The problem with most of us is that we don’t dream big enough.

General statistics are evidence of this.

Here’s what I mean. In the UK and most countries in the western world:

• 2% of people achieve wealth by their retirement age
• 4% of people have enough cash and investments so that they do not need to be a burden on others
• 54 of people are living hand-to mouth existing, just about managing to pay their basic bills and live a life with hardly any luxuries
• 40% of people are very close to bankruptcy, and a state of wretchedness that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy

Terrifying statistics.

But here’s what’s even more worrying about retirement…

According to the Office of National Statistics, the average income for someone in full time work in the UK is £29,900.

This means that o have a comfortable retirement, many financial advisers advise that a person should aim to live on 60% of their annual salary in retirement.

So, this means that your average person would need to have a pension income of £21,254 per year.

Now…

Here’s where things get interesting…

The state pension age in the UK is currently 67 year old for a man ands 60% for a woman. ]

When UK citizens reach this age they are likely to receive a state, government pension of £168.80/week which works out to be £8,767 per year.

Hardly a fortune.

I think you know where I’m about to go with this 😉

So…

If someone reaches 67 and they also have a pension pot of approximately £200,000, they will also receive an annual(private) income of £10,116.

This works out to approximately £843 a month. It’s obvious why so few people are able to leave a meaningful existence after they retire.

There a re a number of reasons for this:

1. They didn’t invest enough into their pension over their working life.
2. They pursued a career that didn’t enable them  to contribute more into their pension.
3. They bought into the story that they were told their parents that they should find a safe and secure job at a big company and work their till retirement.

Yes, they didn’t engage in the practice of dreaming BIG enough.

So…

If you’re anything like me you’ve made the decision to start an online business because you want to achieve a lifestyle goal that is over and above the average man or woman in your country.

You want more out of life and the fact that your here reading this post tells me that you’re already on track..

Here’s the brutal truth…

If you want to achieve financial independence, become comfortable or simply generate a second income to supplement your full time 9-5 income, you will never achieve this if you don’t have a dream and a strong enough.

 WHY!

You see…

To earn the income that you need to earn to realise your lifestyle dreams, you are going to need to develop a lazer-like focus on your financial goals and you should monitor your progress weekly.

You can’t approach your home business with a half-hearted interest in your business.

It has been well documented that people who have either achieved millionaire status or financial independence often work over 10 hours a day when they really don’t need to work another day in their lives.

They have a passion and a burning desire to do what they are doing.

They aren’t afraid to dream and take action to realise those dreams.

Dreaming big is about visualising the life you want to live BUT that visualisation has to be fuelled with a degree of passion.

If you have goals that you will not be too disappointed that you do not hit then, if I’m being frank these goals really aren’t worth pursuing.

So…

A great test to determine how mentally aligned to your dreams is to try to write a list of 5 goals that you desperately want to achieve.

If you struggle to write this list then it is probably a waste of your time pursuing this dream.

Now…

Imagine for a second that you were to walk into a room tomorrow and meet you from 10 years into the future.

Would you:

•  dress differently?
•  be living in the same house?
• be driving the same car?

Let’s be clear?

When it comes to ‘future design’ you only realistically have the following three options:

1. You will have achieved your goals and you will be a happier, and more wealthy version of yourself.
2. You will be exactly the same as your are today – DON’T LET HTIS HAPPEN!
3. You will be broke and destitute – remember that most people living in the western world have next to no money put away for a rainy day.

If you’re like most people who would sooner meet the option 1 version of themselves, then you need to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What can I start doing today that will take me closer to where I want to be?
2. What needs to happen over the next year to make my dream a reality?

Dreaming is often critiqued by personal development gurus because people’s dreams are rarely backed up by a solid plan.

Another problem with dreaming is that it can be an overwhelming process.

We often have multi-faceted dreams that can not be realised by a singular activity. So, it’s important that we break down our dreams into smaller chunks .

