Time Travel to Accomplish Your Goals

Meet Ricardo Alvaranga, a 24-year-old contractor that came to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay from Jamaica to save money and open a business back home. The following letter is something Ricardo hopes for. I asked him to sit in the future mentally and watch his dream unfold in his mind. He was to write down each step as it took place and this is what he wrote . . .

The opening of Ricky's Tave
was one day to remember! I can remember painting, cleaning and stocking items in my store just for the opening day. I surprised myself with all the hard work I put into making this place successful to make my dream come true. I had to spend over $200,000 to open my store but I made it back in profit by the second week of opening. Owning my own store has been wonderful for my self-esteem. It is great to meet all kinds of people and provide a service to the community, but the most rewarding thing about running my store is the total autonomy and control of the business and the ability to tailor it to my lifestyle. It is such a creative outlet!

It was a struggle to imagine something that has not happened yet and write it down," said Ricardo.

Stephen Covey, author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" said, "All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or a second creation to all things."
Writing goals down is a popular motivational tip to achieving goals because it works. To visualize them in your mind along with writing them down is even better. But I am convinced, because I've seen it in my own life, that Ricky will have his tave
because if you write it down as if it's already taken place, it will happen.

Writing As If is a powerful technique to add to your arsenal of success building. Like Ricardo said, it wasn't easy to do. It takes great mental strength to sit in a place of having accomplished your goals and feel them as if you're already there. But your mind is powerful and you can travel to the future, sit in your accomplished feat and write down how wonderful it is. Like Ricardo did, see it in your mind and be specific in your descriptions. Feel yourself in your accomplishment. Smell it and touch it with your imagination. You can do this with any goal from weight loss and physical fitness to financial or family goals. Your possibilities are endless!

Mark Twain lived an amazing life full of accomplishment. He wrote, "20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did. So throw off the blow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

May 2016 be the year you set sail and take off!