“If you aim at anything, you’ll hit it.” She said this then threw a piece of chalk to the back of the classroom. It hit something, not anything in particular, but it hit something.

If you aim at anything, you’ll hit it.

This simple quote has shaped me to become a focused man, and it still does guide me to date, thanks to the mother and role model who taught me that in 2009.

The animal you are (biologically speaking) has a character trait similar to that of a moth. A moth is attracted to light during the night, and in a similar manner, the human you are is attracted to shiny objects. And as the moth flies towards a light in the dark, so do you advance towards financial freedom, owning your own business, getting awarded with a college degree, getting a job promotion or winning over the love of your favorite human. Both you and the moth will occasionally risk death while advancing towards the shiny objects, and yet you have an advantage over the moth in that you could minimize the risks that lie between where you are and where the shiny object lies. Today’s article gives useful suggestions for use between now and when you get to finally reach and hug your shiny object.

Below are relevant suggestions  for leveraging the journey and making the rewards of pursuing your shiny objects worth it:

• Work with Clearly Defined Goals/Objectives

The job promotion, spouse, new car/home, owning your business etc need to first be specific. A specific objective attracts more specific people, opportunities, and resources than a non-specific objective. What shiny object (goal) do you have in mind that you are in pursuit of? How specific is the goal? If you have clearly defined objectives, please read the next point below.

• Be Transformed to Match Your Goal

It is normal to hate change since it comes with a pain. Changing is however inevitable in the pursuit of a goal. It may involve something as simple as changing your priorities (what you spend your money and time on) to more demanding changes like moving to new geographical locations, going back to class for more knowledge and skill, or doing a complete overhaul of your job description.

The point is, attracting better things first requires a better version of you. Advancing towards shinier and better things than you currently have will need some changes/adjustments of the otherwise normal life you currently have.

Anticipate the changes and be ready for them beforehand. You’ll have done yourself a big favor.

• Know the Rules that Work, the Principles for Gaining a New Status

A principle is a basic idea that makes something produce consistent results over and over again e.g., the principle of magnetism is that magnetic materials have dipoles that align themselves in the presence of a magnetic field hence the object (mostly metals) get attracted to a magnet. As a principle, that’s how a magnet attracts magnetic materials.

There must be principles (sometimes called secrets) that guide the journey to financial freedom, becoming noticed in a noisy world, dating successfully and any other thing you deeply care about gaining (the shiny object). Knowing how to effectively pursue your goals is like tapping into a principle/secret for attaining the particular goals.

Therefore knowing and working with the rules/principles/secrets for gaining what you want in life shall save you time, and save you the frustrations that come with trial and error when you don’t know how to do a certain thing.

To be continued…

A continuation of these suggestions shall be published on Thursday, September 21, 2017. This is because I prefer publishing blog posts ranging 500-750 words to avoid writing too much unnecessary information, hence giving you value for your time. I shall reblog this article and give two more suggestions on Thursday. See you then 🙂