I am currently vacationing in the Pike’s Peak area of Colorado.  When we decided to come on this trip we originally discussed just grabbing a tent, jumping in the van and heading west.  At first it sounded like a great idea and would have certainly resulted in an adventure, but who knows if that adventure would have been positive or negative.

I know there are many of you who might just love an adventure like that, but for me traveling over 1,200 miles in a van, with six other people ranging from 8 years old and up, I just didn’t want to count on luck to provide us with a perfect trip.  It definitely required some research and planning.

Well, three days into this planned adventure and I can tell you I don’t think it could have been a better trip!  🙂

Ok well this isn’t a trip journal, so I’ll get to my point and how this all relates to what I have been writing about on this 30 day experiment.

I have already written about accountability, having a positive attitude, and setting goals to help improve your chances of success.  Well, just like my trip out west, if you set a goal that you truly want to achieve, it would be silly to believe you can just do whatever you want to achieve that goal.

Sure you could just set the goal, think about it all the time, and do little tasks here and there that will help you advance towards the realization of that goal, but it would take you much longer to get there … if  you ever did.

There are far more people who don’t take the time to plan their lives or their path toward success than those that do.  I just received a message from one of my mentors, Tracy Dieterich, yesterday after he read my post on goal setting.  He pointed out that he just read that only 3% of the people in the world take time to clearly define their goals and dreams.  Amazingly those same 3% earn as much as the remaining 97%!

If that isn’t reason enough to take the time to clearly define what you want out of life, I don’t know what is!

Now I am here to tell you that these people didn’t just write down their goals on a piece of paper and think about them all day long.  Those people took the time to chart out a clear course of action so they could move towards the attainment of their goals.

Think about a time in your life where you put something together that required multiple steps.  Remember how good it felt as you completed each step and moved on to the next, until you were finished and looked with pride at the finished product?  When you took all the pieces out of the box I am quite sure you wondered for at least a split second as to whether you’d ever figure it all out.

Once you began to follow the plans inside the box and watched everything coming together, that doubt quickly went away.  Success is the EXACT SAME WAY!

People who simply “wish things were better” will never have things get better.  People who “hope” to someday be successful, will never be successful.

People who clearly define their goals and chart out a very clear plan toward the attainment of those goals have an incredible chance of being successful.

Look, I am not just blowing smoke here.  There are quite a few other things which come into play and some additional ingredients, but remember this is a 30 day experiment and I’ll cover those other things in the coming days and weeks.  You just need to come back to this blog to get the rest of the “secret sauce.”  🙂

Don’t be one of those people who just aimlessly drift through life “hoping”  and “wishing” for success.  Set your goals and chart your course.  It can be just as fun as a carefully planned trip!

Please take the time to leave any comments you might have on this subject.  Are there any examples you might have of times when you doubted whether you could accomplish something, but because of a very well crafted plan you amazed yourself?  If so, let me know.  If not, come on back tomorrow for the next ingredient!