Liftoff PDF

LIFTOFF The SecretKeys
to Launching Your
Goals
Stanley Beckett
Copyright © STANLEY BECKETT
1st edition, VII, MMXIV

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Author: Stanley Beckett

Title: LIFTOFF
ISBN: 978-1-927892-18-3
Category: SELF-HELP / General
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The Author
S
tanley Beckett co-founded InVision coaching in 2007
with the vision to change the mindsets of thousands. He
studied to become a consciousness life and executive
coach through Consciousness Coaching Academy. He then
travelled to the USA to study personally under his mentor,
the great Bob Proctor and thereafter became one of the first
LifeSuccess Consultants in Africa. Stanley continued his
studies and in December of 2010, he once again travelled
to the USA to study to become one of only 20 “Thinking
Into Results” facilitators, trained personally by Bob Proctor
and Sandy Gallagher. He was also the first “Thinking Into
Results” facilitator in Africa. Stanley took these programs
to new heights and has since developed the world class
“Thinking Into Sales,” “Body Language” and “Advanced
Thinking” courses. He has studied under world-class
mentors and teachers such as Bob Proctor, Gerry Robert,
T. Harv Echer, Brendon Burchard, John Maxwell, Paul
Martenelli, Andy Harrington and Les Brown, among others.
Stanley’s approach is open, fun, warm and caring. He has
been responsible in changing the lives of many.
Stanley Beckett
“When the ‘Liftoff’ program was

introduced to me, I was going through
some life challenges that under normal
circumstances could have been rather
debilitating and challenging.
Not only was I able to face these
challenges head on, but the results in
this and everyother facet of my life have
truly been transformed to an amazing
level that, at the time, I would never have
thought was remotely possible.”
— Mi ke Jackson , Ex e cutive He ad, Vodacom
4
LIFTOFF
Contents
CHAPTERS
10 – What is a Goal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9 - What Type of Goals Should I set? . . . . . . . . . . . 25
8 – The Power of the Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
7 – The Power of Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6 – The Burning Desire Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5 – The Birth of Your Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4 – Changing Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3 – When Fear Strikes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
2 – No More Excuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
1 – The Secret Ingredient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
5
Stanley Beckett
“Stanley’s ‘Liftoff ’ program is the first

training course which has had such a
positive impact on our staff. It has forced
me personally to acknowledge how weak
I was in setting goals. It has helped me to
recognise all my bad habits. It has made
me aware of the aspirations of my fellow
colleagues, and I realise that we all fall
into the trap of giving up too easily.
It has also helped us sort out the goals
of each of our divisions.”
- Graham Hore sfie l d, CEO , Setpoint
6
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FOREWORD
I
believe that one of the most valuable skills a person
can learn is the setting and achieving goals. If you are
like most people, then you might think that this is an
easy skill, but in truth, very few people in history have ever
learned to master it. And this is despite numerous studies
which have proven beyond doubt the power of goal setting
and achieving.
What Stanley has managed to do in this book is to put

it all together in a way that is unique and easy to understand
and apply. He goes into depth in not only explaining how to
go about setting your goals in life, but also how to go about
achieving them. Stanley looks at the most important part of
goal setting – the mindset – and helps you, the reader, truly
begin to change those things which have kept you stuck in
the past.
I met Stanley at one of my seminars where I discovered

he was mentored by the same man who mentored me – Bob
Proctor of Lifesuccess. That is why I can proclaim in good
faith that this book contains some of the best information
you will receive in this area. I am sure Stanley will be the
first to admit that he can proudly stand behind his work,
because it comes from generations of great thinkers – from
FOREWORD - 7
Stanley Beckett
Bob Proctor, to Earl Nightingale and Lloyd Conant, to the

immortal Napoleon Hill. Napoleon Hill in turn learnt these
skills from greats such as Andrew Carnagie, Thomas Edison,
Hendy Ford and Alexander Graham Bell. As Stanley states,
“I am who I am today, because I stand on the shoulders of
Giants.”I am proud to be able to partner with Stanley as his
publisher on this venture, and know that the ideas presented
in this book will be life changing for you.
– Gerry Robert,
Bestselling Author, Multiply Your Business
8 - FOREWORD
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What is a goal?
What is a Goal? - 9
Stanley Beckett
“G
oals.” One of those words that people have
heard many times in their lives, and yet
so few seem to have a real understanding of
what goals are. If you are to walk down the street and ask
10 random people what their goals are, half will not be
sure what you are speaking about, and the other half will
probably think they have goals – but do they really? For that
matter, do you have your goals in life clearly defined? Can
you articulate them?
Take up this first challenge: write down a list of your

current goals. If you have to think about it, then it is probably
not a current goal. A real goal requires no searching or
thought. You can be woken up in the middle of the night
and be able to name all your goals. If you are able to make
your list without much thought, then well done. You are
already streets ahead of the majority out there.
10 - What is a Goal?
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If you cannot make a list yet, then have some fun with
it now. Create a list of 20 (yes, you read that right), goals.
These goals can be anything you choose. I find that most
people start off having a problem with the word “goal,”
so if you please, replace it with the word “want.” What do
you want? It can be anything from a new pair of shoes, an
overseas holiday, a new car or job, to a new relationship –
anything you want. Take the time now and create the list
before you continue reading.
D e f i ni n g Goal s
If you are going to
start the process
properly, then the a goal is when you go
after something you have
logical question either never had before, or
would be: what is a something which you have
goal? I have asked never done before.
this question
many times and
received many different answers. This tells me that either
people do not spend a lot of time thinking about goals, or
they really do not have a formal definition of what a goal
is. Now, understand that when I ask this question, I am
not asking what the purpose of a goal is. That comes later.
So take a few minutes and think about your answer to this
question. How would you define a goal?
What is a Goal? - 11
Stanley Beckett
The answer to this question is something I am going to

