A Goal Is A Dream With A Deadline |

Napoleon Hill said ”A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Don’t allow the shortness or simplicity of this comment to cause you to underestimate the significance of this truth, because this truly is one of the primary, premium lessons to be learned and then effectively and consistently applied, in order for any business venture, or for that matter … LIFE … to be truly successful.

If I had just a single, thin a dime for every time I met with a well intending, bright and optimistic business associate who was excitedly sharing all their goals with me, and then suddenly stopped and dropped their jaw, dumbfounded, when I asked them what their “deadline” is for each of these awesome goals, I would have the money to buy myself a small, luxury island out in the South Pacific.

You see, if there is no specific deadline attached to goal, it isn’t really a goal at all. It’s a nice, pleasant wish, hope, dream, desire, but it certainly doesn’t qualify as a goal.

If you were to mistakenly go pitch your exciting new GOAL to a CEO or Board of Directors, without a deadline included within the presentation, or at least, a very specific plan to effectively determine the most logical deadline, you would walk out of that meeting with a significant amount of your enthusiasm, confidence and quite probably a fairly large portion of your hind-quarters painfully missing.

Face it, the human race is naturally a bunch of postponing procrastinators, who will instinctively seek out any way possible to avoid the sense of pressure and expectation that a deadline automatically puts into any situation.

But, it is, in fact, the very thing that we instinctively seek so desperately to avoid, a set and unalterable deadline as to when a project needs to be completed, that actually drives mass mediocrity onward toward the heights of glorious success and the continuous confidence and comfort that a string of meaningful successes brings to one’s attitude and reputation.

Yes, the truth is … deadlines are not only inevitable and unavoidable, but are in fact, our greatest friends and reliable allies in both business and life. Without our deadlines, we wouldn’t ever have achieved even 1/10^th of our greatest and most significant successes and accomplishments.

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