Newsletter - How to Get What You Really Want

How to Get What You Really Want

How to get what you really want this holiday season
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How to Get What You Really Want

This Holiday Season I almost gave up on a dream this week. With all that has happened this year — the high-tech economy spiraling down the drain and the world heading down right after it–I thought I had lost hope. Despite everything else, to me, losing hope was the most devastating blow of all. I had hit bottom and had started to dig down from there!

What Would Winston Churchill Say?

Winston Churchill said: “When you’re going through hell, keep going.” So I crawled out from under the kitchen table (where I’d been sucking my thumb in the fetal position) and worked to climb up from the pit my own thoughts had created. I set out once again to get what I wanted. Listed below are the steps that I took. Follow them, and YOU can get what YOU really want this holiday season.

Find a Generous Listener

Barbara Sher, author of “Wishcraft,” said “Isolation is the dream killer.” How right she is! The first, and most important, step is to connect with people who care about you, and who can support and encourage you in the pursuit of your dream. Whether you are leading your business through an economic storm, transitioning to a new job, or following a life-long ambition of opening a pizza restaurant, you need a “generous listener.” A generous listener says things like, “That’s a great idea!” and “Tell me more!” when you describe your dream. He listens for the possibilities in yourn dream, rather than focusing on why it’s not practical or how it won’t work. She believes in your dream FOR you when you cannot believe for yourself. A generous listener allows your dream to take root.

What Else Do I Need to Do?

Just follow these 6 easy steps to turn your desires into reality. First published by Napoleon Hill decades ago, this process has been used by all of the “luckiest” successful people throughout history.

Fix in your mind the EXACT description of what you desire.
Determine EXACTLY what you will do in return for it.
Establish a DEFINITE date by which you intend to obtain it.
Create a DEFINITE plan for carrying out your desire, and begin AT ONCE, ready or not, to put this plan into ACTION.
WRITE out a clear, concise statement encompassing the above 4 points.
Read your written statement ALOUD, twice daily: Once just before retiring at night, and once after awaking.

As you read, see and feel yourself ALREADY having obtained your goal. Believe that it is already done.

Then — and this is most important — describe your dream in great detail to your generous listener. Ask him or her to save any well-meaning advice or criticism for another time. As you speak, you will find that the skeleton of your dream is being fleshed out, enriched and coming to life.

Does This Really Work?

Only about 4% of people bother to write down their goals. But nearly all of them achieve those goals. One study by a prestigious business school found that their top 10% most successful graduates differed only in ONE respect from the other 90%: They wrote down their goals.

Sometimes we don’t get what we want because our goals are imprecise, insincere, or incongruous. If you follow the above 6 steps, write down your goals, and describe them in detail to your generous listener, you can avoid these three “dream killers.”

What if I Fail?

Failure carries a stigma in our society. But if you’re afraid to fail, you’ll probably be afraid to BEGIN. But you should not settle for a less-than-extraordinary life just to avoid failure. You must be willing to burn your bridges behind you so there is no option but to go forward. You must be willing to fling yourself off the cliff and learn to fly on the way down.

Five minutes after I took the steps above I achieved my dream of getting work at a company I’ve wanted to work with for months. How? First, I gave up any preconceived notion of what form achieving my goal would take. Then I ASKED for what I wanted.

If someone had told me yesterday that I would achieve my goal by today, I would have snorted, laughed cynically, and crawled back under the kitchen table. NOW I’m wondering . . . “Hey, if this can happen in a day, what might next WEEK bring?”