unravel in this chapter, so let’s get started. Take note and see
if this is your current understanding of goals, or if you are
willing to consider it as part of a new definition. The first
important definition is: a goal is when you go after something
you have either never had before, or something which you
have never done before. When we discuss the real purpose
of a goal, this will make more sense, but for now I invite you
to consider that statement. A real goal is not something you
have already achieved. What would be the fun in that? That
would be like only
eating bananas for
a goal is something that the rest of your life.
is written down, with a Sure, you might
definite purpose
and date. love bananas, but
at some stage you
are going to want
to try something new. No wonder so many “banana eaters”
in life have lost their passion and drive.
The second important definition is: a goal is

something that is written down, with a definite purpose
and date. Is this an area you fall short in? In my trainings
I have met far too many people who tell me that they have
clear goals, without realizing a goal is not really a goal
until it is written down and committed to. We all have
things we want in life, things we desire. But until this
step is taken, your “goal” is only a fantasy, and fantasies
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belong in Fantasia. Here on earth, we need a little bit

more. Also note that there needs to be a definite date
attached to the goal. “One day” is no good – 21 January,
2190 is “one day.” Will you still be around then? As we
go through the rest of the chapter, we will identify more
ingredients to help us define a goal, but for now, let us
take some time to take a look at a few examples of the
power of goals.
Japan
Have you ever looked at a globe and tried to find Japan? I
would not blame you if you could not find it. It is a small
country, but one with a proud history – a perfect example
of the power of goals. We start this journey in the early
1950’s - war torn Japan. Japan was still reeling from the
bombs dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many fathers,
mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters were lost,
and the country was in mourning. Some very wise people
got together and decided they needed to do something to
change the focus and spirit of the people, so they decided to
set a goal for the country. The goal was: “We are going to be
the number one country in the world in the production of
textiles.” Now remember, every time you want to understand
what an impressive goal that was, just go back to your globe
and take a look at the size of Japan. Guess what? They
reached that goal in 1950.
Stanley Beckett
Now most people would sit back, pat themselves on the

back and say: “Well done,” but not Japan. Instead, in 1960,
they decided it had worked so well that it was time for a new
goal, so now the goal was: “We are going to be the number one
nation in the world in the production of steel.” No mean feat
for such a small
country (look
Why is it that so many
people never set goals for at globe!). They
themselves in life? reached this goal
in 1967.
I’m not sure if they decided to give themselves a much

deserved break between 1967 and 1970, but in 1970 Japan
decided to set yet another new goal: “We are going to be
the number one nation in the world in the production of
automobiles.” I am sure you will not find many people who
have not ridden in a Japanese car. You have probably heard of
Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Yamaha, Mazda
and Subaru. Well, not only did Japan reach this goal in 1980,
but they were the largest automobile manufacturer and
exporter from 1980 – 1993, and then again from 2006 – 2008.
If this was not enough, they got together again in the

early 1980’s and decided: “We are going to be the number
one manufacturer of computer electronics in the world!”
(Don’t forget to go have a look at your globe again). I am
sure by now you get the point and the power of setting the
right goals.
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W h y D o n ’t Pe opl e Set Goals?

Why is it that so many people never set goals for themselves
in life? If you do not have your goals clearly set yet, why is
that? What is stopping you from taking that all- important
step? I am now going to list the three main reasons people do
not set goals. In this section, I invite you to be really honest
with yourself, and if you have not set goals yet, choose one
or more possible reasons:
1. They do not know how.

Why do most people not You are only a
know how to take on failure if you
this all important task? give up.
Because it is not taught
in many schools or higher learning institutions. It is a
skill (and it is a skill) which very few people ever learn,
and yet it is such a critical skill in life. As my mentor,
Mr. Bob Proctor taught me – goal achievers typically
achieve more in one year than most people achieve in
their entire lives. Look once again at yourself. Have
you ever formally learned how to go about setting goals?
2. They are afraid of failing. Fear of failure is probably

one of the biggest fears we share as human beings. I
could share my thoughts on where these fears come
from, but that is a whole other book. I will, however,
deal with this powerful force called “fear” in a later
Stanley Beckett
chapter. For now,

The fun in life will come I would like you to
from finding out how. consider another
thought my mentor
taught me, if you are sitting with this fear of failure. You
are only a failure if you give up. There are two groups
of people when it comes to this: Those who deal with
temporary defeat, and those who deal with failure. What
is the difference between the two? The difference is that
the one group is people who decided to quit, and the
other group is people who decided to keep going. Which
camp are you going to fall into?
3. They don’t know “how” they are going to achieve

their goal. This is another big reason. When you set
a real goal, you don’t know how you are ever going to
achieve it, and this is as it should be. Remember in the
beginning we stated that a real goal is doing something
you have never done before. Well, if you are going to do
that, then of course you are not going to know how. But
guess what? That’s what makes life so much fun! You
don’t have to know how! The fun in life will come from
finding out how. It is what makes life worth living. Just
get started and the “how” will appear. Chapter 6 will
help you understand this much better.
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T h e P u r pose of a Goal
So what is the real purpose of a goal? Why would you
want to go through the effort of setting goals? Take a
moment and really think about this question. Write your
answer down before you continue.
I have found that the answers I usually get to this

question go along the lines of: “We set goals in order to give
us direction in life … to help us achieve things in life … to
ensure we know where we are going … to give us a purpose,
etc.” All of these answers are great, but I feel they are still
missing the root reason of why we set goals.
Consider that the

reason we set goals is to This law states that
grow. What do I mean everything in this
when I say “grow”? Grow Universe is either in
older? Grow bigger? a state of creation or
Grow richer? No. We set disintegration.
goals in order to grow
in our level of awareness. Ok, so what does that mean?
Think about the word “awareness.” It means to be aware of
something – in this case aware of how to do something. Let’s
say, for example, my car breaks down on the side of the road.
I would be pretty much stuck in that situation. Not because
I do not possess the ability to physically fix it, but because I
lack the awareness of how to fix it.
Stanley Beckett
If I had the awareness, and provided I had the correct

