Why pursue goals? What benefits will you derive from realizing a goal?

Every goal you decide to pursue must have tangible rewards. Rewards are the fruits of your labors. Rewards create clarity of vision.

When you can visualize the rewards for every goal, you emotionalize the goal. You engage your limbic system, the command and control center of your emotions.

Emotionalized goals empower you. They give you the motivation and energy to overcome adversity. When you are able to emotionalize a goal, obstacles, pitfalls and mistakes will not stand in your way of achieving your goals.

Emotionalized goals create persistence. Persistence creates consistency of action. Consistency of action creates progress. Progress = self-improvement and changes who you are.

Why are you pursuing any of your goals?

Visualizing the rewards unleashes the innate powers of achievement that reside inside each one of us, making us unstoppable.

In 2013 I began something called a Victory Log. I learned about the Victory Log from the legendary author and success guru, Jack Canfield at a 2013 Break Through Success week-long event I attended.

A Victory Log is a listing of all of your wins.

Since I began my Victory Log, I have compiled 70 wins. I use my Victory Log as a tool to help keep me motivated and on course in achieving my goals and realizing my dreams.

The Victory Log can also be a tool to help you define the wins, the victories, you desire. This Dreamer Victory Log will then become a blueprint for becoming the future you.

Here’s how it works – On your Dreamer Victory Log list as many hypothetical wins (future desired wins) as you can. Let your imagination run wild. The more audacious, the better. Shoot for 100 Dream Victories.

At the beginning of every week review your Dreamer Victory Log. The Dreamer Victory Log does a couple of things:

• It will help re-program your subconscious (limbic system and brain stem) with new instructions and put your subconscious to work. Through intuition, your subconscious will communicate to you the new behaviors and habits that you will need to engage in in order to accomplish each hypothetical win.
• It will toggle on your Reticular Activating System (RAS) and Thalmus. Your RAS, through your five senses and your Thalmus, will act like a radar, seeking out clues within your environment that will help you to realize each hypothetical win. These clues represent opportunities that were previously invisible to you. These opportunities are like bread crumbs that lead you along the correct path – the path that will help you accomplish each win.
• It will help you focus like a laser on the activities, behaviors and habits that will turn each hypothetical win into reality.
• It will turn on or off certain genes, essentially re-wiring your DNA, in an effort to help you accomplish each win. This is called epigenetics.
• It will supercharge your brain by shifting your mindset from negative to positive. Studies have shown that optimism and positivity amp up your pre-frontal cortex and turn down your amygdala. Your pre-frontal cortex is the font of creativity, good decision-making and is the command and control center of the brain. You amygdala is the command and control center of negative emotions like fear. Your pre-frontal cortex will send out commands to the rest of the brain, including the amygdala, to help coordinate all of the activities that you will need to engage in in order to create a win. The Dreamer Victory Log gets your entire brain working together like a symphony to help you realize each win.

The Dreamer Victory Log re-wires your brain for success. It is a powerful tool that will help transform your life.

You are what you are because of the many people in your life. These people helped you form your habits, they helped you form your beliefs, they helped you forge your work ethic and they helped to direct and guide you in choosing what to do with your life.

Good or bad, the people who were a part of your life were a major factor in determining the circumstances of your current life.

If your circumstances are very good, meaning you are financially well off, happy and successful, chances are you were and are surrounded by good role models.

If your circumstances are not very good, meaning you are struggling financially, unhappy and not successful, chances are you were and are surrounded by bad role models.

But, no matter your current circumstances, you and you alone have the power and ability to alter your current circumstances.

If you are among the many who are struggling financially, unhappy and not successful, what do you do? Is it too late for you to change your circumstances?

The answer is – it is never too late to change. There are many examples of individuals, well into the twilight of their lives, who completely changed the circumstances of their lives. Grandma Moses began painting at age 80. Colonel Sanders was in his early 60’s when KFC was born. Ray Kroc was 55 when he founded McDonalds.

So, what can you do to change the circumstances of your life? How do you change your collage?

