Purpose, Vision, Goals

By Bob Proctor

Do you have a definite purpose that guides your ambitions, vision, and goals?

t doesnt matter how you think you arrived here on this planet or under
whose directionthe fact remains that each of us has specific talents and
gifts that are uniquely coded within our own DNA.
As you go through life, you dont just pick up things you like doing by chance.
You discover what youre good at because you were meant to discover it, just
as you were meant to figure out what your fingers do, and how your elbows
work. Your unique gifts are hardwired into your system just as surely as your
lungs are given their blueprint to breathe.
And its from these specific talents and gifts that youre able to define and
determine your definite purpose the reason why youre here. Whats in you
cannot be found in another living human being. In fact, its quite possible that
what you bring to the table hasnt been duplicatedeversince time began.
Thats right! This purpose is serious business.
If you fail to determine your definite purpose, everything else is wrong. Its like
working with a broken compassyou may think youre going North, but youre
not.
Youre not sure which direction youre heading, so, youre just wandering
aimlessly.
Without your purpose identified firmly in your mind, you will wander through
life, never quite feeling that youre in the flow. I say, then, that its imperative
you recognize what it is youre good atwhat it is you really love to do. Your
purpose in this lifetime is to do the thing that you love.
People will tell you they already know what theyre good at, and what they
love to do most, but theyll never earn money doing it. Whoever gave you

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What a different story people would have to

THAT idea? When youre sorting
tell if they would adopt a definite purpose
out your purpose, I dont
and stand by that purpose until it had time to
want you thinking about THAT
become an all-consuming purpose.

non-issue at all. You can earn

Napoleon Hill, Laws of Success
money at ANYTHING. Once you
determine your purpose, you
wont even have to think hard on HOW to earn moneits as if youre being
guided by an unseen hand, heading in the right direction and everything falls
into place.
The key to your life is not that you settle for the safe thing that will bring in
the money. The key is to turn and do what you really love. Fall in love with
an idea. Thats your life! Thats your purpose.
Fall In Love With An Idea
More often than not, when we think of love, we tend to think of two human
beings in love. When theyre in love, they enjoy the same ideas; their feelings
are in harmony.
Love is resonance. Love occurs when two entities are on the same frequency.
So, when a person falls in love with an idea, his conscious and subconscious
are resonating theyre in sync. And, its whats going on in the mind that
dictates the vibration of the body and moves the body into action. So, you
must first allow yourself to fall in love with an idea what is it you really love
to do?
The psychologist Alfred Adler once said, I am grateful for the idea that has
used me. When you fall in love with an idea, it guides you you dont guide it
anymore.
Nor are you going to find yourself digging around for ambition or seeking
to achieve your purpose. Itll push you out of bed in the morning long before
your alarm clock considers doing the same. When you land on your purpose
and truly start doing what you love, its like being 12-years-old again, waking
up to your first glorious day of summer vacation. What might have been
drudgery for you just a day before is now grand opportunity and discovery.
Youre loaded with ambition.
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Did the weather change?

