PowerGoals / Chapter 2 / The Purpose of Goals.

How to Set and Achieve Goals / That Turn Your Dreams into Reality.

by Dr. Hannes Dreyer (Ph.D.) with Elzet Blaauw.

Chapter 2 / The Purpose of Goals.

“I?am?here?for?a?purpose?and?that?purpose?is?to?grow?into?a?mountain,?not?to?shrink?to?a?grain?of?sand.?Henceforth?will?I?apply?ALL?my?efforts?to?become?the?highest?mountain?of?all?and?I?will?strain?my?potential?until?it?cries?for?mercy.”?–?Og?Mandino.

I first read that quote by Og Mandino at the age of 22 – and it made no sense to me at all.

Two years later, I was in deep financial trouble. I took up his little book?The?Greatest?Secret?in?the?World?again in desperation to find out what the secret to success was.

It was 1982, and I was sitting in my little room, poor as can be, down and out, completely desperate.

I have always had a lot of spunk-and-go, but at that stage, I had had it. I was ready to give up and throw in the towel.

That little quote changed my life.

When I read it, something jumped inside of me. It was probably more like an explosion. It was in my heart and in my mind.

Yes!?something shouted out inside of me.?It’s?true!?And?it’s?true?for?ME.

I had not believed that it was true until then. Sure, I was striving to achieve many things. But they were external things. They were things that I felt would prove to other people and, more importantly, to myself that I had made it.

I thought of myself as that grain of sand, a speck of dirt, nothing. I desperately did not want to be nothing, nor have other people see and treat me like nothing.

I did not fully understand what that quote meant when I read it that day, but a few key points clicked for me.

The responsibility is mine. My thoughts and actions have brought me to where I was. I was fully responsible for the mess I was in.

However, I realized that my past does not equal my future. I could create a new future for myself.

If I wanted different results, I realized I must take different actions. No one else was going to do it for me. I must change my mindsets and actions to change my future.

That day, I made a firm commitment to become the best me that I can be.

Even though I had no clue what this journey would entail at that point, inside of me, a seed had sprouted: there is more, and I am more. And all of this is part of my purpose, the reason for my existence here on earth.

Your?moment.

Have you had a moment like that?

Maybe you read something like I did.

Or maybe something happened to you. Many people report a new sense of purpose and even joy after a near-death experience, for example. For other people, when something momentous happens like having a child, they suddenly feel as if their eyes have been opened to a whole new level of existence and purpose.

Have you had such an experience? A moment when you realized there is something more, for all of us and you in particular?

Think back to how you felt at that moment. Hold onto that feeling.

Workbook?Q2.1:?Describe?a?moment?of?inspiration?and?purpose?that?you?have?had.

Such a moment of inspiration and purpose is extremely powerful. I experienced this power in my life in 1982 and many more times after that.

Maybe you too have experienced this power already. If you haven’t had such an experience or you haven’t experienced its power, it’s not too late for you. The fact that you are reading this book shows that you have that something inside of you calling out, however dimly, that there is more.

I believe all of us have it in us.

What?do?goals?have?to?do?with?it?

So what does this moment of inspiration and purpose have to do with goals?

Remember, we are not talking about just any goals here. We are talking about PowerGoals?. We are talking about goals that will inspire you, goals that are infused with that very feeling you had in your moment of illumination, feelings like those I had back in 1982 in my little room reading?The?Greatest?Secret?in?the?World?by Og Mandino.

This book focuses on PowerGoals? because a goal gives you direction. It gives you a target. It gives you something to aim for and, then, more importantly, a way to measure your progress.

The spark that you feel in that moment of inspiration is important. The dream that that spark ignites is important.

But many people have moments of inspiration, and many people dream wonderful dreams for their lives. And yet it is not changing their lives.

What you need to do is take the power that lies in the moment of inspiration and in the dream and make it your reality. A PowerGoal? is a dream that is actionable.

I am hearing a lot of people talking about “manifesting” things these days. It sounds very spiritual, very airy-fairy, even spooky to some people. It is like waving a magic wand and?Ta-Da, there it is, manifested.

But?manifest?simply means that you must make it visible. According to one definition, you must make it clear and obvious. In other words, what was once a dream is now a reality, clear and obvious for everyone to see.

On 15 April 2019, I had a spark of inspiration, and I had a dream. I turned that dream into a PowerGoal?, and I started manifesting it – making it a reality. On 15 January 2020, it was a reality, clear and obvious for anyone who saw the screenshot of my crypto wallet on that day.

But people much prefer their airy-fairy version of?manifesting. They keep on looking for magic wands that they can wave to make their dreams magically appear.

