Tag: desire

“The starting point of all achievement is desire.” – Napoleon Hill

The definition of desire is actually pretty simple:

Desire (noun) 1) a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen.

Given that definition, it’s going to seem pretty obviously when I tell you that desire is essential to achieving your dreams but let’s think about it a little bit. In fact, let’s think about it using a really common goal – eating healthier.

Everyone, at some point in their life, is likely going to set a goal of eating healthier.  The spark for wanting to do this may result from a trip to the doctor or it may be as simple as your jeans getting tighter. Either way, you resolve that from now on you’re going to start eating healthier.

Until someone asks you if you want a cupcake and who wants to give up a cupcake?

Well, you might actually say “No thanks.” to that cupcake if you really have a strong desire to eat healthier. If you really really want to make your goal happen. If, it turns out, you don’t really care all that much about the goal, it’s going to be much easier to give up on it.

The good news is that you can actually take some steps to make sure the desire is there. Here are my favorite three.

1) Share your dream with positive people who are going to support you. 

Having others cheering you on and telling you they believe in you makes a world of difference. Don’t be afraid to share your dream with others because you worry you’ll feel embarrassed if you don’t achieve it. The right people will support you no matter what happens and will increase the odds of getting to the finish line.

2) Know what you want and why you want it. 

Saying “I want to make a lot of money” might seem like a goal but it actually might not be. You might want to make a lot of money because you want security in your life. You might want to make a lot of money because you actually want to travel and see the world and that takes some serious cash. You might want to make money to help others. There’s usually a reason you want to achieve something (if there’s not, that’s another problem) so figure out what that is and focus on that.

3) Surround yourself with your goal.

Talk about your goal. Put up pictures of what it will look like. Write about it. Spend time every morning and every night thinking about it. Check in with others about it. If you set a goal and then file it away, it’s going to be easy to forget about it or ignore it. Constantly reminding yourself about your goal will keep re-fueling and igniting your desire.

What it boils down to is that desire is the necessary spark to igniting your dreams.

No spark, no fire.