You must change your relationships. You must surround yourself with individuals who possess the following attributes:

• Good Money Habits – Surround yourself with individuals who are good with money. These individuals possess good savings habits, frugal spending habits and prudent investment habits.
• Success-Minded – Surround yourself with individuals who are pursuing success, a dream, big goals, etc.
• Resilient – Surround yourself with individuals with a positive, can-do belief system.
• Optimists – Surround yourself with individuals who are upbeat, positive, and enthusiastic about life.
• Health Obsessed – Surround yourself with individuals who take care of their bodies – who exercise every day and eat healthy.
• Self-Help Fanatics – Surround yourself with individuals who are self-improvement fanatics. These individuals are constantly reading and seeking to improve themselves.
• Generous – Surround yourself with individuals who are generous with their time and money. You’ll find them sitting on boards of local, community non-profits.

You are a collage of many people. If you want to change your life, you must change who you associate with. The right people will infect you with their good habits and, in time, their collage will become your collage.

The Bible is replete with self-help advice. One of my favorites is Mathew 7:7:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Holly Branson is doctor and the oldest child of billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson. In her book, WEconomy, Holly shares some of the most profound mentoring advice she received from her father.

One of the pearls of wisdom passed down to Holly by her father was to develop the habit of seeking advice by asking questions of everyone you come into contact with in life, no matter their standing.

Rich or poor, we all have lessons to share. Some of those lessons are ones that create wealth and some of those lessons are ones that create poverty.

Knowing what to do puts you in the race

Seeking wisdom from those who have succeeded in life, have accumulated wealth or who have realized their dreams helps you to identify the habits, decision-making and processes that led to their success.

Knowing what not to do gets you to the finish line

Seeking wisdom from those who have failed in life, who struggle with poverty or who were unable to realize their dreams helps you to identify the habits, decision-making and missteps that led to their failure.

Both are equally important – It’s important to know what to do, and it’s equally important to know what not to do.

By asking questions of everyone you come into contact with, rich, poor or stuck in the middle-class, you are able to capture the full spectrum of wisdom that is needed in order to succeed. Wisdom is everywhere. Sometimes it resides inside the minds of the most unlikely of sources.

Always seek wisdom from others. Ask questions of everyone you meet. Here are some of Holly’s ideas of questions to ask in order to gain wisdom:

• I am a (fill in the blank – CPA, Author, Doctor, Mechanic, etc.) – Do you have any advice for me?
• What would you do differently if you could begin your adult life all over again?
• What would you change in your life?
• What can I change?
• What mistakes have you made that shaped your life?
• What should I do differently?
• What was the best advice you every received in life?
• What was the worst advice?
• Do you know any rich, successful people? What did they do to become wealthy?
• Do you know anyone who failed? What did they do wrong?
• What do you love about your life?
• What do you hate about your life?

Ask and you shall receive.

You are perceived by others in a certain way.

Sometimes that perception is favorable, unfavorable or one of indifference.

When you succeed at something, however, all perceptions of you change. People admire success. People envy success. So, if you succeed, you will be both admired and envied.

Success acts like a magnet. It attracts all sorts of people. It will attract the kind of people you want to include in your inner circle – positive, upbeat, enthusiastic, success-minded individuals. It will also attract the kind of people you want to disassociate yourself with – the negative, toxic types. If you follow me, you already know how to identify both types.

Success changes your life, forever. Unique opportunities manifest out of thin air. Doors, previously closed to you, swing wide open. Devotees or apostles are easy to find. Money problems disappear. You have increased freedom to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want.

The fruits of success are plentiful. That is why the pursuit of success, no matter how hard the climb, is worth it.

Not many are willing to make that climb, however. The sacrifices, the adversity, the stress, the risks and the investment in time frighten most away from the pursuit. That is why there are so few at the top of the mountain.

It’s always smart to remove weeds. Left unchecked, weeds will quickly take over any garden.

The same holds true for negative thoughts, which act like weeds inside the mind. Left unchecked, negative thinking will take over, altering your behavior, emotions and decision-making.