tools with me, I would be able to fix the car myself and
probably save myself a lot of money. So how do you develop
awareness? By learning how to do a thing, and by doing it.
This is exactly what goals will do for you. They will help
you develop the awareness on how to grow in all areas of
your life. Now, I am not saying that you will not develop
awareness of processes in life if you do not set goals, but I
am saying you will develop them a lot quicker, and with a lot
less effort, if you set the right goals.
The second purpose of a goal is linked to a Universal

law. It’s Universal, because you can apply it Universally to
everyone and everything. This law states that everything in
this Universe is either in a state of creation or disintegration.
Nothing stays the same. If something is not busy growing, by
default, it is busy disintegrating. The same applies in your
life. You are either consciously choosing to grow in any area
of your life, or you are disintegrating. This is why continuous
learning is so important, and this is also why setting powerful
goals is so important. They are the tools that help us to create
instead of disintegrate in life. Choose your goals wisely.
Wha t D o You Real l y Wan t?

And here is the next definition of what a goal really is: the
goal must be something you REALLY want, not something
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that would simply

be nice to have, or
The goal must be
something someone something you REALLY
else wants for you, want, not something that
or something you would simply be nice
think you need, to have, or something
but something you someone else wants for
you, or something you think
really want. In other you need, but something you
words, it must be a really want.
burning desire for
you. In Chapter 6, I
will explain what a burning desire really means, but for now,
make sure it is something you really want.
I love what my mentor, Bob Proctor, has to say about this.

He says that, firstly, many people might say, “But I don’t want
anything.” Bob does not believe this. He believes that all people
want more out of life, but they are rejecting it before they give
it any real thought – probably for all the reasons mentioned
above, and I must say that I agree 100% with this statement.
The other problem is that so many people in life have

become “settlers.” They have settled for what they have in
life, because they do not really believe that it is possible to
achieve what they really want in life. Why? Because, as
stated above, they are focusing on how – with regards to
something they do not already have – and that makes it
very difficult.
Stanley Beckett
Therefore, I would like you to take a good look at the

goals you have set for yourself in the list you created at the
beginning of this chapter. Are they things you really want, or
are they things you are settling for? For that matter, why not
take an honest look at your life right now. If you could have
anything your heart desires, would you choose the house you
are living in? Would you choose the car you are currently
driving? Would
you choose the
Most people order their relationship,
steaks medium and live
the job and
their lives the same way.
everything else
in your life? Or
are you settling? Have you become a “settler”? I once read a
statement that I have never forgotten. It said: “Most people
order their steaks medium and live their lives the same way.”
Are you going to settle for medium in life, or are you going
to go for what you really want? Have a look at your list and be
honest with yourself here.
Am I Able?
In the last part of this chapter, I want to deal with a final part
of the definition of a goal. A goal is not really a goal until this
part is in place. Until this is in place, all the goal is, is a fantasy.
Everyone has fantasies. We all fantasize. When you are thinking
about driving a new car, or living in a better home, or going on
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an overseas trip, you are fantasizing, and that’s great, but it does
not make it a goal. Until it becomes a goal, you will never take
any real action towards realizing that fantasy.
So what do you need to do to turn a fantasy into a goal?

Well, you first have to go through all the fantasies running
through your head, and choose one to focus on. Which one
do you want most of all? Even the list you created in the
beginning of this chapter is not really a goal list. It is, at best,
your fantasy list. Go back to it now and choose the one you
want the most. Now that you are focusing on just one, you
are already a big step closer to turning it into a real goal.
Now, take the one you have chosen and ask yourself
a very important question: am I able to achieve this goal?
Really think about this question. The truth is that if you do
not really believe that you are able to achieve whatever it is
you want, you are never going to set it as a goal. Napoleon
Hill said, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and
believe, it can achieve.” The key word in this statement is
“believe.” You have to believe that it is at least possible, and
do you want to know a secret? The fact that you conceived
it means that it can
be achieved. I truly Whatever the mind
believe that you will of man can conceive
not conceive and desire and believe, it can
something if you are achieve.
not able to achieve it.
Stanley Beckett
Therefore I would venture to say that the answer to the

question – “Am I able to achieve this?” is an unequivocal YES.
You can achieve almost anything you set your mind to. You
might not know right now how you are going to achieve it,
but like I stated earlier, the fun is in finding out. It’s all good
and well that I believe this for you, but you will not turn it into
a goal until you too, believe. So answer this question before
you carry on: do you really believe you can achieve this goal?
A m I W i l l i ng?
If you have managed to move on to this point, then well done!
You are that much closer to creating your goal. The next
question is just as important. Am I willing? Are you willing to
do what you have to do, to achieve that goal? Are you willing
to go where you have to go? Are you willing to invest the time
and money you might need to achieve it? Are you even aware
of what you are going to have to sacrifice to achieve that goal?
If you are not willing, then you are probably doomed to failure
(because you will decide to quit) before you even start.
I would like to introduce another law here, called The

