You’ve got seven ways to apply the slight edge to everything you do:
The little things you do matter.
Your attitude is everything.
The present moment is all you have.
It takes small steps to get where you’re going.
Failure is your best friend.
Good habits are your next best friend.
You’re always learning.
Now it’s time to go deeper and make your dreams come true. At the beginning
of this book, we asked you to imagine your dream life. In this last
chapter, it’s time to look at how to turn those dreams into reality.
It’s time to plan your future and think about your dreams. To reflect on the
things you have experienced and how they have affected you.
What have you learned from your past experiences? How have
you grown?
How do you need to continue to grow?
What areas in your life do you need to work on?
What are your goals and how are you going to achieve them?
What have you learned from the stories in this book that can help you?
By now you know that success is no accident. Teens who achieve what they
want in life do it by following a very specific recipe. Perhaps they’re not even aware
118 Success for Teens
that they’ve taken specific steps, but everyone who has ever created success in
their lives, whether consciously or not, has followed more or less the same process.
And to reach the specific and tangible goals that make up success, there are
four steps you need to follow. For any goal to come true:
You must picture it vividly.
You must look at it every day.
You must have a plan to start with.
You can’t quit on yourself.
Let’s go through those steps one by one.
Step One: Picture It Vividly
The most important skill for creating success in anything is the skill of
envisioning. Envisioning means creating a picture of something that hasn’t
actually happened yet, but making that picture so vivid that it feels real.
The reason this is so crucial is that your subconscious mind—remember,
that part of you that controls 99.99 percent of what unfolds in your life—
needs a clear picture of your destination. Once you have a clear, vivid picture
imprinted in your mind, you’ll find a route to get there.
It doesn’t work the other way around—you don’t pick out roads that look
good and hope they’ll take you to the right place. Destination has to come
first. To create your dream life, you have to start with some sort of vivid
picture of where it is you’re headed. You start with the end in mind.
Pick a dream you have, any dream—an accomplishment, a triumph, your
dream house, dream car, dream job, the relationship of your dreams. Pick a
dream that you’d really like to have come true. Look back at the answers that
you wrote after each chapter. Keep picking until you have five dreams. Write
them out in the space on page 120.
As you do, here are some tips to follow.
Write your dreams in the present tense and don’t use any words that
make your dreams seem vague or not realistic. For example, don’t write
“I hope to” or “I’ll try to” or “If possible.” Instead, write “I will…”
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Chapter 8
This is important because your subconscious doesn’t deal with the
future—it deals in the now. If you write out, “Someday I hope to be an elementary
school teacher” or “Someday I hope to write a novel,” that goal won’t
be real in your subconscious. It’s better to write something like, “I will be
proud to be an elementary school teacher” or “I will be successful in writing
a novel.” It even helps to say your goals out loud.
This might seem a little awkward or goofy to you. Saying out loud, “I have
discovered a cure for cancer” may feel funny, when the current truth is that
you have no idea what causes cancer. That’s okay. If it feels funny, let it feel
funny. This is where dreams start.
Make your dream vivid. Envisioning isn’t simply creating a picture in
your mind. That’s wishful thinking. Envisioning means making it real.
You need to make it physical, and that involves your senses. The more
vivid it is, the more it starts to become real.
Create a Dream Board
One way to make your dream vivid is to
find a bunch of pictures that represent the things
you want to accomplish and make them into a collage.
You can cut pictures out of magazines, print them off
the Internet, or take photos of things you want. You can
then thumbtack them to a corkboard or glue them to
cardboard. This is called a “dream board” and
it’s a great way to make your dreams
seem real and reachable.
120 Success for Teens
For example, if your dream is to own a home, describe it in vivid detail.
How many rooms does it have? What does the yard look like? What kind of
living room or kitchen? What’s the neighborhood like?
Don’t worry about doing this “right.” There are no right answers.
You’re flexing your dream muscles. Your dreams can be anything—as
huge as stopping global warming or as modest as getting an A in math
next year. The size of the dream doesn’t matter. The only requirement
is that these dreams are real for you.
Now start:
My Five Dreams
1. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
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Make Your Dreams as Specific as Possible
Now, do two things that will make your dreams even more concrete.
Look at each dream you wrote down and ask two questions.
The first question is, “What, exactly?” Go back to each dream, one at a
time, and add whatever wording you need to make sure each goal is specific.
Why is that important?
Let’s say you wrote down, “Good grades next year.” But what exactly
is a good grade for you? Does that mean straight A’s? Does that mean
going from a C average to a B average? Does it mean good grades in
specific subjects?
If you wrote down, “Get a job and make money,” what does that actually
mean? What kind of job? How much money? What will you do with
that money? Spend it? Put it in a bank account?
What if you wrote down “Be more healthy”? Does that mean eating
better? If so, eating what exactly? Getting more exercise? Stopping smoking?
Imagine reading your dreams out loud to someone you care about,
and that person saying, “I’m not quite sure what you mean. Can you tell
me exactly what you’re shooting for?”
Rewrite the same five dreams below, only this time add whatever
words you need to make each one as specific as possible. Picture it
vividly—and make that picture real and here and now.
My Five Dreams in More Detail
1. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
122 Success for Teens
2. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
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Chapter 8
When Will You Accomplish Your Dreams?
The next question is, “By when?” It’s easy to put things off until later. But if you
set a specific time to accomplish your dreams, you’ll be less likely to put them off.
Goals are dreams with deadlines. Let’s reshape your dreams into goals by
putting a date on each one. In the spaces below, write out each of those five
dreams one more time, this time adding words that answer