If you have read any self-development books, undoubtedly you know the importance of goal-setting. You need to set short-term, intermediate and long-term goals in order to measure and attain success. Without goals you will fail and never achieve what you really want in life.

Hogwash.

Okay, I know I’m slaughtering a sacred cow here, and in actuality, I personally DO set goals for myself. But goals in and of themselves are not strong enough to propel you into long-term success.

What do I mean?

Okay, let’s say for instance that you have a 1 year goal of getting out of your junker car and you want to buy a BMW convertible. You work judiciously and hard to attain it. You’re obsessed. You might work overtime, take a second job and lo and behold, POW - one year later, you buy your brand spanking new car.

Now what?

Material or object-centered THINGS are very empty. Once you have them, what do you shoot for next? A more expensive car? A bigger house? In talking to many would-be entrepreneurs, if they’re motivated to write down their goals, they list out many material things. A new house, vacation, computer gizmos, and sure they also include altruistic goals such as spending more time with their family, give to charity etc. Those are all fine things, but how can you SUSTAIN that level of success once you’ve achieved it? Great - I’m spending time with the family and I’ve got the fancy car, once you’re there, now what?

You need something stronger, something permanent. What is that? I submit that there are two things you need.

PASSION:

Have you ever met somebody who was absolutely incredible at what they did? I don’t care if they were a scientist working on a cure for cancer or the busboy at the local buffet. Were you impressed by them? Typically, passion is easy to understand. Heck, I’ll bet you’ve heard the advice of “Do what you love and the money will come”. When you’re in your groove, you are empowered and energized. Have you ever done anything that you were so excited about, you couldn’t go to sleep that night? You got up two hours early and even though you got 3 hours sleep, you were living off adrenaline and you were even tired because you were so excited?

I will never forget a trip to New York City, there was this incredible doorman at the hotel my family and I were staying. He was a person who lit up the room, smiling and cheerful. His uniform was impeccable and he was absolutely hands down the best at what he did. Everyone who walked into that building remembered him and I remember standing outside the building and most people walked out of that building with a smile on their faces. All because of that doorman.

Now I was just a child when I met him, but he left such an impression on me, here I am 30 years later writing about him.

PROCESS:

Having a passion for your work is great, but passion also is not consistent and strong enough for you to maintain a high level of success. If you think about a relationship with someone, how does passion play into it? It starts out very exciting and fresh, heck you’re maybe even a little obsessed with them. But after some time, the passion ebbs a bit. Does that mean after a while you dispose of the relationship and find someone else? Unfortunately in life people do treat people, their life and work in that manner. So this is where the process is vital. Do you have a daily practice of working on your business? You commit and work your business plan religiously, at first it’s easy (see passion above), but a few months later, it’s harder. The clients aren’t coming in, you miss your target goals, people are down on your business idea. So what keeps you going through the tough times? Process, process, process.

An English professor of mine years ago once told me of a good friend of his, Frank Herbert the author the famous book Dune, would religiously write a minimum of 8 hours a day. He would write for weeks each and every day. Sometimes he wrote just to write and would throw the whole project away even after working months on it.  Interesting right?  Ask yourself, are you willing to do that?

How does all this translate to you? Are you struggling to find the right business to start? Looking to improve your life? The easiest road for you to travel is uniquely yours. You can read all the websites and books in the world, but unless you’re enjoying what you do, you’ll continue to exist rather than thrive.

This isn’t something that happens overnight, and for that matter it may be impractical for you to leave your job as a highly-paid lawyer to become a park ranger. My point is, if you want to escape from what you are doing JUST for money (for example), then that isn’t strong enough.

Think… think… think….

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