How to Get What You want

by Shawn Lim
The first step to getting what you want is to know exactly what it is that you want. This sounds simple and obvious enough? Yet, sadly most people never seem to get what they want; simply because they are not clear about what it is they want in the first place! Unless you have a specific target, you cannot develop an effective strategy to get there. The strategy required to make $200,000 is completely different from the strategy needed to make $20 million.

The moment you clarify your goals, see them in your mind-eye (it’s called creative visualization) you will start to have focus in your life. It will then become crystal clear to you what it is you must do to get there. Biographies of the most successful and legendary people, again in all pursuits, show time and again that their outstanding achievements are rarely outcomes of chance. They did not have success thrust onto them.

Their phenomenal successes are the results of clearly defined outcomes that they had predetermined, and worked towards unwaveringly, often at a very early stage of their life. At the age of eight, Tiger Woods set his goal of breaking every record set in golf and to become the world’s number one golfer. He accomplished this feat 13 years later at the age of 21. How? He spent those fourteen years focusing on his game in order to take it to the level he needed in order to be the best.

At the age of 12, Steven Spielberg knew that what he wanted to do was to tell stories to the world by making movies. It was this specific goal that directed him to spend his time making home videos at the age of 12 and exposing himself to movie sets at universal studios at the age of 18. It was these years of focused effort that allowed him to build the level of experience and skill he needed to make some of the best movies around.

Very few successful experiences happen by chance…whether it is winning a race or a position. Almost all happen by design. Yet, the sad fact is that most people do not have a plan for their lives, and end up falling into somebody else’s plan. It’s only when we know what we want very specifically that we are then able to focus all our talents and energy.

Like a laser beam honing in on its target. And in moving unwaveringly towards it, we develop the resources necessary to make it happen. Wherever you are in your life right now, you must begin to set specific goals on what you want to achieve in the different areas of your life.