Because actually manifesting your dreams means that there is work to be done. And guess who is doing it? You are, of course! It is amazing, fulfilling work, and it does not even have to be hard work, but you are doing things.

If you have a goal, but there is no action, you will not be able to measure any progress. If there is consistently no measurable progress, then it means that you do not have a goal after all. It is going to stay a dream and never become a reality.

The?right?one?

But,?Hannes,?you?don’t?know?what?my?dream?is.?And?you?don’t?know?where?I?am?in?life.?It?is?impossible?for?me?to?turn?this?dream?into?a?goal,?and?even?more?impossible?for?me?to?achieve?it.

Yes, if you believe that, it will be impossible.

But let me tell you, back in 1982, I would never, ever have dreamt that I would live the life I did the next 35+ years. I never ever would have thought I could achieve what I did.

But I had a dream, and I turned it into a PowerGoal? (even though I did not know that that was what I was doing), and I took action on it. And when I realized it, there was a next one, and then a next one.

I am still dreaming and setting PowerGoals? today. And it still feels big and unachievable to me at first. But now I know that in five years, or three years, or sometimes even less than a year, I will have achieved it.

I firmly believe that you will never have a dream unless you can make that dream come true. No matter how crazy your dream may sound to others, for you, that dream is the spark of inspiration that ignites your purpose to be all that you can be, to grow into the highest mountain of them all.

And to make it clear, for me, that quote is not about comparing you to others. It is comparing you to all the potential versions of yourself. To be the highest mountain of all the potential mountains that you can be.

To emphasize again: it doesn’t matter how impossible that dream feels. What matters is that it is important to you, that it is the thing that will propel you into action.

It will be something different for each of us. We are all on our own journey.

The important thing is that you do not discount the dream that you have.

And if this dream is truly important to you, as I believe it is, otherwise you would not have had it, you must turn it into your PowerGoal? and take action on it.

Too many people feel that it is impossible and that they can’t do it. You are reading this book so that you do not need to be one of them.

You have the dream that you have because it is possible for you to realize it. And it will take you on the best and most important journey of your life.

Your?goal?is?not?the?goal.

I have news for you if you have not already gathered it between the lines. This type of goal that we are talking about, this PowerGoal? that you are going to set and achieve, is not actually the goal. In other words, it is not the ultimate target or aim.

Sure, it gives you something to shoot at. Unlike dreams, goals are tangible.

But a worthy goal, a PowerGoal?, is about much more than itself. (And by the way, if you are reading this book, I am willing to bet that your goal has the makings of a worthy goal, or a PowerGoal?, in it. Just hold on. We will get there.)

The purpose of a PowerGoal? is that we transform into becoming the person who can make all our dreams come true. It is about becoming a person who can make that goal and therefore any other goal a reality.

Goals are there to transform us.

Remember, unless you become the person who can do what you want, you will never have what you want. Setting your goal means that you have to become the person that can make that goal a reality.

That is why you can set and achieve any goal. You can lose weight, build wealth, have a great marriage, go on an excursion to Moscow with 4x4s – or whatever it is that you want.

It is yours on the condition that you set the goal in the right way.

And whatever your goal is, if you set it in the right way, as I am teaching you here in this book, it will make you go through a transformation.

It is a transformation because the person who is going to reach that goal is going to be a different person, a better person than what they were when they set it.

Earl Nightingale defined success as the progressive realization of a worthy goal. By setting and achieving PowerGoals?, you are living a life of success. A life of success means that you are living a life where you are constantly transformed, constantly evolving, constantly becoming better.

That is the actual goal of life, I believe.

The?wrong?way?#1

I mention above that there is a right way to set goals. You might wonder what this wrong way of setting goals is.

The biggest mistake people make when they set a goal is that they want something. In other words, their mindset is that if I have the goal, I will be able to do the things I must do to be the kind of person that I want to be. They have a mindset of have, do, be.

Let me explain it with an example. If I have a property portfolio that gives me passive income, I will have time to do what I love and be fulfilled – have, do, be.

If I get that increase (have), I will be able to buy x (do) and enjoy life more (be).

Here’s another one: if I weigh x (have), I will be able to weary (do) and be attractive (be).

Here is another one that often follows the previous one: if I can only meet “the one” (have), I will love him/her (do) and be happy.

We want to have the result because we believe that it will ultimately make us fulfilled and happy.

Many people make this mistake. They want things very badly. I see it in how many of my students phrase their goals at the beginning, for example,?I?want?to?make?a?million?dollars?by?the?end?of?this?year.

And then the end of the year comes, and they haven’t achieved the goal. But actually, they got exactly what they focused on: they?wanted?the thing. Their focus was on the?want?more than on the thing.