Law of Sacrifice. This law states that in order to achieve
anything of value in life, you first have to be willing to sacrifice
something of lower value. Note that the law does not state,
necessarily, that you have to give up something of a lower
value, but rather that you have to be willing to do so.
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So let’s say, for example, that you want to create financial

wealth for yourself, because security is of high value to you.
In order to do this, you realize that it is going to take a lot
of time to work on this. How high is the value of time to
you? Is it higher
than security?
In order to achieve anything
If so, then you of value in life, you first
are never going have to be willing to
to be willing to s acrifice something of
sacrifice it. If lower value.
security is higher
in value than time, would you be willing to sacrifice the time
for the security, or would you at least be willing to? Once
again, if the answer to this is no, then you are not ever
going to convert that fantasy into a goal.
In order to convert the fantasy into a goal, you first

have to answer “yes” to the two questions: am I able to
achieve this goal, and am I willing to do what I need to do to
achieve this goal? If the answer is yes to both of these, then
well done, you have your goal, and we are able to take one
step close to Liftoff, which we will discuss in the next chapter.
Stanley Beckett
“The ‘Liftoff’ program has helped me on

the road thus far in the first step towards
achieving my goals. I have shared the
insights and knowledge gained with my
employees and seen the great results of
this in my success so far. It has helped me
improve my relationship with my family
and my colleagues, because I understand
what I want, and how their interaction with
me benefits them and me. I am already on
the road to achieving those goals.”
- W arre n Erasmus, MD, Meter Systems
24 - What Type of Goals Should I set?

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What Type of Goals

Should I set?
What Type of Goals Should I set? - 25

Stanley Beckett
N
ow that you have your list of goals, it’s time to
examine them. Are they the right goals for you?
I ask this question because I was at a stage in my
life where I had set goals for myself, but I had no idea how
it was all going to change for me. My change took place
when I met and worked with my mentor Mr. Bob Proctor,
and I am going to share the insights he shared with me, here.
I know it will have as much impact on you as it had, and still
has, on me.
When it comes to goals, there are 3 levels that we need to

consider and discuss:
A-Type goals: A-type goals are things that we already

know how to do. Now remember, in the previous chapter I
mentioned that a real goal is doing something we have never
done before. Well, an A-type goal is the exact opposite of
that, but too many people set this as a goal. Say, for example,

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you are a salesperson, and this year you set a goal of R5

Million sales for your company, which you reached. You
now decide on your goal for next year, and decide to set
it at R5 Million once again. Can you see how this is not a
real goal? It is doing something that you have already done.
Thus, it is an A-type goal.
What do you think the problem with an A-type goal is?

The problem is that there is no growth attached to this type
of goal, and if you remember from the previous chapter, the
real purpose of a goal is to grow in awareness. You cannot do
this with an A-type goal.
B-Type goals: B-type goals are goals you “think” you

can achieve if everything falls into place. The key word
with B-type goals is PLAN. In other words, before you
even take one step towards the achievement of that goal,
you already have a plan in place. Let us use an example:
say you want to go on holiday in Europe in six months’
time. When you sit down and look at that goal, you realize
that in order for it to materialize, the following needs to
happen: you need to get leave approved at work; you need
to get that second-hand car of yours sold; that friend of
yours that owes you money needs to pay you back; you
need to get a raise at work; and you need a loan at the
bank approved.

Stanley Beckett
Now looking at that list, what do you think are the

challenges with B-type goals? Well, there are two: first, if any
part of the plan that you have set out fails, then the whole
goal fails along with it. So let us say, for example, you do not
get the second-hand car sold in time – then the whole plan
fails, and with that, the goal. You are almost setting yourself
up for failure if you go into a goal with a predetermined
set plan that has to work out exactly. Unfortunately, life
seldom works out that way. The second challenge is that a
real goal has to excite and motivate us. This is almost never
the case with a B-type goal. B-type goals almost feel like a
to-do, which is why I always advise people to put them on
their to-do list.
C-Type goals: C-type goals are what you REALLY

want. However, the difference is that you have no idea
up front HOW you are going to achieve the goal. In
other words, there is no set plan to begin with. These
are the goals that make life worth living. They inspire
and motivate us. They are the fuel for all our other A
and B-type goals in life. As with the previous example,
let us say you want to go on a European trip in 6 months’
time, but this time you have no idea how you are going to
achieve this goal. In other words, you have no set plan.
All you know is that you really want the trip! It is what
Napoleon Hill calls a “Real Desire.” Not a Burning Desire
yet, but we will get to that.

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The challenge, though, with most C-type goals is that

people reject it before they ever give it any serious thought,
because, as mentioned before, they have no idea how they
are going to achieve it.
Now, before I discuss this any further, I invite you to go

back to the goals-list you developed in the previous chapter.
Now is the time for you to expand on these goals. To help
you with this, I am going to list different categories of goals
that you can consider. I mention this here, because people
often believe that goals are just material wishes, but they are,
in truth, so much more.
C a t e g o r i es of Goals
Family Goals: Are there goals around your family you would
like to set? Ideas could be surrounding your partner. It could
be to spend more quality time with him or her. Maybe you
want to learn one new thing about your partner every day.
It could be to take him or her out to a nice restaurant once a
month. What about your children? We all know how difficult
it is to make time for people we love in today’s rushed world.
Maybe you would like to create one night a week where the
whole family spends time together away from the television
and other distractions. It will not happen unless we set it as
a goal. I am sure you get the idea. Choose some inspiring
family goals.

Stanley Beckett
Spiritual and Emotional Goals: This is once again an area

where time comes into play. You could set a goal to make more
time for spiritual activities, such as making time for prayer
or meditation, or meeting a group of like-minded people with
whom you could spend more time. If you are religious, your
goal could be going to church more often, or reading your Bible
or holy book. It could be taking time off each day to listen to
music that calms your soul. Find out which goals work for you
in this area.
Cultural Goals : I believe that deep down, we all have a

desire to make a positive difference in the world around us.
What type of goals could you set in this area? It could be
volunteering at a shelter to help homeless people. It could
be donating to a charity of your choice. It could be helping
out or adopting an
animal at the SPCA.
Physical Goals: I should What goals can you
almost put this goal
at the top of the list, set that you feel
because without your would best support
health, all the other you in making this
goals would be pointless. positive difference in
society?
Recreational Goals: Is it time to plan that holiday

you have always been dreaming about? Do you have fun
in this busy life we all live? You could set goals around
this area. It could be to take up a new sport or hobby, or

