I'm A Believer

I’M A BELIEVER
Gary Lewis

Asset Design Center

I couldn’t believe it when it happened. I was stunned. Out of nowhere, I received a job offer with a base salary for the exact amount that I had set as my goal just three months earlier. It was such a big raise that I was almost frightened. It was as if I had tapped into some higher power. Some supernatural force.

I believe that what happened to me can happen to you as well. We can all achieve our goals, no matter how lofty they seem. All you need to do is follow these three simple steps.

First, in order to achieve your goals, you must know what they are. Probably all of us have read the many self help and positive attitude books. Which one of them does not tell us that we must write down our goals? Yet studies have shown that very few actually do it. You must write down your goals, being as specific as possible.

I’m a professional financial planner. I write perhaps fifty to one hundred cases each year. But I can’t recall the last time a client had provided specific goals such as, I want to retire in the year 2020 with an after tax income of $90,000, inflated by 4% annually. Or, I want to pass $5 million dollars to each of my children, a one million while I am alive, two million at my death and the remainder 10 to 15 years after my death.

It’s always something like, I want to retire comfortably or I want to pass as much wealth as I can to my children. Without specifics, how can I, as a plan writer, possibly meet the client’s objectives? What would the client say if I advised him or her to sell all of the investments and put it all in a life insurance policy? This would be the best way to get as much wealth as possible to the heirs. Unless you are specific with your goal, how can you possibly measure your success?

The second step is to read and even recite your goals out loud daily. While a very small percentage of people write their goals, even a smaller portion review them daily.

We live in such a complex world. Many of us work in positions with constantly shifting priorities. We are whipped this way and that. It’s so easy to lose track of what is important to us and what we are really working for. How often have you written down your goal only to uncover it six months later, having totally forgotten about it?

When you write, read and speak your goals, you develop a sensual loop that fortifies your subconscious. Your mind thinks the thought, it flows through your hands to paper, then to your eyes, to your voice, to your ears, back to your brain. All of your senses are involved in your thought. And whether you realize it or not, you are conditioning your subconscious to know what it is that you are trying to achieve. Once you have your subconscious conditioned, you will find yourself instinctively making decisions that lead you to your goal. You will look back on decisions you made and realize, WOW! This thoughtless action was really important to achieving my goal.

Finally, you must believe that you will achieve these goals and never ever let a a doubt enter into your mind. You can’t let it happen! Some years ago, I had decided to find a job in Mexico even though I was over 40 and didn’t speak Spanish. Everyone, even my family in Mexico kept telling me that it was impossible. But I would not COULD NOT let these negative thoughts enter into my mind. There was a barrier in front of me that would block these words from entering into my thought process. I believed that if I allowed one negative thought to enter into my mind, if I entertained even one doubt that I couldn’t do it, I would become discouraged and give up.

This is not to say that there were not times when I was discouraged, three times I traveled to Mexico specifically for interviews and the interviewer did not show up! It took two years but finally my perserverence paid off and I was hired as a vice president of a major Mexican bank. Keep in mind, I did not know Spanish and had to have an interpreter assist me at meetings. But I did it.

I know that there are goals you want to achieve but perhaps people tell you that it will never happen. Take it from me. I am a believer. I know that you can achieve any goal in life that your really want. All you have to do is to write your goals, read them aloud every day, and don’t allow doubts to enter into your mind.