Setting Goals

Success flows from passion, not from self-discipline. While self-discipline is important, it is not the key factor to achieving your goals and making your wish come true. Self-discipline is the foundation of character, and character is the foundation of all lasting success. News headlines and history books are full of people who fell from grace because they lacked character. Without character, success is meaningless.

But character is only the launching pad - it’s not the rocket. The rocket is passion.

Successful people do what they need to do whether they like it or not. That’s self-discipline. Exceptionally successful people do what they need to do because they love it. That’s passion.

If you have to force yourself to make your wish come true, you’re working on the wrong wish. Look around you. The people who are incredibly successful aren’t doing what they hate; they’re doing what they love. Or at least they’ve learned to love what they’re doing.

It’s easy to fall ion love with an effect - we all want to be rich or famous, or to make a difference in the world - the trick is to fall in love with the cause. The people most likely to become successful are the ones who fall in love with the processes that cause their success. Fall in love with the cause, and the effect will take care of itself.

When you’re in love with the cause, you’re following the path of least resistance. Your actions come naturally. You don’t have to discipline yourself; you don’t have to force yourself; you don’t even have to motivate yourself. You simply do what you enjoy doing. The doing then becomes its own reward, and your desired results follow the way dessert follows a great meal.

The easiest way to substitute passion for self-discipline is to change the way you think about what you’re doing. Instead of asking yourself, “How can I get myself to do this?” ask yourself, How can I get myself to enjoy doing this? The secret to joy is to find it wherever you look, and to look for it everywhere. Look for it in the tasks that will make your wish come true. Look for it in the challenges you face and problems you have to solve. Look for it in the moment.

Don’t try to talk yourself into feeling this joy; imagine yourself into it instead. Change your mental movie. Enlarge your comfort zone. Instead of running a movie that shows how much you hate what you’re doing, run a movie that shows how much you love it. Picture how much you enjoy doing the things that will make you achieve your goal, and before long you’ll enjoy doing them.