need to turn the dream you have into a reality. It is also important that you have total belief in yourself and that what you are doing will help you accomplish your goals. You will need to put in a lot of effort and spend plenty of time reflecting on yourself, your life, and the direction you are heading. However, by this point, you will have accepted that the only way to achieve anything of value is through hard work and dedication. Before you start working on a new project, make sure you are fully aware of what you want to achieve. Thinking about it is not enough—get a pen and notepad and write it down. If you are unsure of your aims, delay getting to work until you are sure because, if you don’t know where you are going, you will end up wasting a lot of time and energy. Also, when you fail to plan, failure is inevitable. You run the risk of developing a reputation as someone who is always starting new ventures and never completing them. You then get trapped in a vicious cycle that ultimately will erode your self-esteem and confidence. There is only one solution to this problem—choose your goals according to your abilities. Once you are confident that you can succeed, go for it. “Trying” is a recipe for disaster, whereas “doing,” is decisive and assertive. Trying leads to unhelpful, negative beliefs that will prevent you from achieving your goals. For example, let’s say you want to lose 20 lbs. and you say that you will “try” to workout throughout the week and you will “try” to stick to your new diet. Through the words you have spoken, you have already set yourself up for failure. When you set out to “try,” what you are saying is that you are not confident you can do this, and you get stuck thinking about what will happen if you don’t hit your target. The more you focus on the things you don’t want, that is what you will attract into your life. When you have decided that this is what you are going to “do,” you will begin to envision the slimmer version of yourself wearing swim shorts or a bikini and feeling attractive and confident. SET REALISTIC GOALS AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF Successful people understand that if they are going to achieve their goals, they must believe they will succeed, and keep pushing themselves harder. Instead of “trying,” they “do.” For example, one of the most successful self-development experts in the world, Deepak Chopra, is well known for his high energy levels and productivity. At 73 years of age, he is still traveling the world giving speeches. When asked how he manages to keep building his publishing empire despite the number of other demands he has in his life, one of his responses has been, “Don’t try, Do.”