Years ago, Joseph Worthen, then a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told the following story. A young man sought a wiseman to find out what he would have to do to be successful. The sage held his head under water until he was close to being drowned. Then he told the young man when you want to achieve something as bad as you wanted air, you will be successful. To accomplish anything that is normally beyond what is expected of an average person, usually takes a ‘beyond average effort’. It seems that to obtain something of personal value and something that is desired, that person has to give up something of equal value and equally desirable to obtain it, for example, time with family. A man’s dream, the goal that was his desire, if poorly planned for, can become quicksand that he becomes mired in. But without a goal/purpose it is like running all over the field of life without ever scoring. Too, having a goal, and at the same time having too many things interfering with reaching that goal, is also like running all over the field of life without ever scoring. There is one vital source of all positive behavior and that is self or personal motivation. ‘Personal motivation’ means the development of inner strength, conscious willpower, and determination. Personal motivation is not an inherited trait. Outstanding success is achieved when it comes from within that person. Disraeli said the “Secret of success is constancy to purpose.” If you really want to convert your dreams into realities, the answer will always be personal motivation. How do you motivate yourself? You start with a frank and honest self appraisal, evaluating where you are at any given moment; evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, your assets and liabilities. You have to know what you really want and then ask yourself if you are really willing to devote the time and the energy, the resources you have identified, to get it. Are you willing to give up the things, the time and the people that will have to be substituted for the time it will take to accomplish the goal? For example, achieving a PhD or equivalent, in our society, is accomplished by only 2% of the population. The reason being that it is a difficult project and a long period of sustained study. Many candidates drop out before reaching their goal because of its strain on families and finances. Viktor Frankl speaking of his time in a German concentration camp said that camp life was a provisional existence of unknown limit, because it was impossible to foresee when it would end. It may seem strange to compare achieving a PhD to concentration camp life, but the effort takes many years for some, depending on how demanding and difficult both your subject matter is and how demanding your graduate committee may be. A man who cannot see the end of that provisional existence will cease living for the future in contrast to a man without such high goals leading a normal life. Therefore, the goal that was a man’s dream, his purpose- can become quicksand that he becomes mired in. There are many goals in life that are comparable in nature and that may lead to the same outcome if not planned for and calculated with faith.
Regardless of what you want out of life, goal setting is the most important action of your life. Once your goal is determined, dedicate yourself to its attainment. Develop a plan to achieve your goal, know what you need, where you must go and what you must do. Develop a sincere desire to reach your goal with a full knowledge of what it is going to have to take to complete the goal. Develop absolute confidence that you can achieve the goal. Review your written plan often. If you do those things you will begin to see the end from the beginning and have positive expectations and outcomes.
There is a story of two cattlemen who rode the mountains in search of a lost steer. They led a donkey along with them, and during the late afternoon they sighted the steer in a rocky, bushy area. After a hot chase and some difficulty they succeeded in roping the steer. They tied the steer securely neck and neck to the donkey. They then rode back to the ranch leaving the fate of the steer and the donkey to each other. About two days later, the tethered pair arrived at the ranch coral gate. Though battered and bruised, they finally arrived because one of the pair, the donkey, had a goal and a will. An obstacle is what you see when you take your eyes off the goal. The steer was wandering but the donkey had a plan and a goal. Shackle yourself to a donkey if that’s what it takes.
Life is much like an Olympic Decathlon event, we are all called on to take part in many events. If we try to set records in any one event we may fail completely in others. But if we work on each event, evenly, we will find our training is balanced. I remember the 1948 Olympics when Bob Mathias won the decathlon event. That was considered the most exciting and challenging event in the whole Olympics. Each Decathlon contestant participated in ten different but difficult events. The winner was the athlete who won the most points, not the one who won the most events. In those ten events Mathias never won any single event, in some events he came in last but his average score was highest. We can’t be all things to all people, life is a process, a process of learning to let go of some things and hanging on to others.