Self Improvement and Success

Here are 7 ways for your consideration, to help set your goals in motion...TODAY!

1. Stop seeking approval from people.

You don’t need anyone’s permission to fulfill your dream. Trust yourself and give yourself permission to succeed. Having support from people whose opinion you value is a wonderful thing but it should not be the criterion for whether you begin acting on fulfilling your goals or not

If you really desire to turn your idea into reality, constantly floating it around and seeking the approval of people will waste your time and kill your dream. What will happen to your idea if you don’t get the approval of those whose permission you so desperately need? Nothing!

2. Don’t wait for perfection.

Waiting for a time when everything is perfect and in place will cause you to lose your enthusiasm and abandon your goal. Conditions may never be as perfect as you desire. You may never have all the money, time, or knowledge you desire to begin working on your goals.

You must take risks, learn and improve as you go along and then watch as everything begins to fall in place. If you have to wait for the perfect time to begin working on your goals you will be waiting a long time!

3. Create time for the goal.

Many people have dreams, ideas or goals, which remain unfulfilled because they are too busy doing everything else but work on the goal! If you have a goal to accomplish, you must be ready to invest your time, and resources to ensure that it succeeds.

Making excuses about lacking the time to work on goals that are important to you is a procrastination tactic, which will kill your dream before it has a chance to see the light of day. There is always time to work on what we love and consider important. Create that time and see your dreams begin to unfold!

4. Decide once and for all!

The process of goal accomplishment, like most things in life begins with a decision. You decide what you want to achieve and then you plan how you intend to achieve it.

If accomplishing your goal is important to you, your inability to make crucial decisions about what you should do, how you should do it and when you should do it, will waste your time and choke your dream. Make up your mind and stop second-guessing yourself. When your mind is made up nothing can stop you from making progress with fulfilling your goals.

5. Be bold and take the initiative.

Be bold! You are the one in charge of turning your dreams to reality. You need to be proactive and actively involved in the process of working on your goals to ensure you achieve them.

Just because you have shared your ideas with others does not necessarily mean that you are no longer responsible for turning them to reality. Don’t sit around waiting for others to make suggestions and guide your idea to reality. Don’t leave your dream entirely in the hands of others. Nobody cares about your dream like you do.

6. Invest in your dream.

No idea is self-funding. Don’t be deceived into thinking that people will invest or finance your idea just because it is brilliant. If you are lucky, someone may invest in it, but if you are not, you will have to invest your time, energy and finances towards activities that will fortify and fulfill your dream.

You may have to invest in the acquisition of knowledge or expertise that will help you achieve your goals. It would be a good idea to keep some money stashed away to finance your goal.

7. Do one thing at a time.

Commit yourself only to projects and activities which are connected to your main goal. Whatever you do should directly or indirectly add up to a move toward your main goal. Failure to do this will confuse, overwhelm, sidetrack, and drain your energy.

To get started on achieving your goals, you need to plan for it and make it a priority. If you keep crowding and cluttering your life with what does not matter, you many never, ever accomplish your goals.

Remember that you can’t do all things, but you can do one thing!

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Jim

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It was here, in this sleepy valley, that the American Dream was re-defined. An accidental discovery near the obscure American River would forever change a young nation. The simple life would no longer be enough. In its place would come a new kind of lifestyle: entrepreneurial, wide-open, free. The new American dream: to get rich; to make a fortune--quickly.

Instant wealth was here for the taking. All across America, young men made the decision to go to California. Every city, every hamlet would send its brightest, its strongest, to California--and eagerly await their triumphant return home. They came from Europe, Asia, and South America in search of instant riches.

It was one of the greatest adventures the world had ever seen.

In the early 1840s, California was a distant outpost that only a handful of Americans had seen. The sleepy port that would become San Francisco had just a few hundred residents.

One of the wealthiest people in the region was John Sutter--an affable Swiss immigrant who came to California in 1839, intent on building his own private empire. Sutter soon built a fort, amassed 12,000 head of cattle, and took on hundreds of workers. His most prolific crop was debt. He owed money to creditors as far away as Russia. But Sutter was a man with a dream; a dream of a vast agricultural domain that he would control.

By the mid 1840s, more and more Americans were trickling into California by wagon and ship. Sutter welcomed the newcomers--he saw them as subjects for his self-styled kingdom. But Sutter had no idea that the trickle would become a flood--a deluge of humanity that would destroy his dream. Sutter's undoing began 50 miles northeast of his fort on the American River. In late 1847, James Marshall and about 20 men were sent to the river by Sutter to build a sawmill--to provide lumber for Sutter's growing ranch. The sawmill was nearly complete when a glint of something caught Marshall's eye. It was January 24th, 1848.

James Marshall

"I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold. The piece was about half the size and shape of a pea. Then I saw another."

After making the greatest find in the history of the West, Marshall and the other workers went back to work. But they kept stumbling upon more gold. Still in disbelief, Marshall took samples back to Sutter's Fort. Sutter and Marshall tested the shiny metal as best they could--a tattered encyclopedia gave them clues. It was gold, they concluded--but neither man was happy about it.

Sutter was building an agricultural fiefdom--he didn't want the competition that gold-seekers might bring. And Marshall had a sawmill to build--gold hunters would just get in his way. So they made a pact to keep the discovery a secret.

But it wasn't long before stories of gold filtered into the surrounding countryside. Yet there was no race to the American River. The news of Marshall's gold was just another fantastic tale--too unlikely to be believed.

The gold rush needed a booster, and Sam Brannan was the man. A San Francisco merchant, Brannan was a skilled craftsman of hype. Eventually, the gold rush would make him the richest person in California--but Sam Brannan never mined for gold. He had a different scheme--a plan he set into motion by running through the streets of San Francisco shouting about Marshall's discovery. As proof, Brannan held up a bottle of gold dust. It was a masterstroke that would spark the rush for gold--and make Brannan rich.

Brannan keenly understood the laws of supply and demand. His wild run through San Francisco came just after he had purchased every pick axe, pan and shovel in the region. A metal pan that sold for twenty cents a few days earlier, was now available from Brannan for fifteen dollars. In just nine weeks he made thirty-six thousand dollars.

By the winter of 1848, whispers of a gold strike had drifted eastward across the country--but few easterners believed. It was an age when rumors were discounted--and government officials were revered. The gold discovery needed validation, and President James Polk delivered just that in early December, 1848:

President James Polk:

"The accounts of the abundance of gold in that territory are of such extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by authentic reports of officers in the public service."

Polk's confirmation reached deep into the soul of millions. His simple words were a powerful call to action. Farmers left their fields; merchants closed their shops; soldiers left their posts--and made plans for California. Newspapers fanned the fires.

Horace Greeley the of New York Tribune:

"Fortune lies upon the surface of the earth as plentiful as the mud in our streets. We look for an addition within the next four years equal to at least One Thousand Million of Dollars to the gold in circulation."

By early 1849, gold fever was an epidemic. Discussions of gold could be heard at nearly every kitchen table in the nation. Young men explained to their wives that a year apart would be worth the hardship.

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