Page 113 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

and direction.

We don’t have to wait to become famous so that someone else might write
our history. We can be writing our history while it happens. And when we list
our goals, we’re writing our history before it happens. Legendary advertising
executive David Ogilvy started his advertising agency by making a list of the
clients that he most wanted: General Foods, Lever Brothers, Bristol Myers,
Campbell Soup Company, and Shell Oil. At the time, they were the biggest
advertising accounts in the world, and he had none of them. But in a sense he did
have them, because they were on his list. “It took time,” said Ogilvy, “but in due
course I got them all.”

A goal gains power when you write it down, and more power every time you
write it down. What motivates you most in life ought to be in your own
handwriting. People all too often look for motivation in what others have

written. If you become a good list-maker, you will learn how to motivate
yourself by what you’ve written.

79. Set a specific power goal

Most people are surprised to learn that the reason they’re not getting what
they want in life is because their goals are too small. And too vague. And
therefore have no power.

Your goals will never be reached if they fail to excite your imagination.
What really excites the imagination is the setting of a large and specific power
goal.

Usually, a goal is just a goal. But a power goal is a goal that takes on a huge
reality. It lives and breathes. It provides motivational energy. It gets you up in
the morning. You can taste it, smell it, and feel it. You’ve got it clearly pictured
in your mind. You’ve got it written down. And you love writing it down because

every time you do, it fills you with clarity of purpose.

In his audiobook series, Visioneering, my old partner Dennis Deaton teaches
the transforming power of lofty goals. Deaton talks about creating a mental
movie that you watch as often as possible. He urges you to make it a movie that
stars you—living the results of achieving your specific goal.

Walt Disney left us many great things: Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and