Crystallized Thinking
You must crystallize your thinking to identify the specific goals you want to achieve and to identify where you stand now in relation to those goals. Knowing yourself and where you want to go also involves decision making. “Knowing” implies faith; there is never a point at which knowledge, information, or data is complete or perfect; ultimately you must act. You must make a decision and stick to it. Crystallized thinking is the process that makes it possible for you to reach confident decisions about the goals you choose to pursue.

Written Plans with Deadlines
Although you have chosen a star to shoot at, a goal line to cross, or a hurdle to overcome, you must have some plan of action for realizing your dream. Set out workable guidelines that elevate your goals above the realm of daydreams. Make plans so detailed and so clearly drawn that confusion and conjecture are eliminated. Then you can put theory into practice, turn theoretical knowledge into pragmatic know-how, and convert thought into action.

A Burning Desire
Desire makes the difference between a goal and a wish. It puts action into your plans and intentions. Although you were born with the desire for leadership in its broad sense, you have also experienced a certain amount of conditioning that has, to some extent, hampered the flow of your creativity and desire. Rediscover the freshness, vitality, optimism, and enthusiasm of the desire you possessed as a child – before you lost some of your capacity to dream impossible dreams and to desire so fervently that you could fee, taste and see a dream as your own. Stoke the fires of desire with emotion, stir them deeply, and you can achieve success in personal leadership.

Supreme Self-Confidence
When you know from first-hand experience that you can do something, you are incomparably more confident than if you have merely observed how someone else did it. You can always acquire knowledge; libraries are full of it. But experience is something else. Real experience – the kind that turns theoretical knowledge into practical, personal know-how, and results in self-confidence – comes only when you are willing to become involved in situations that others avoid. When you know where you stand and where you are going, your confidence knows no bounds because you are motivated by results, not by methods.  

Unshakable Determination
Develop an unshakable determination to follow through on your plan regardless of circumstances, criticism, or what other people say, think, or do. This is often the breaking point for good intentions. Many people live their lives in the shadow of public opinion, drifting with the tide of criticism, and windup wallowing in the backwash of mediocrity. Set a realistic standard for yourself. No one else can determine your desires, needs, or wants because no one else knows your priority of values or understands your potential.