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perhaps to visit friends more often. Your goal could be an

overseas or local trip. It could be to go watch a big sports
event live, or to get yourself that big screen TV-set so that
you can enjoy your movies over the weekend. It could be
a new sailing boat. Once again the choice of goals in this
area is almost limitless.
Physical Goals: I should almost put this goal at

the top of the list, because without your health, all the
other goals would be pointless. Is it time for you to
set goals in this area? Ideas here include goals around
losing weight, getting to the gym a certain amount of
times per week, doing a certain amount of road running
events, drinking more water, eating healthier, breaking
your own record in a certain sporting event or lowering
your cholesterol.
Educational Goals: If there is one thing you should

never stop doing, it is to never stop learning. Our brains do
not die, they just become lazy. For most people, just reading
a book once a month would be a big goal. You could adopt
that as your goal, or you could learn a new language or a
new skill. You could create a goal to learn about money and
how it works, or reading up on how the stock market or real
estate markets work. You will never advance beyond your
educational level unless you actively make work of it, so this
might be a great time to set goals in this area.

Stanley Beckett
Professional Goals: I am sure this is one area in which

many people already have personal goals, but it would not hurt
to take another look at them. Are you where you want to be
in your professional life? What goals could you set in this area?
Perhaps you want to break the company sales record for the year,
to get some sort of recognition at work, to grow your company
by a division or a certain percentage. Maybe you have a goal
of starting your own business. Once again, there are countless
types of goals you could set in this area. Think about the goals
you can set in order to get what you really want.
Financial Goals:
I still think financial
Did you know that if you
did something as simple goals are of the most
as reading 10 pages of a important goals we
good book per day, you can have. Why?
could read up to 12 great Because we live in
books in one year? a world in which
almost everything
costs money. Yet, you will notice that I have put it last on
the list, so that I cannot be accused of being too materialistic.
Sneaky, huh? But seriously, money is important, if not to
you, then to the debtors you owe it to every month.
Ideas around goals in this area could include settling

your debts, saving a certain amount of money every month
or paying off a credit card. If you are like too many people
out there, even the thought of saving any money seems

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impossible. If this is the case for you, then your goal could
be as simple as educating yourself financially. There are so
many great books that can help you in this area. Did you
know that if you did something as simple as reading 10 pages
of a good book per day, you could read up to 12 great books
in one year? What would this do for you, you might ask? I
guarantee you that if you read the right material, you will start
to change the way you think, and when you change the way
you think, you will change the way you feel, which will change
the way you act and will ultimately change your results. Don’t
believe me? Just try it. What have you got to lose?
T h e P r o cess
Now that you have made a list of all your goals, I am
going to take you through the process of putting it all
together. I am going to invite you to take the following steps:
Step 1: After you have created your list of goals, go

through the list once more and eliminate anything that
you do not really want on the list. You have to really want a
goal if you are going to go through the effort of achieving it.
Step 2: Go back to the beginning of this chapter and

make sure you understand the difference between A, B and
C-type goals. Now go back to your list of goals and next to
each one, note if it is an A, B or C-type goal.

Stanley Beckett
Step 3: Get yourself a big white board or something

similar, something you can visually see in front of you. On
the top of the board, write down all the C-goals you have
identified next to each other. You can have as many C-goals
as you want, but it is very important for you to have at least
one C- goal.
Step 4: Beneath the C-goals, place all you’re A and

B-goals. You can place them in any order you choose.
Step 5: This is a very important step. You now need to

ensure that every A and B-goal is linked to a C-goal. Why is
this necessary? It’s important because C-goals are the fuel that
keeps you going, and A and B-goals are the steps that will help
you get to the C-goals. Let me give you an example here: let
us say that one of my C-goals is to climb Mount Everest. It is a
C-goal because I have no idea how I am ever going to be able
to achieve it, but it is something I really want. Now I notice
that one of my B-goals is to lose 10 kg’s of weight. This is a
B-goal because I know what the plan is. I need to work on my
eating and exercise plan in order to achieve this. I just need
to be motivated enough to get going. Can you see that this
B-goal of losing the weight can be directly linked to the C-goal
of climbing Mount Everest? So in other words, the B-goal is
the stepping-stone that will allow me to be fit enough to climb
the mountain, and the C-goal is the fuel or the motivation that
gets me into the gym to lose that weight. You need both types
of goals, but you need them to work together.

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The more connections you have, the easier it is going

to be to achieve your goals. You can even connect C-goals
to C-goals. See the diagram below as an example of what this
might look like.
Step 6: This step you will only use if you find that you have
an A or B-goal that you cannot seem to link to an existing
C-goal. In this case, I would suggest you use what I refer to as
the drop-down question. The question is the following: “What
would achieving this goal give me that I do not have now?”
This is a very powerful question and should lead you ever
closer to your real C-goal. Let me use an example once more.
Did you know that no one wants more money? You could
fill up a whole building with money, and it would not make
you any happier. What would make you happier is if I gave

Stanley Beckett
you permission to go out and spend that money. So it is not

the physical money you want, it is what that money can do
for you, and it is so with most A and B-goals.
The challenge is identifying what you really want your

goal to do for you. Let’s say your B-goal is to earn more
money. Now, let us use the drop-down question here. “What
would earning that extra money give you that you do not
have now?” You think about this and answer, “It will allow
me to travel the world.” We identify that this is still a B-goal,
so we use the drop-down question once more. This time you
answer, “It will allow me more time to myself.” We once again
ask the question and this time you answer, “It will allow me
to spend quality time with my family.” We stop now because
we identify that this is the C-goal - being able to spend more
time with your family.
Well, guess what? Making more money is just one way

you could achieve this C-goal of spending more time with
your family. There might be so many more ways that are not
linked to money at all. That is the power of a real C-goal.
You do not have to know how to achieve it. It just has to
be something you really want. The “how” will come in time
– something we are going to discuss in the next chapter, so
get going. Follow the instructions in the chapter, and when
you are done, continue on. You have taken one big step
towards Liftoff!

