To get anywhere, first we need to know what we want. If we don’t know what we want, or can’t articulate it clearly, we are stopped before we ever start. Second, it is imperative that we take our desires seriously enough to set goals to achieve them. Life is not a board game, where a casual roll of the dice lets us know how many steps we can take. 

There is a good chance that the reason most people fail to achieve their goals in life is that they never really set them in the first place. Most people spend more time planning a wedding or a vacation than they do planning their lives. To take liberties of a Benjamin Franklin quote, if we fail to plan, we are planning to fail by default.

Our mind is like a targeting system or an automatic pilot on a boat. Once we clearly and specifically commit to the target or destination, our mind uses negative and positive feedback from our environment, including our internal environment, to adjust our behavior and correct course.

However, if we program our mind with vague desires, nonspecific goals, or fuzzy ideas, the feedback will be meaningless. For example, if we set a goal for a better standard of living, how will we know when we have achieved it? Any improvement at all will be something better. 

But if we have a highly specific target, such as doubling our income within twelve months, we will always know exactly where we are in relation to the goal and exactly how far we have left to go at any given moment.

Steve Maraboli, noted author, said, “If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there”? Remember, we have the power to achieve what we want in life, and commitment to specific goals is the surest way to tap into that power. Ultimately, success is in the details.