It Starts with Passion, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 18Creating the road map for the year ahead

David Starr Jordan, the founding president of Stanford University, was fond of sharing these words with his students: ‘Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it!’

So what do you need to do next? Decide what you want to achieve, obtain, reach, have and become in the next 12 months. For most people the norm is wishing and hoping that their goals will come true, rather than knowing and planning for their goals to come true. The art of narrowing your focus to the next 12 months is taking your vision, those long-term goals, and turning them into achievable, believable and desirable goals.

Amat victoria curam is a Latin proverb first brought to my attention by my good friend and fellow speaker Malcolm McLeod. It translates as …

‘Victory loves preparation!’

This chapter is about being prepared to achieve those milestones that are vital for you to feel how you want to feel and that act as stepping stones to those long-term goals we spoke about in the previous chapter. It is about creating a series of dots that form an outline of a picture and then joining those dots together to make your picture come to life. Malcolm has another great saying: ‘Unfocused thoughts equal unaccomplished results.’ So I am going to ask you to become very focused on the following eight key areas, once again starting with your three driving emotions.

I’m often asked, ‘How many goals should I set for the next ...