Do something special with your life!

Is it simply a happy coincidence  that Lou Holtz is an amazingly successful coach and human being?

Paul J Mayer said that:  “Goal setting is the most important aspect of all improvement and personal development plans. Confidence is important, determination is vital, certain personality traits contribute to success, but they all come into focus in goal setting.”

The year was 1966, and Lou Holtz, at age 28, was out of a job and had no money in the bank. Not only that, his wife, Beth, was eight months pregnant with their third child. She gave him a copy of a book she thought would lift his spirits. It was called The Magic of Thinking Big by David J Schwartz. “There are so many people, and I was one of them,” says Holtz, “who don’t do anything special with their lives. The book said you should write down all the goals you wanted to achieve before you died.”
Holtz took the authors suggestion to heart. Sitting at his kitchen table, the 28-year-old coach listed 107 goals that, at the time seemed ridiculous -from having dinner at the White House to appearing on the tonight show, from meeting the pope to winning a national championship. He even included making a hole in one and jumping out of an airplane.

According to Henrietta Anne Klauser, in her book Write It Down, Make It Happen, Lou Holtz has achieved 81 of those 107 goals. He met the pope and appeared with Johnny Carson. He has photos of his dinner with President Ronald Reagan at the White House. And he’s made not one, but two holes in one!
Do you think Lou Holtz would have achieved these goals had he not written them down? Doubtful.  In Klauser’s book, she recounts story after story of real life people who have accomplished amazing feats after writing down their dreams and aspirations. She says that whenever a person writes down their dream, it is “like hanging up a sign that says, Open for Business.”

If you’re bored with your life you don’t have enough goals.  Lou Holtz

One of the saddest lines in the world is: “Oh, come now, be realistic.”  Don’t worry about being realistic as you’re write . Just write!

I wonder if so many people stew over overwhelming tasks because they mistakenly believe that those tasks should be easy. Like maybe you are just “unlucky,” and everyone else can do great things with little or no effort.  We should choose to start acting on our goals not because there will be no difficulties, but because the rewards make the difficulties worth enduring.

Ideas without action are worthless. Harvey Mackay

You’ve got to break any significant achievement into manageable steps.

It’s fine to keep the big payoff in mind, in fact, it’s imperative. But don’t allow the big goal to keep you from seeing the little goals that will take you to it.

Often what looks impossible when viewed in its entirety can be a lot more manageable when you break it down.

Often the first step is the biggest. That’s because it represents a commitment!

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too!

Above from: 3 Seconds,
by Les Parrott pp 171-178