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“What would you attempt to do

if you knew you could not fail?”
— Robe rt H. Schul ler

Stanley Beckett
“I have been in Corporate America for

over 20 years, and never have I come
across a program that better inspires and
equips people to be and do their best in
all aspects of their lives. This program is
a must for teams and individuals
to achieve big goals.”
—B ran don Dan ge rf ie l d, VP Sal e s, Xerox
38 - The Power of the Mind

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The Power of the Mind
The Power of the Mind - 39

Stanley Beckett
Th e M i nd
T
he Mind – something people talk about, but very
few really know much about it. And there is a good
reason for this. First, we do not get taught much
about the mind and how it works in school or any other
educational institution. Second, this is an area that scientists
and psychologists have only begun to understand over the
past few decades. No doubt we are just scratching the surface
of what there is to learn about the mind, but what we have
learnt is very important when it comes to an understanding
of how we go about achieving our goals.
Scientists and psychologists will tell you that there are

many parts of the mind, but for an understanding of how
these areas link to our goals, we need to discuss three main
parts; they are the conscious mind, the subconscious mind
and the body.

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T h e C o nsci ous Mi n d
The conscious mind is your thinking mind. This is where
your thoughts originate. It is the part of your mind that,
to a certain degree, is under your control. You will however
note in the next chapter, that the conscious mind is not
under our control the way we believe it is, but for now it is
where everything starts.
When you
build a fantasy of When you build a fantasy
a goal you want, of a goal you want, it is
it is done in the done in the conscious mind.
conscious mind. When you decide to focus
When you decide on a fantasy to turn it
into a goal it is done in the
to focus on a conscious mind.
fantasy to turn
it into a goal it is
done in the Subconscious mind. When you visualize the
goal and the outcome you want it is done in the conscious
mind. And most of us can decide to accept or reject any
thought or image with the conscious mind. That is its
power, its critical importance. It is the gatekeeper to the
subconscious mind. Consciousness needs to be a guard
at the door of the subconscious and must remain alert all
the time. What is also important to note here is that our
thinking will determine how we feel, which is the domain
of the subconscious mind.

Stanley Beckett
Th e S u b c on sci ous Mi n d
The subconscious mind is the feeling mind. As mentioned,
what we think is going to determine what we feel. Examine
this for yourself: when you have positive uplifting thoughts,
you feel good, and the opposite happens when you have
repeated negative thoughts.
What is also very important to note about the

subconscious is that unlike the conscious mind, it cannot
reject any thought passed down to it. As we will discover, all
the power lies in the
subconscious mind,
when you have positive but it is not intelligent
uplifting thoughts,you in the way we think
feel good, and the of the conscious
opposite happens when
you have repeated mind as intelligent.
negative thoughts. So once a thought,
positive or negative,
has been accepted by
the conscious mind, the subconscious will act without
filtering. To see the power of this, observe someone
being hypnotised. In the process of hypnotism, the
conscious mind is bypassed, and one speaks directly to
the subconscious. If you tell an average thinking person
that he is a chicken, he will believe he is a chicken and
begin to behave like one – until the conscious mind takes
over again, that is.

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Also very important to note about the subconscious, is

that it cannot determine the difference between something
real or imagined. This is critical in the goal-achieving
process, and I will return to this in a future chapter.
The Body
Your body is an instrument of your mind. It responds to
your thoughts and your feelings, so taking it through the
chain above, our thinking will lead to how we feel. How we
feel will lead to how we act. And how we act delivers our
results. So, if we want to change our results through the
actions we take, we have to learn how to work with the
conscious and subconscious parts of the mind.
Ho w t h e Mi n d Dev el ope d
To understand the mind it is important to understand
how our current thoughts and feelings developed. I am
sure it will not surprise you to find that our minds started
developing when we were babies. Most of my understanding
in this area comes from the work of Dr. Bruce Lipton – a
cellular biologist. He states that a human’s conscious mind
is not fully developed until the age of six. This is very
significant, but why? Remember how we discussed that
the conscious mind is the gatekeeper to the subconscious,

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which does not have the ability to reject any thought or

idea – no matter how negative.
There are evolutionary advantages to this. We learn

our most important survival skills when in our first few
years. Think what would happen if a baby thought like an
adult? What would happen the first time a baby attempted
to walk and fell over? Well, if the baby thought like an adult
it would tell itself: “I can’t do this. Walking is too difficult.
You other people be the walkers; I’ll just crawl around for the
rest of my life.” We would probably do this with any task we
consider difficult, and end up not very well developed. So
instead, the conscious mind only develops later.
But, as with all things, there is a down side. This

delay in the development of the conscious mind means
that all negative thoughts, ideas and suggestions go right
into the subconscious mind without the child having the
ability to reject them. This is why conscious parenting is
so important.
As we grow up, our brain wave frequency increases.

For the first two years of a child’s life the brain wave
frequency is measured at three hertz. This is what is
referred to as Delta, which for adults, are the brainwaves
experienced when in the deepest part of sleep. During
Delta, your subconscious mind is active but the conscious
mind is switched off.