Did the sun rise several hours sooner?
Of course not. The only entity that changed between the last day of school
and the first day of summer vacation was YOU. In similar fashion, acting on
your purpose pushes your ambition through the ROOF. The gifts within you
were programmed to SING in a spotlight on center stage! Ambition is the
talent agent that promotes these gifts and believes in your gifts to get them
to that stage. The performance you do from that stage thats your lifes
purpose.
Getting Past The Negatives To Find Your Truth
Purpose gives meaning to WHY youre doing what youre doing.
Its time to listen to that inner voice, to give serious attention to what comes
naturally to you to what gets YOU juiced to what gets YOU moving at
the start of each day.
Its time to sit down and have a serious truth session with yourself. Nobody
knows your gifts better than youits an innate sense you have. I dont care
what your parents, guardians, teachers, bosses, and best friends have said
in the past and neither should you. In this session, dont entertain ANY
negatives about yourself, past or present, real or imagined.
Understand that negative images have been crowding your mind since your
first week on this planet. Even your first school papers were marked in red
slashes when you were wrong. That red mark drew your entire conscious
attention, even if it was the only mark on the entire page. It shifted your
energy completely; you might have brooded about it for days; it might have
made you fearful of the next mistake youd make. In many cases, its this
ongoing conscious attention on negativity and failure that keeps people
from making any kind of different directional move in their lives.
Youve had failings in your life. Ive had failings in my life. When we fail, its
not a fault issuewe simply were not in harmony with what we were trying
to do.
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You might have a failed relationship in your past thats left you with the
opinion that it was your fault. You play the tapes back again and again
rethinking what you said or how you acted. Youre so embroiled in what you
should have done differently that youre not seeing the bottom-line truth:
The relationship was not in harmony, it wasnt resonating.
You might have failed in school. How can you get straight As with something
youre not in harmony with? When I was in grade school, I was bored to
tears. I didnt pay attention and I didnt get very good marks. Because
I didnt get good marks in grade school, I expected the sameand my
teachers expected the samewhen I got into high school. So, what did I
earn in high school? Bad marks. In Canada, we high schoolers had the
option of attending a more academic college setting versus a trade-school
setting. I remember telling a teacher that I was going to be applying for the
academic college, at which point I was immediately told, Dont go there.
Youll never do well in academics. Go to the trade school, instead.
See, the masses are obsessed with conformity rather than creativity. I know
youve had a great deal of input from well-meaning people who would
rather you just stick to the status-quo ... even if its making you miserable. In
their eyes, the status quo is safer less invasive more comfortable and
it doesnt push them into thinking about their lives.
I listened to my teacher. I conformed to what the masses thought of me, and
off I went to trade school. I wasnt even there a month before I shoved my
thumb into a bandsaw. Why did I fail there?
I was going in the wrong direction.
I wasnt on purpose.
I wasnt listening to myself, to what was true within me. In fact, I didnt think
I was very special. I spent decades of my life thinking I wasnt very special.
You must recognize the unique gift of you. Youre an individualized,
phenomenal expression of life. If you start focusing on the mysteries, the
spectacular parts of you that come together in perfect harmony in order to
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just accomplish the writing of your name you begin to see the wonderful,
complex person that you are. Add to that the ability to:
paint in oils, put a cars engine together, program systems
that make thousands of peoples lives easier, play the
piano without looking at a note, add and subtract reams
of numbers, speak from a platform, match a persons
hairstyle to their personality and lifestyle, fashion chairs
and tables from a log of wood, put to paper a blueprint in
your mind that becomes an architectural masterpiece
and you begin to discover the absolute, awesome uniqueness that resides
only within YOU.
Youre Not On This Planet To Live Someone Elses Dream
What is it you love to do? Dont bother yourself with what anyone else says
thats why youre here. As I have already explained, when youre not on
purpose, odds are that youre not going to build in the right direction. But
equally as important is this: When you believe youve found your purpose, do
not allow yourself to be dissuaded by others opinionsdont allow them to tell
you in which direction to build.
After about five years of working at Nightingale Conant, I landed on an
alarmingly great idea I was going to do this on my own.
I wanted to do just what my close friend and mentor, Earl Nightingale, was
doing, but I wanted to do it under my own name and with the education and
knowledge Id been personally acquiring over all the years. So, I got a tape
recorderyou know, one of those old fashioned kinds with the big buttons and
the red RECORD button. You put the tape in and it click-click-clicks away
while you talk into the microphone that kind of thing. And I sat down and
recorded my own thoughts on the subject of personal growth.
I needed someone to give me feedback, so I called up a good friend and
told him I had a great idea I wanted to share with him. I took the tape and
recorder up to his house, turned it all on and well, Joel Goldsmiths phrase
Thunder of Silence couldnt have fit the situation better. As the tape played
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on, the pressure in that room became enormousit was his embarrassment
for me. I eventually turned the tape recorder off, and mumbled, Well, it was
just an idea.
As I was driving back to my house, it hit me: I was letting him steal my dream!
This was my DREAM! I wasnt going to let him steal my dream! And thats when
it clicked in my mind I can DO this.
Had I listened to him, I would have fallen off my lifes purpose. I would have
kept obtaining goals and building longterm visions in my head, but I would
have been going in the absolute wrong direction.
See, if youre not on purpose, EVERYTHING is off course. When you have the
right purpose, youll easily develop the right vision. When you have the right
vision, youll quickly recognize the right goal.
Purpose Leads To Vision, Vision Leads To The Goal
