Thomas Jefferson said, “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”

Do you set goals for yourself? One of the biggest challenges you’ll face in life is setting goals that are challenging enough to help you move forward. Try this exercise.
Take a piece of paper and divide it into three vertical sections. Title the first Section “I know I can,” the second Section, “I might be able to,” and the third Section, “It’s impossible.”

Go through each section one at a time and write down some goals. Make sure these are goals that you want to achieve, and not what your parents, spouse, family, or employers want them to be. To help give you a broad, and balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some or all of the following categories:

* Artistic:

Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what are they? Do you want to write a book; paint a masterpiece, or write a song?

* Attitude:

Does your own mindset hold you back from making progress? What upsets you about your behavior? Set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.

* Career:

What level do you want to reach in your career? Is it your goal to be the boss or own your own company someday, or do you want to be the president of someone else’s company?

* Education:

Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular or some area of study that you would like to pursue? What information and skills will you need to achieve these goals?

* Family:

Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want your partner or family members to see you?

* Financial:

How much do you want to earn by what age in your life? What can you do to make that come about?

* Physical:

Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?

* Pleasure:

How do you want to enjoy yourself? You should ensure that some of your life is geared toward making yourself happy for no reason other than being happy.

* Service

Do you want to make the world a better place by your existence? If so, how?

Now for the challenge…

Every day focus on activities that will help you accomplish the goals that are under ‘I know I can’. Check them off when you reach them.

Once you’ve crossed off several under that heading, try accomplishing the goals under the other header-the one that reads ‘I might be able to.’ Celebrate when you cross them off because you’ve reached a goal you weren’t sure you could reach!

Then it’s time to move on to the goals that are under ‘It’s impossible.’

As you move through this process, celebrating your victories, you’ll find that the goals you thought were impossible become easier to accomplish. And the impossible suddenly begins to seem possible.

You see, the technique here is not to limit your imagination. It’s to aim high, and start working toward that goal little by little. Don’t get caught up with your perceived limitations. Think big and work hard to attain those dreams. Those who just dream towards a goal without working hard end up disappointed and disillusioned.

Obviously, if you set a goal that is truly unrealistic, no amount of work is going to achieve it. The important thing is to recognize what is truly unrealistic, and what just “seems” to be out of your reach. Then nothing can hold you back.