Bill Bartmann is the ultimate underdog, survivor AND achiever. He was homeless at age 14, a member of a street gang and a high school dropout. He then took control of his life by taking the GED exam and putting himself through college and law school.

1. Make Sure Your Goal is Your Own. Spend a solid amount of time figuring out what YOU really want. Think of all the people who are pursuing goals for other people. It’s not worth it. It’s the saddest realization to wake up at 50 or 60 and realize you’ve been chasing something you don’t really want for most of your life.
2. Make it a Promise. Use the word ‘promise’ instead of ‘goal’. Most people don’t reach their goals. Thinking about goals actually sets your mind up to fail, because not reaching goals is quite normal. When you make a promise, you don’t think about something you’re going to ‘attempt’ or ‘try’ or ‘strive to do’. You expect to keep promises. When you make a promise you really want to keep it, so your mind starts working for you to reach your goal.
3. Clearly Identify Your Promise. Most people are vague when they come to goals. They say “I want to get rich” or “I want to be famous.” But you need to know the specifics of what you want. How rich? How famous? If you can’t clearly identify your promise, you’re going to have a difficult time achieving it. When you can clearly see your promise in your mind’s eye, it becomes so much easier to achieve.
4. Identify You Personal Motivator. In order to achieve a significant goal or promise you’re going to need a lot of motivation. You need a good motivator, something to keep you fired up when the times get difficult. This can be anything that keeps you passionate and focused. Maybe someone once told you you couldn’t do something, so it’s the idea of proving this person wrong that keeps you motivated to carry on. Or maybe it’s your children that help you keep your eye on the prize.
5. Create a Promise Plan. It isn’t enough to have a clear promise and a personal motivator. You need a plan. You need to map out and write down the who, what, where, when, why and how of your promise. Your promise should include all the components of a proper business plan.
6. Review Your Plan Regularly. Take 20 minutes each day to review your promise plan. Focusing on your goals makes them all that much more attainable. Analyzing and refining your plan gets your brain working for you, showing you things that you hadn’t thought of before. Your promise plan becomes better and more efficient.
7. Tell Yourself You Will Achieve It. Repeat to yourself over and over again that you will reach your promise. This concretizes your promise in your mind and builds confidence in your ability to reach it.
8. Tell Others About Your Promise. When you tell someone else about your promise, it gives you additional motivation to make it happen. The more people you tell the better. This may be scary, but it gives you an additional incentive to realize your promise. In addition, many of the people you tell will come forward to offer support or resources to help you reach it.
9. Visualize the Final Result. A powerful tool to help you realize your promise is visualizing the final result. What does it feel like? What does it look like? You need to be able to see yourself in the moment of success.