Once youve found your purpose, how do you express it? By creating and
maintaining a vision.
Vision is what you do with your life. Vision is the strategy behind the
fulfillment of your purpose. You accomplish this strategy by creating
several short-term goals to keep you on course.
Van Gough once said, I dream my painting and then I paint my dream.
We all know that Van Gough knew his purpose in life.
His vision, then, was the completion of paintings, each uniquely different from
the other. How he put his vision to canvas involved a series of short-term goals.
I work with a young woman who builds websites. Now, for most people,
putting websites together can make your head hurt so bad that you just quit
and decide to go do something elseanything else. Websites are complicated
and, unlike a house or an office building, you can build the whole thing
before you realize you forgot to put in the plumbing many websites arent
really functional.
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But when this woman starts working on someones website, she gets a feeling
for what the client is looking for, and sees the sites entire blueprint in her
head. Then she just follows the blueprint. See, she has the vision in her head
what she does to get from vision to a completed website is a series of shortterm goals between herself and the programmer.
Vision is the key connector between ones daily goals and ones lifetime
purpose.
Fix On Your Vision, Then Plot Your Course
This summer, I had a wedding to attend in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I had a few
days to spare, and my wife and I enjoy each others company, so I suggested
to Linda that we drive instead of flying. She readily agreed and started
collecting the maps wed need for the trip. As we plotted the course, we
would be driving from Toronto to Detroit, Detroit to Cincinnati, Cincinnati to
Lexington, Lexington to Louisville and then into Gatlinburg.
We were plotting the vision, you see, to get us from Point A to Point B.
When we got in the car to begin the trip, which city was I thinking of?
Detroit. I had to get to Detroit first; if I missed Detroit, thered be a good
chance we wouldnt find our way to the wedding at all.
Detroit was first on my listthat was my GOAL. After Detroit was
accomplished, Cincinnati became my goal and so on all the way to my
final destination Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Ive had people come up and tell me that theyve given up on their big dreams
because they never seemed to get closer, no matter what they envisioned
or tried. The error theyre making is that theyre looking for their Gatlinburg,
Tennessee while theyre still sitting in the driveway in Toronto. In many
instances, theyre writing their Gatlinburg goal on a Goal Card Ive given
them, or theyre writing it in a journal somewhere. This is all well and good, but
if youre not also plotting your course to get from where you are to where you
want to be if youre not figuring out the first goal for Detroit, then following
that plotline forward in progressive order, youre going to end up in Montreal
instead.
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Youve GOT to plot the course. Figure out what you need to do between here
and there and make those your goals.
Once you have the course plotted, though, there are three very distinct rules
of thumb I want you to remember.
First, just because youve plotted the course doesnt mean you can put your
whole plan on auto-pilot. When pilots reach cruising altitude theyll quite
often put the plane on auto-pilot and let years of genius physics and calculus
computations steer the plane toward its destination. But even with auto-pilot,
youve got to manually get the plane in the air and manually land it. And even
with auto-pilot, youve got to keep an eye on your instruments and pay
attention to possible curve balls Mother Nature might toss your way.
You cannot rely on auto pilot to get you where you want to go. You have to be
personally involved and focused on the process.
Second, dont get so carried away with the details of plotting the action steps
within your vision that you dont ever get out of your driveway. You know what
Im talking aboutyou see people around you do it all the time. They get so
caught up in planning and charting and graphing their future that they never
BEGIN it. This is fear in disguisethats all it is. Your plan doesnt have to be
perfect. Get the foundational elements in place and get moving.
Third, dont be so intent on motoring to Detroit that you miss the scenery
along the way. Youre on purpose youre on your way enjoy the journey, for
heavens sake. After all, thats what youre doing this for, isnt it?
When The Vision Doesnt Work
Now, its imperative that you not confuse your purpose with your vision. In our
solar system, the sun is the one stable element around which all the planets
revolve. Your purpose is your sun. It doesnt move; it doesnt change. Your
vision and its subsequent goals are the planets that revolve around your
purposes perimeter.
People will often say that they THOUGHT they were keyed in on their purpose
in life but, for some reason, nothing seems to be falling into place to further
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that purpose. They mistakenly conclude that its the purpose that is offkilter.
While this may be true, in most cases its not the purpose thats off-kilter
its the vision thats not getting you there.
If youve really honed in on that inner voice if youve been true to yourself
if youve not allowed any negativity to sway you from what you believe
your purpose to be if you have duly noted that these unique gifts of yours
actually run in your blood then youre on purpose. Its simply time to do
some analysis of the vision youve put in place.
I want you to imagine that youre in Chicago and your goal is to go to Detroit.
Away you go in a rush. Youre driving and driving, you stop and grab a coffee,
you get back in the car and keep driving and all of a sudden you see a
sign up ahead that says Nashville, 186 miles.
You think, What the heck? Im going to Detroit. Nashville is in the opposite
direction.
Youre concerned now and even a little worried. You might even be a bit
miffed. But you keep driving in the same direction. An hour goes by and
you see another sign Nashville, 102 miles at this point, youre downright
annoyed. How in the world could this be happening? you ask yourself. But
you keep driving.
Now, if this were a real-life happenstance, you wouldnt keep driving. As soon
as you would come across the FIRST indication that you were traveling in the
wrong direction, youd brake the car to a halt and do a Uturn right there on
the highway. Youd bump across the dirt median between the two highways
and you wouldnt even care if a sign stood right there telling you that this
median was reserved for official use only.