And by the way, these are the people who tend to lose motivation and stop doing what is necessary to achieve the goal that they so badly want. At the end of the year, they get exactly what they focused on: more wanting. And then they believe that goal setting does not work.

But the thing is, they simply did it the wrong way. They wanted things and focused on them. They did not focus on transformation.

So, don’t focus on what you don’t have and want. That is the wrong way.

The?wrong?way?#2

Another wrong way in which many people approach goal-setting is doing a lot of things to get things and thinking that those things will make them happy. This way of doing things is to do, have, be.

Many people unconsciously fall into the trap of the wrong way #1, in other words, have, do be, as we discussed above. But if we consciously think about it, most of us will admit that we need to do some things before we can have an outcome. We must eat less and exercise more to lose weight. We must make more money to have more money.

For this reason, many people fall into the trap of do, have, be.

If I can just exercise more, I will have a great body and be attractive.

If I can work harder, I will get an increase and have more money.

If I can buy another property, I will have more passive income, and I will be content.

People who fall into the trap of do, have, be are always doing more, working harder, chasing after things. And they often get the things that they are chasing. But they are never satisfied, or they are only satisfied for a short time. They always need more, more, more. They do not have peace, they do not feel fulfilled, and they are not happy.

In the end, after apparently achieving all their goals, life is meaningless for them.

That is not the type of goal setting that I am talking about in this book. I do not want you to run harder, work more, and sleep less – and keep on going and going until one day you drop down dead from exhaustion.

That is not having it all.

The?right?way?of?setting?goals.

Both wrong ways that I discuss above are ultimately very disappointing. You either don’t get what you want, or you get what you thought you wanted, but it does not satisfy you the way that you thought it would.

I am very happy to be able to tell you that, yes, there is a better way, the right way.

The right order of setting goals is... be, do, have. You first?become?the person who can?do?the things needed to?have?what you are aiming at.

If you have been doing a lot of self-improvement, there is a good chance that I am not the first person to tell you about be, do, have. Many speakers and coaches teach it. However, how to practice it is spoken about a bit less, so we will dive deeper into it when we talk about the transformational process in later chapters.

What I want to point out here in this chapter is that it starts with a change in focus. Instead of focusing on what you want or in doing more and more and more, ask yourself: whom do I need to be as a person to have that goal? It always starts with you becoming that person. The principle of be, do, have is why goal setting is about transformation.

Workbook?Q2.2:?Have?you?fallen?into?the?trap?of?have,?do,?be?or?do,?have,?be?

Write?down?what?comes?to?mind?in?your?workbook.

Because goal setting is about transformation, I see it as an incredible spiritual journey.

Our goals help us through the process of evolving and transforming to become the person that we should be, the person that we are on this earth to be.

That is why I believe whatever dreams are inside of us have a spiritual purpose. The purpose of our dreams is to motivate us to become all we can be. The purpose of the particular dream that you have is to start you on your unique transformational journey, your spiritual journey. In the process of making your dream come true, you become all you can be, and that will be the fulfillment of the true purpose of that dream, the purpose that is bigger than the dream itself.

And then it happens again and again, as many times as you are willing to say?yes!?to that dream and allow it to transform you.

We are all inspired by worthy dreams. We all admire people who make their dreams a reality. We read books about them. We make and watch movies about them. We follow them on the media.

Think about Martin Luther King Jr, who said, “I have a dream!” He made his dream so visible and obvious to so many other people that they brought it into reality even after he died.

Think about Steve Jobs who dreamt about and brought into reality so much technology which changed the lives of everyday people. The technology that he dreamt about outlived him in the same way Martin Luther King Jr’s ideals outlive him.

And think about Elon Musk. At the time of writing this book, he is working on taking mankind to Mars. Maybe by the time you read this book, he will have achieved his dream, or maybe not. Whether people like him or not, or whether they agree with his dream or not, they almost cannot help themselves from being interested in knowing about what he does.

We are inspired by dreams.

The question that is facing you now is whether you will feed on other people’s dreams, or whether you will take hold of the dreams that are within you.

I believe we can all be a Martin Luther King Jr or a Steve Jobs or whatever person you find inspiring. You will not do it in the same way as they did. You might not be famous, except if it is part of your dream’s journey.

But you can take hold of your dreams, turn them into powerful, worthy goals and live your life in pursuit of them.

The thing is, we like to focus on the dream. But the difference between those people whom you find so inspiring and you are not that they had a dream or that they had a better dream than you. The difference is that they focused on becoming the person who can achieve that goal – and they became that person.

And that is the incredible spiritual journey of transformation that we can all embark on.

For more information on the Powergoal method;