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Between the ages of two and six, brainwave frequency

speeds up to seven hertz. This is referred to as Theta. The
best way I can explain theta for an adult would be sleeping in
the morning and the alarm clock goes off. Before getting up
you might have experienced a stage of semi consciousness
and semi unconsciousness. In and out of sleep, or lucid sleep
– this is Theta. The conscious mind is starting to wake up
but is far from being in control.
Between the ages of six and 12, brainwave frequency

doubles to about 14 hertz. This is known as Alpha. Alpha is
analogous to receiving a relaxing massage. Your consciousness
is very calm and slow – observant, but quiet. Alpha is also a
great frequency to do meditations and affirmations.
And then from the age of 12, the brain increases to 30

hertz – full consciousness, also referred to as
Beta. This is the state your conscious mind is likely in
while reading this … unless it’s getting past your bedtime.
So for the first six years of a child’s life, her mind is either
in a state of Delta or Theta. This means that she does not have
the conscious awareness to reject any thoughts or ideas given
to her by caregivers and others. Whatever children learn
from their parents and their environment goes right into the
child’s subconscious mind and remains stuck there. After
that, any attempt to change those subconscious thoughts and
ideas becomes very difficult, and nearly impossible for some.

Stanley Beckett
I mention this because it is important for you to realize what

you might be up against in your goal achieving efforts. As
the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed.
Th e P o w e rf ul Subcon sci ous Mind

In order to understand how we go about goal achievement,
we really need to understand the power of our subconscious
minds. I found some interesting research in John Asseraf ’s
book, The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial
Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life. For clarity, we’ll
use easily identifiable terms and examples that compare the
conscious and the subconscious minds in five different areas:
Speed of Thought: So how fast does the subconscious

mind ‘think’ compared to the conscious mind, and why is
it important to know this? Let’s first look at speed. If the
conscious mind thinks at about 120 – 140 MPH, how fast
would you guess the subconscious mind ‘thinks’? Would
it surprise you to know the answer is over 100,000 MPH?
That is almost 1000 times faster! So why is this important?
Because this means that your slow conscious mind is not
really the one making your decisions for you; that it is actually
the subconscious leading the way. Another way to say this is
that your subconscious programming is the one running the
show. And where does this programming come from? Again,
it comes from the way you were programmed as a small child.

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Now the conscious mind only realizes a decision has been

made long after the subconscious has made that decision, and
it is left confused. So, what does it do? After the decision has
been made, it attempts to fill in the blanks and come up with a
justification for the decision that makes sense to it.
Let me use an example to explain this. Edward grows up

in a household where his parents teach him that money is
evil and rich people cannot be trusted. This is programmed
into Edward long before he has the ability to think for
himself. As an Adult, Edward has the opportunity to make
an investment that could make him a lot of money, but he
hesitates and decides not take the opportunity, rationalizing
that he lacks the time, and that the investment market is
too risky. Can you see what really happened here? It was
Edward’s subconscious programming that made the decision
for him, and then his slower conscious mind filled in the
blanks – in other words, ‘the why’ – by coming up with
justifiable reasons not to take the opportunity, allowing him
to feel happy about his decision.
Amount of Information: So how much information can

these two parts of our mind take in? Let’s think in computer
terms – in bits of information per second. The Conscious
mind takes in about 2,000 bits of information per second. And
the Subconscious mind? Over 400 billion bits of information
per second. Yes, you read that correctly, over 400 billion.
There is so much information for your mind to take in, that if

Stanley Beckett
your conscious mind did it, you would go insane. So although

your subconscious mind takes in all this information, your
consciousness determines what is important for you to pay
attention to.
But you can program your subconscious in order to tell

it what to pay attention to. If it is true that we become what
we think about most of the time, then it is just as true that we
think about what we focus on most of the time. So what are
you focusing on most of the time? Predominantly on what
you want, or what you don’t want?
I watched a very interesting experiment done by

Derren Brown that illustrates this point well. He tested to
see what our belief in luck has to do with us actually being
lucky. He had different people, some whom believed
they were lucky and others who did not. One individual
really believed and focused on how unlucky he was in
life, probably a result of his upbringing. Throughout the
show, unknown to this individual, opportunities for him
to make a lot of money would be placed before him, but
he would pass every single one without noticing, where
other people with a different belief would grab onto
these opportunities.
As an example, a 100 pound note would be placed on

the road, right next to where this man would walk. What
does he do? He literally walks right over the note without

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seeing it – just another in a series of missed opportunities.

So why does this happen? It happens because, although the
subconscious mind can see everything, the conscious mind
has programmed the subconscious to miss these types of
events through paying no attention to them. Why? Because
of a belief that we are unlucky. How many opportunities
have you missed in life in the same way?
Behaviour: So how much of your behaviour on a daily

basis is controlled by your conscious mind as opposed
to your subconscious? About 2 – 4 percent is controlled
by your conscious mind and 96 – 98 percent by your
subconscious. This means what you program into your
subconscious mind is vitally important. Just go back
to getting dressed this morning. How much conscious
thought did you put into it? You were probably thinking
about 100 other things while you were habitually going
through the motions. If you have a driver’s license,
think about your current driving experiences. I find
that most times I reach my destination without paying
any attention to my actual driving. It was not always this
way. I first had to get the process programmed into my
subconscious mind, but once that was done, it took over
the reins.
Now, as I mentioned, this is vitally important

to the goal achieving process. John Assaraf gives
the answer in his book when he writes,