This IS official use! youd grumble to yourself as you swing across and merge
with the oncoming traffic. Ive been going in the wrong direction for an HOUR,
for heavens sake!
Why is it that in REAL life youd have no compunction about immediately
changing your direction but when it comes to changing direction on the
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VISION you have in place, you keep driving in the wrong direction, even while
you know its the wrong place to go?
The key is that you take note of the street signs and indicators that are
trying to alert you to the fact that youre going in the wrong direction. You
know what those nudges arethey happen every day, these inner knowers
that are working to keep you on track and on purpose. When you are not on
track to your goal, when you are not moving on your vision, youre going to
feel bad about yourself and what youre doing.
This is a clear indication that youre not on purpose. Your intuitive mind is
screaming at youintuition is that marvelous mental muscle that is telling
us the direction we should be going. Its part and parcel of the orderly universe
we exist in; its here for a very definite reason.
Theres a difference between bumping up against dead-end brick walls this
is where your intuition kicks in and meeting up with resistance as you
pursue your vision. When resistance comes up, that old, crotchety paradigm
might perk up to assure you that youre on the wrong path, that it wouldnt be
this difficult if you were on the right path. Those old quitter programs in your
head are not at all connected to your intuitive source, and as you get to know
your inner knower, youll begin to recognize the feeling you get that
distinctly separates intuition from a badtalking paradigm.
Resistance is not bad, it is not negative. The good that you are seeking is
herein fact, everything youre seeking is seeking you. Your action causes a
reaction, and that reaction represents resistance. Remember that airplanes
would not only not fly, but they would never get off the ground without
resistance. When you are on purpose, your goal guides you toward the good
you desire. And through the Law of Vibration and Attraction, the good you
desire is moving in your direction. Keep going through the resistance and, as
Henry David Thoreau said, you will meet with success unexpected in common
hours.
When Youre Not Doing What You Should Be Doing
Theres one last point Id like to make about recognizing your purpose.
More often than not, people have difficulty getting focused on what it is
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theyre put on this planet to do because theyre already doing something day
in and day out that exhausts their time and, in the end, feel they are on the
right track because they are covering most of their bills. Just because you
have a 9-to-5 obligation and your bills are getting paid doesnt mean that
youve figured out your true purpose. This fact, however, can often block or
impede your progress toward that better and higher use of your time and
talents.
Now, some people get stuck and are afraid or reluctant to make a move
because they just cant see how their purpose will pay the bills. Furthermore,
they have been programmed from infancy to believe it is better to be safe
than sorry.
In this context, its NOT better to be safe than sorry. When you picture
yourself reaching the end of the road, do you think youll be happy because
you had a safe trip? But you never did the things that you dreamed about and,
rather than reliving the exciting growth-oriented experiences that you had,
you end up wondering what would have happened if you had stepped out and
molded your own future.
On the other handthere are people who land on their purpose and, throwing
all caution to the wind, stop everything theyre doing including their paying
jobs to seek out this higher end for their lives.
While I have some admiration for this attitude and believe that people who
take this action are eventually going to land on their feet, drastic action such
as waking up and quitting your job tomorrow morning is not something Id
recommend. You see, you cant pursue your purpose if your basic needs of life
are not met. Over the years, Ive seen a number of people quit their full-time
jobs because they want to devote more time and energy to building up this
master plan, this dream in their mind. Within weeks, when they begin to see
that their needs are not taken care of, they immediately begin to worry about
making ends meet and they blow it.
When your needs are taken care of, youre free to move; youre free to take
action. Freedom is simply the clear expression of spiritual power to and
through you. When youre enjoying freedom, youre free of constricting
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worry. You dont lie awake at night planning your escape from your less-thansatisfactory life because youre already free.
It is absolutely essential then that, before you take any drastic action, you
first sit down and decide what your true needs are. What do you need to
surviveto pay rent, to buy food, to keep the lights on and the water running?
What do you NEEDnot WANTwhat do you NEED in order to ensure that
freedom in your mind and in your reality. Come up with a figure.
When you have that figure, give yourself a mental break for just a few hours,
then come back to that figure and whittle it still further. What can you cut
from the first figure you came up with? What can you honestly live without
for a period of time? I have found that when people take a first run at what
they need, its usually more than what they need. Were talking only absolute
essentials here so that youre free from worry.
Find a way to get that financial need met. Can you go to a part-time basis
with your existing company? Can you switch to another position within your
company that allows that part-time base? Can you find a new job completely
that still gives you the freedom and flexibility to work a few hours, each and
every day, on what your true purpose is?
Just How Ambitious Are You?
And what are you willing to sacrifice or endure in order to get yourself
moved onto this right track? The fact is, no matter how easily your purpose
comes to you, youll be asked to make sacrifices in order to fully bring it into
your life. In order to have ANY good come into your life, you must create a
space for it first. Thats the law. When I mention sacrifice, there are people
who envision some kind of Old Testament ritual that involves really
unhappy goats Im not talking about that kind of sacrifice.
Theres a common misconception out there that a sacrifice means youre
losing something. Youre not losing here. When youre sacrificing something in
order to operate at your higher levelyour purpose and mission on this planet
youre just giving up something of a lower nature to bring in something of a
higher nature.