Studies have shown that positivity increases focus, cognitive ability (IQ) and risk tolerance. Since you need all three of these to succeed, you can not allow one weed of negativity to grow in the garden that is your mind.

Negative thinking also suppresses your prefrontal cortex, which is critical for creativity, decision-making and acts as the command and control center of the brain.

What are the weeds of negativity that must be removed?

• Envy
• Greed
• Fear
• Hatred
• Self-Pity
• Sadness
• Anger
• Doubt

How do you remove these weeds? By replacing every negative thought with its counterpart. The moment a negative thought arises, replace it immediately with a positive thought:

• Replace Envy with Gratitude – Express gratitude for something good in your life.
• Replace Greed with Generosity – Think back to when you did something good for someone or donated money to some worthy cause.
• Replace Fear with Courage – Think back to when you did something you were afraid to do and succeeded. This is why I encourage you to maintain a Victory Log. Victory Logs are real-life proof that you conquered some fear.
• Replace Hatred with Love – The moment hatred for something or someone enters your mind replace it by thinking about the things and people you love.
• Replace Self-Pity with Confidence – Think back to a time when you took on a challenge and succeeded. It will renew your confidence in yourself. Again, this is why you should maintain a Victory Log.
• Replace Sadness with Happiness – The moment sadness enters your mind, think back to moment you were truly happy.
• Replace Anger with Kindness – Remember a specific moment in which you showed someone kindness.
• Replace Doubt with Certainty – Once again, a Victory Log comes to the rescue. Look at your Victory Log every time you doubt yourself.

Do not allow negative thoughts a moment of life. They are not your friends. They are the enemy. Treat them like an enemy and immediately destroy them with positive thoughts.

Ben Hogan is considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. But, in the winter of 1938, Hogan was on the verge of quitting golf.

After a very disappointing second round of golf, Hogan was in last place in the Oakland Open. There was one day and two rounds of golf left to play. When he got back to his hotel room, he told his wife, “that’s all, that’s enough.”

They were down to their last $50 and Hogan had had enough. He was going to quit golf.

His wife, Valerie, very calmly told him he was a great golfer and he would eventually begin to make money playing golf. The very next day, feeding off of Valerie’s strength, Hogan tore up the golf course and finished in the top 16. He received the largest check of his life, $285.

His success at Oakland broke the dam. He received a job at the Century Club as an assistant pro, which ended his financial woes. Just two years later, Hogan would tie the course record at the North and South Championship in Pinehurst. After Pinehurst, he won the next two PGA events in succession. Lucrative endorsement deals followed as did lucrative offers to play in exhibitions.

Initial success is hard. It’s a hard climb. But here’s the thing – you only need to succeed once. Once you experience success, that initial success breaks the dam wide open. That is when opportunities for more success come pouring in.

So, you must stick with your dream. Never quit on your dreams. You only need to be right once.

A few weeks ago CNBC published an article of mine. It was about how the rich will always control the wealth because they know how to cultivate wealth.

Well, the article hit a nerve.

I received dozens of angry emails and tweets that not only berated my article, the comments debased my research and my intelligence. The interesting thing was, none of these critics knew me and none knew anything about my research. Yet, somehow, despite not doing their due diligence, they knew better. They were right and I was wrong.

It reminded me how powerful ideology is.

Ideology is programming that seeps into your subconscious mind, forged primarily in the fires of childhood. We typically pick up our ideologies from our parents. But we can also forge ideologies early in our lives through the influence of other family members, friends, peers, teachers or the neighborhood in which we live.

When you are anchored in ideology, it doesn’t matter how smart you are or how many degrees you have. You will, unknowingly, reject new or different ideas that run counter to an embraced ideology. You will dismiss the opinions, criticism and feedback of others that are in defiance of an embraced ideology. Ideology closes your mind and becomes a barrier to change.

One of the key Rich Habits, which lifts you up in life, making success possible, is being open-minded to the ideas of others. One of the key Poor Habits, which acts like an anchor, dragging you down in life, is being close-minded to the ideas of others.