to be meticulously well planned for Tomorrow, this week, this month, this year. Long range. What if you ask somebody tomorrow if you could see their meticulously well planned list of economic goals, what would they probably say? They say, you some kind of a nut. You must be weird. Hey, I found out what success is. Success is doing what the failures won't do. Make sure you've got your economics well planned. It'll put you in the top 5%. One of the key little subjects we talk about on the weekend is the seven fundamentals for wealth and happiness. And that's one of them. Well planned economics. It's a fundamental. If you want to do well, join the top 5%. Anybody in this room can join the top 5% if you will. Now here's the second category of goals. Things. Make a list of the things you want. And on my list of things now, I put everything, little things as well as major things. Doesn't matter how small it is, it goes on my list. I used to just put major things, cars, homes. I don't do that anymore. I now load my list with everything. Everything. And the reason is part of the fun of having a list is checking it off. That's it. Boy, at the end of the day, if you can go, got it, got it, got it, got it, got it, got it. Whatever it is, right, you get into the habit. So load up your list. The things you want. Now, when you check off something major, celebrate. That's an important point to make. Celebrate your achievements. Live it up, have a party. When you reach something you've worked for for a while. See, we all grow from two experiences. One is called the pain of losing. The other one is called the joy of winning. We need both of them. Amplify them as much as you can. Which also means make losing painful. If you set up something, fooled around, didn't get it, put it on yourself. On the other side if you did get it, congratulate yourself self. Congratulations is a sign of maturity. Seeking congratulations is a sign of immaturity. But hey, winning and losing. See, that's what it's all about. That's the name of the game. Now some people lead such mediocre lives, at the end of the day they don't know whether they're winning or losing. They got no clue. Guys just going through the day with his fingers crossed. There's a better way. Okay, here's the third category of goals. Personal development. Put those goals together. Personal development goals. That's your goals. To be stronger, more decisive. Be a speaker, be a leader, learn a language, all kinds of skills. Okay? The whole weekend seminar was designed to improve all your skills so that you walk away more skillful. And that's what you want. The personal development skills. That's what attracts. That's what brings good things to your life. The person you become more skillful. Now, this is quite a package to work on. Economics, things, personal development for tomorrow, this week, this month, this year. Long range. Okay, That'll get you started. Now, here's the simple formula for setting goals. It goes like this. A work on your goals. That's step one. Work on them. And I put the word work there. Deliberately setting goals is plain hard work. I don't want to kid you. We haven't come here tonight to kid each other. It's work. I know it's work. That's why a lot of people just let it slide. It's work. Many people work hard on their job, but they don't work hard on their future. They just let that slide. And the work involved is making plans. I know most people don't. I understand that, but don't let that be you. Guy says, well, yeah, you work where I work. By the time you struggle home, it's late, you got to eat a bite of supper, watch a little tv, get to bed, you can't sit up half the night. Plan, plan, plan. And the guys be. Good. Worker, hard worker, sincere. But you got to be better than sincere. Working hard. You've got to be better than a good worker. You got to be a good planner. Somebody once wisely said, the people who fail to plan are planning to fail. Well said. So work on your goals. Here's step two. Write your goals down. That's so important I teach my staff around the world. Put your goals in your journal because one of the major people you want to study is yourself. So here's the list of goals I put together three weeks ago. Here's the list of goals I put together two years ago. Here are some of the changes I made. Rearrangement of my priorities. I scratch these off, I put these on, I've gotten these. Study your accomplishments. Study what your desires are. Put them on paper. Write them down. Here's another reason for writing your goals down. It shows you're serious about doing better. And to do better, you gotta get serious. You don't have to be grim, but you must be serious. Everybody hopes things will get better. Everybody hopes. Poor people hope. That ought to tell you something. It means the future does not get better by hope. It gets better by plan. I used to have the affliction called passive hope. It's an affliction. It's bad, probably. What's even worse than that is happy hope. Now that is really bad. That's bad happy hope. The guy's 50 and he's broke and he's still smiling. See, that's not good. So get serious about your goals. Put them on paper, write them down. There's all kinds. His goals, her goals, their goals, business goals, financial goals, financial independence goals, family goals. I mean, there's so many things to work on on this that if you don't get busy and work on it, sure enough, the time will pass. And sure enough, five years from now, you'll wind up where you don't want to be, wearing what you don't want to wear, driving what you don't want to drive, drive being what you don't want to be. Now's the time to fix it. Now, here's the third step to your goals. Check the size of your goals and the kinds of goals. How big they are, what kind they are affects you. And here's one of the important phrases of the evening. Your goals are affecting you. Whatever they are. Your goals affect your handshake. Your goals affect your attitude, personality. Your goals affect the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you dress all day long. We're being affected by our goals. Now, some people have goals, but they have such lousy goals, the effect is bad. I asked a guy one time, what are your goals for this month? The guy said, look, if I could just scrape up enough money to pay these lousy bills. That was his goal. I'm not saying it isn't the goal. It's a goal. But it's such a lousy goal, the effect is bad. You don't jump out of bed on Monday morning and say, oh, boy, another chance to go out and scrape up the money to pay my lousy bills. So you don't do that. Usually you say, oh, not another Monday. And some people have so given up on life, they have joined the thank God it's Friday club. How sad. Surely those are the same people, when life is over for them, will say, thank God it's over.