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You cant get to the top of the ladder unless you leave the bottom.
This is true in every facet of life. Think of the people who are looking for
a new relationship, but they still havent let go of the old one. Look at the
people starting diet programs who just cant give up their morning bagel with
cream cheese. And in todays economy, there are all kinds of people who have
been downsized and are out looking for a new positionbut theyve still got
the old positionwith its negative emotional baggagefixed in their mind.
What would you sacrifice in order to move into a new life in order to obtain
your dream in order to do every day what you love to do?
As a guideline, I tell my coaching students and seminar attendees to consider
sacrificingfirstwhat is not vital to your survival andsecondwhat is not
required to achieve your purpose. Youre not going to endanger your life or the
lives of those around you.
Youre not going to give up your health. But you might give up something you
enjoy as a pastime or hobby in order to devote more time to creating this
dream of yours. You might be willing to endure a temporary cash crunch in
order to get a brilliant idea up and running. You might be willing to give up one
or two nights a week in order to receive the education, training or certification
you need to get you one step closer to your goal.
How ambitious are you in reaching this stated desire? Ambition is the
expression of your desireits the thing that drives you. Remember, I pointed
out earlier in this session that ambition is the talent agent that puts you in the
spotlight on the stage of life. Its the fuel that pushes you forward. It gives you
confidence. Ive often stated that confidence is strength with style. Arnold
Palmer says that confidence is a mix of concentration and pure hunger.
Theres an enormous difference between hunger and greed. Hunger is
understanding that you have an infinite source of supply and that youre here
to do Gods workafter all, God is the creator and Gods work is creation. Its
why we all possess this hunger to express this power in a greater way every
day. Greed, on the other hand, indicates there is a limited supply and we may
not get our share so we will take it from anyone and everyone. We dont care
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what happens to the next personits every man for himself.

When youre in harmony with the law, greed thinking does NOT exist.
So, lets review what weve covered:
We establish our purpose.
We build our vision.
We set our goals.
Its absolutely essential that the goal is something you want. Theres no
playing it safe by simply going after what you THINK you can do. Youve got to
want it. And you want it because its moving you in the direction of your
vision. Its not just getting a nicer car or earning an extra dollaryour goal is
something you dearly want, its your hearts desire. Its helping you move in
the direction of your vision.
Your vision was established with a long-term view of doing the thing you
love doing, day in and day out on purpose, because your purpose is doing
what you truly love to do.
Now youve got all three elements. There need be no excuses. Regardless of
whats happened up to this moment, its part of the past. Forgive it. Release it
from your mind. Abandon it. Rejoice. Wrap your arms around yourself and
recognize what you truly love to do. Ive given you the compassnow
stay on course.

Bob Proctor is widely regarded as one of the living masters and teachers of The
Law of Attraction. Featured in the blockbuster hit, The Secret, Proctor has
worked in the area of mind potential for over 40 years, is the best-selling author
of You Were Born Rich, and has transformed the lives of millions through his
books, seminars, courses and personal coaching.
www.proctorgallagherinstitute.com 800-871-9715

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