By Brian Tracy
Simply put, successful people are goal-setters. Goal-setting applies to every area of our lives. We set goals for our careers, relationships, families, finances, etc. Our ultimate goals, however, set the course for our lives. The ultimate goals define the direction that we go in.
Unfortunately, some people never achieve their ultimate goals in life. They limit their self-confidence and they limit themselves.
Identify Your Limiting Step
One of the most valuable exercises you can engage in when setting long-term goals is to ask yourself, “What is my limiting step?”
What is the one factor that determines the speed at which I achieve my goal? Or can I achieve it at all throughout my personal development?
The ability to identify your limiting step is one of the best demonstrations of your intelligence. It is a huge step towards building self-confidence.
Your capacity to eliminate this limiting step is one of the best demonstrations of your overall competence. You can achieve anything you want.
Self-Confidence Is The Critical Factor
In studying everything that has been written or said about personal development and success, I’ve come to a conclusion. Your level of self-confidence is the critical factor in everything you accomplish. When you have enough self-confidence, you will try almost anything.
Because success is largely a matter of averages or probabilities, the more things you try, the more likely it is that you will achieve them.
The same is true for you. By setting goals, trying more things, and exploring more opportunities, your probabilities of success increase dramatically. The only real limiting step to success that you might have is your level of self-confidence.
When you reach the point at which you believe in yourself fully, the barriers that exist in your external world will not stop you.
Build Your Self-Confidence
The major obstacles to success always lie within the mind of the individual.
They are not contained in external circumstances, situations or people. By building self-confidence, you win the inner battle. The outer battle seems to take care of itself.
I have learned three important ideas for building self-confidence. First, accept complete responsibility for everything that you are and ever will be.
Second, accept that you can change your situation only by working on yourself. Learn what it takes to be better. Third, set goals with timelines for the things you want. Then, work every day to bring those goals into reality.
Practice Persistently
Our natural tendency is to work hard until we find a method or technique that works for us. Whether that be in life, work, or relationships. Then, for some perverse reason, we promptly abandon the technique and go back to behaving in our old ways.
Setting goals and thinking positively act as a mental program for our personal development. Just like an exercise program works on our physical development.
If you expect it to work for you, you have to practice it persistently and keep at it indefinitely.
Apply The Success Principles To Your Own Life
When I began to apply these proven success principles to my life, I was able to bring about almost miraculous changes in every area of my life.
Every successful man or woman that I have ever talked to or read about has come to pretty much the same conclusion. By every measure, you have more talent and ability than you could use in 100 lifetimes.
You, too, can step on the accelerator of your own potential and begin moving forward at a speed that will amaze you by setting goals.
What is one goal that you have always wanted to achieve, but been too afraid to go after?