This is an effective NLP strategy that has changed the lives of many of the people who can be bothered to practice it. So, why is it that people don’t often pursue their dreams and achieve their goals?

There are too many reasons for me to list in this post but some of the most common reasons that I come across include:

1. They are terrified of failure.
2. The are no good at visualising – this takes practice and is a worthwhile pursuit.
3. They are no good at looking at their dreams and chunking this down into a series of goals – they not know how to realistically get from A to B.
4. They lack the discipline to do what’s necessary.

The fact that you are here reading this blog post means that its highly unlikely that any of the above relate to you directly but you should be aware of these issues because they will explain the behaviour of your customers or distributors that you are looking to work with.

I often cringe when I read this type of personal development stuff because you often hear the same saying repeated over and over again but here’s a principle that I definitely agree with….

Successful people will make the sacrifices today to have a better tomorrow!

When it comes to running a business, real winners tend to have the following characteristics:

1. They are fearless.
2. They can easily visualise outcomes they want to see materialise in their lives.
3. They are logical and rational operators, who don’t make business decisions based on emotion.
4. They know what to do do get from where they are now to where they want to be in the future

You must realise that all dreams are driven based on a hierarchy of human needs. There are a number of needs common to all human beings as defined by Maslow, some of which include:

• Approval by others
• Safety
• Security
• Love
• shelter

If someone has a goal to have a net worth of $1million, it’s probably not just because they want to see 00000s in their bank account on a daily basis.

Yes, they want to know that they can pay all of their bills and go on a few holidays etc but there is often a deeper underlying human need that is driving this goal.

It could be because they want to be recognised as an achiever by their family and friends.

As children and young adults we had dreams that were often educated out of us.

Ever heard statements like:

• “You cant achieve that. Be more realistic.
• “People like us can’t achieve this”
• “Go to school and get a good job with good benefits and a pension”.

We often heard statements like this from ur friends and family who genuinely love and wanted the best for us.

The generations before us can’t be blamed for thinking this way because their main concern was abut survival.

Nothing wrong with that.

But…

If you have a goal to achieve more than this you need to dedicate some time to discovering and realising your dreams.

Always make sure that your dream is really your dream and not someone else’s.

It is your dream that counts and you should not let your dream be influenced by the opinions of others.

So, let me share with you a technique that can help you to define your dreams and design your future.

Now, I’m going to use some religious language but this applies to an atheist or agnostic as much as it does to any believer so don’t get offended.

Grab a pen and a sheet of paper and write at the top of the page…

Heaven’s Gift – My Perfect Job

Then…

Brainstorm and write down a few bullet points that describe exactly what your daily work life will look like.

You can include things like:

• The people you will be working with
• the hours you will be working
• the environment that you will be working in – the beach?

Here’s whats likely to happen…

As you start visualising your ideal working scenario, you will get negative internal thoughts which might tell you that you’re being unrealistic.

“Work on the beach – don’t be ridiculous. All of these internet scammers who claim to be working on a beach in Costa Rica are just con artists.”

When you hear these negative internal messages ignore them and keep writing.

On the other side of the pierce of paper write…

The Devil’s work – A Job I Hate Doing

Then proceed to list a number of bullet points that contain what you absolutely positively know for a fact you don’t want your daily work life to look like.

You see…

By knowing what you don’t want to do for a living you will often be able to refine your ideal job in a way that will help you to realise goals and dreams because you will be more motivated to achieve them.

So, to reiterate the overriding message of this post don’t just set goals, become a master of motivational goal setting to stay on track.

I’m going to cover this topic in a few posts moving forward but for now do the exercise above and start focusing on crafting your dream for the future.

So, you’ve read this post, you know that motivational goal setting is the key to achieving your goals quicker and you’re serious about being successful and thats why you will find the home business building hints and tips in our weekly email VIP newsletter valuable.

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Till next time.