Dreams are Goals with Deadlines - Do YOU Have a Dream?

By: Chris Angeles

A research in the very past in Yale University, a professor surveyed his students how many of them had goals in the life. Only 5% of the whole class raised their hands. The professor took this information down.

20 years later, a person found this statistics in the archived section of Yale, and contacted each person in the class. Amazing to know that the 5% of the people that had goals we more successful than the other 95% who had no goals. The 5% of those that had goals were making more than the other 95% COMBINED! Very impressive!

Thomas Edison is known as the world's greatest inventor. He is widely know for his greatest invention, which is the lightbulb. This was during the early days where people still have been using gas lamps.

Guess how many times it took Edison to take before coming up with the lightbulb?

It took him 10,000 tries just to invent the lightbulb! Yes! That's 10,000 failures! That's 10,000 times that didn't work out. 10,000 times that he was never discouraged and never quit! If he stopped during the 9,500th time, then we wouldn't been using electricity today! Imagine how life would be!

Thomas Edison is a big inspiration on who I am and how I set my goals. It goes back to the quote "try and try until you succeed."

A lot of people were looking at Edison as one crazy man before he was successful. Edison was never discouraged. When he finally completed the lightbulb, people looked at him as a GENIOUS!

One book that I highly recommend to those that are HIGHLY DETERMINED in life is "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. I am actually currently reading it right now, and WOW, it just motivates me with me goal that shows me that it is really possible to acheive anything possible!

Set your GOALS! Set them SOON! Or if possible, set them IMMEDIATELY AFTER READING THIS ARTICLE! My article should motivate you and give you a clear understanding of how goals affect your outlook.

AIM HIGH! It couldn't be said better. Like from what I remember as talking to one of my entrepreneur friends, "aim for the stars, and just in case if you don't reach it, you will at least fall on the trees."

It was funny. But very true!

Then I added on to him, "Yes, and if you just aim for the trees, and just in case you don't reach it, you will at least fall on the grass." In short, it is aiming not-so-high.

Then I cam up with this final idea just to make stuff super funny, "Well having that in mind, you should then aim for Mars, and if you dont reach it, you will at least fall on the stars!"

And the saying goes on and on, yes, yes, aim for Pluto, aim for the galaxy, aim for the secret 10th planet.

A lot of people are scared of letting loose of their comfort zones. But in order to work on the goal, you have to let go of what you're comfortable with, and each step, whether they may be baby step or big steps, should bring you closer to your goal. A lot of change and new ventures will be experienced, and it is the challenge to face which is the obstacles which makes it just so fun!

Remember the story of David and Goliath?

Well whoever can beat Goliath will become ruler of the town. A lot have faced Goliath, and everyone failed.

David was this one small and smart guy. Goliath was 10 times bigger than him. People were saying that David is so stupid and he will just become hurt.

David was just simple, no fancy armor, just a simple slingshot. Not only Goliath was big, but he had armor, very heavy armor that protected himself. The armor that Goliath wears represents FEAR. David, not wearing armor, represents COURAGE.

David outsmarted him during the battle, and just made Goliath tired because he cannot hit David because of his size. David kept on taunting Goliath. Then after a while, David just simply took out his slingshot and wisely hit Goliath on his weak spot, his eye, and David won the battle and because ruler of the town!

It is about working SMART, not working HARD!

In our lives, we have our Goliaths, those that look scary, but we never try to face them and by just looking at them we simply give up. We don't even want to take a risk on maybe some baby steps and a plan B just in case to back out, but we simply ignore them.

In life, when we accomplish huge tasks (like David defeating Goliath), we are rewarded either by money or fame (David because ruler of the town). And once we accomplish that goal, we become more confident about ourselves, that we can defeat Goliath once more, which should be easier.

And those that successfully accomplish their goals, look for the next goal, which is BIGGER that the goal that was just accomplished. So David, having in mind that he defeated Goliath which is 10x bigger than him, wouldn't mind facing Goronoliath (just made up the name), who is now 15x bigger than David, because of his past experiences. But if David were to face Goronoliath before Goliath, David wouldn't have much of the confidence factor as compared to now.

For me, I am NOT scared of my Goliaths! In fact, I LOOK FOR MY GOLIATHS! I like challenges, they intrigue me! And once I overcome the Goliath, I am able to prove to myself what I am capable of, and move on with BIGGER Goliaths!

Going back to GOAL SETTINGS, there are 5 main factors that the goal should be. It can be easily memorized using the "SMART" letters:

S - Specific M - Measureable A - Attainable R - Risk Adverse T - Time

Well the words speak for themselves. When setting your goal (you WILL set one after reading this article if you don't have one yet), review the 5 factors above and make sure it contains those.

After setting your goal, become COMMITTED to it! Don't just easily move on with your "normal" routine stuff, or read a couple other crappy articles, but work on it!

WRITE DOWN YOUR GOAL ON A PIECE OF PAPER! Don't skip this step! PLEASE DON'T! Well most likely, I KNOW you will skip this. A lot of lazy people don't have a pen and paper and 30 seconds to write a life-changing statement on a piece of paper. If you can't do the above, please stop reading this article. =)

Well, after that, you would WANT to become MORE committed to it. Write it on a big piece of paper, and stick it up your wall in your room. Every morning when you wake up, the first thing you will see is that goal sticking up the wall. You might actually want to take it a step further and do some crazy stuff with your goal like putting it on the wallpaper of your computer, your cellphone, on the dashboard of your car, on the front cover of your notebook, and so many places!

Next, also important, is to TELL your friends and family about the goal. Don't just keep it to yourself. One thing important is to tell them the due date of your goal. Have them set it on their calendar (circle the date), on a to-do list on that day, or put an alarm on their calendar on their cellphone. Tell as much people as you can about the goal.

A goal would be more of thinking about the endpoint, rather than the path. In life, we are influenced by so many things, and these things take us to where they bring us. BUT no, we want ourselves to become proactive and make our own decisions ourselves. We DON'T want to be reactive about the external environment that controls ourselves.

Think of it this way. Remember as a child doing those puzzle mazes? Well all of us obviously starts from the "START" and finds a way to reach the "END" right? How about this, have you ever tried starting from the "END" then finding a way to reach the "START"? Maybe most of you haven't tried it, but try it! It's worth a shock!

Chris Angeles is a young entrepreneur, very young one at the age of 20. He learns more from experiences in the business world and making mistakes rather than from learning everything from school and entering the corporate world. Well he has been doing real estate lately, specifically investing in an apartment building. He DOES beleive in education, and attends several seminars, entrepreneurial groups, meetings, cashflow events, etc., and he reads a lot of books in personal development and entrepreneurship.