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“This is one of the greatest discoveries of the past decade

of neurological research: 96 to 98 percent of all your behaviors
are automatic. This is why we set goals but don’t reach them.
Setting them is a function of the conscious mind. Reaching
them is a function of the subconscious mind.”
So, in order to reach these goals, which you have

set yourself, you have to know how to work with your
subconscious.
Function: When it comes to function, the conscious

mind is volitional, and the subconscious mind is servile.
So, what does this mean? Well, the conscious mind being
volitional means it can voluntarily decide what to think,
and what to accept or reject as mentioned at the start of this
chapter. This really is the key to everything else. Although,
as we have seen, all the power lies in the subconscious mind,
the key to unlocking this power is in the conscious mind.
And that is great news, because this means we can use this
2 – 4 percent to get what we want out of life. This is because
the subconscious is servile – it is a servant. As mentioned
already, it cannot reject – it must only accept. As Moses said,
this can be both a blessing and a curse, depending on how
you use it. You can use it to lift yourself up or break yourself
down. The choice – believe it or not – is yours.
Time: The way the two parts of the mind understand

time is also very different. The conscious mind can

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understand the concept of time – in other words, the past and

the present. It understands the difference between something
that is happening now and something that happened in the
past, or will happen in the future. This applies to a physical
event, as well as to an event you are thinking about right now.
Your subconscious, on the other hand, only understands
the present. It takes everything thought of or imagined as
happening right now.
Put this to the test some time. Think about an event from
the past that made you happy or sad. The more you think about
it, the more you will start feeling those happy or sad emotions
as if they were happening again. Why is that? Because your
subconscious allows you to relive a memory as though it is
happening right now. Remember earlier we discussed that
the subconscious mind does not know the difference between
something that is real and something that is imagined?
And once again, knowing this is important. Knowledge

is power, and the more we learn to understand how our mind
works, the more powerful it is going to make us, and the more
able we become to achieve the goals we set. Do not continue
with the process until you really get this chapter. Get how
powerful the subconscious mind is. ‘Get’ the challenge that
lies before you. ‘Get’ the reward that you can potentially
receive if you are able to overcome this challenge. And if you
really get it, not just understand – but really get all of this,
then you are ready to take the next step towards Liftoff.

Stanley Beckett
“The trouble with not having a goal is

that you can spend your life running up
and down the field and never score.”
— Bil l Cope l an d
52 - The Power of Integrity

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The Power of Integrity
The Power of Integrity - 53

Stanley Beckett
I
work a lot with salespeople, and one of the first things
I ask them is, “If you were to meet a potential client
for the first time, how would they instantly know
that they could trust you?” Think about that question
for a while. Have you ever met a complete stranger, and
instantly liked or disliked him or her? Have you ever
met a complete stranger, and instantly felt that you could
trust or distrust him or her? Where does this sense
come from? Well, it might surprise you to hear that it
comes from the same place that determines if you can
trust yourself.
Before I get into that, I would like to acknowledge one

of my mentors, who taught me this lesson – one I will never
forget. It is a privilege to share this with you now. Thank
you to CCI – Creative Consciousness International, and its
founder and visionary, Marc Steinberg.

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Control
Let us discuss the word “control.” What is control, and what
does it mean to be in control of something? I am sure, as
with so many other words, that this one word can have many
different definitions to many different people, depending on
how it is used, so it is important for us to reach an agreement
– a definition of the word that we can both agree on.
Think about it for a moment. How would you define

control? What is a good measure of being in control of
something? Let me use an example that illustrates this point
well. There are two men sitting at a bar. They are both
drinking exactly the same drink. Looking at them, we can
easily label the one an alcoholic and the other one a non-
alcoholic. What is the difference between the two? Well, the
obvious answer is that the one is in control of his drinking,
whilst the other one is not. All fair and well, but that then
begs the question: what is control? What do we mean when
we say that one is in control, and how is this measured?
In the example above, I am sure you would agree

with me that the difference between the two is that the
one in control, i.e., the non-alcoholic, has the power to
stop drinking when he feels like it. He also has the ability to
start drinking when he chooses. He could stop drinking for
the evening and not touch another drink for months. The
alcoholic, on the other hand, is the opposite of this.

Stanley Beckett
When the alcoholic starts drinking he cannot stop,

probably until he either passes out or runs out of money.
And he is likely not in control of when he starts drinking.
He might wake up one morning after drinking and promise
that he will never drink again. But before he knows it, he is
back in the bar, having a drink. In other words, he is not in
control of his drinking.
Read through the above section again if you are still not
clear, because it is very important for you to really understand
this before you move on. With this in mind, can we agree
that a good measure of being in control of something is
being able to start and stop as you choose? Let us look
at two other examples. First, using this measure, are you in
control of your walking? Of course you are. Why? Because
you can choose when to start walking and when to stop
walking. Can you imagine what life would be like if you were
not in control of this? Are you in control of your talking?
Once again, of course you are. You can choose when to start
talking and you can choose when to stop talking.
O u r T h i n k i n g an d F e e l i n g
Once again, using the above measure for being in control
of something, are you really in control of your thinking?
Are you able to stop thinking at any stage? Try it now, just
for 30 seconds. Are you able to completely switch off your

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thinking? Sitting still, even the thought, “I better not think,”

is a thought. What you will find is that it is impossible to
stop thinking completely. There are people who spend their
whole lives on this - getting into a state where they can switch
their thinking off – through meditation and other techniques.
This is impossible. Yes, you can slow your thinking down,
but you cannot stop it. In the same vein, do you choose to
start thinking when you feel like it? When you wake up
in the morning, do you have to switch your thinking on,
or is your mind running around with thoughts before you
even realize you are thinking? I am sure you already know
the answer to this.
Now, contemplate this: are you in control of your

feelings? Think about the last time something upset you, or
made you angry. Did you consciously choose to be angry,
or did you find you were angry before you could choose
that emotion? Once you are angry or sad, are you able
to instantly switch the emotion off? Once again you will
observe that you are not able to do this.
Yes, using different techniques, you can change

the emotion, but you are not really as in control of that
emotion as you would like to be. All of this is one of the big
illusions of life - the illusion that we control our thinking
and feelings, when in reality we do not. Realize that it
is vital to know this to empower you towards reaching
your goals.

Stanley Beckett
I Am
How do we define who we are? It starts with the
statement, “I am.” What are you? Think about this. End
this statement – I am ... There are a lot of words we can
use to define who we are, but when you come down to it,
we all define ourselves basically the same way, and that is
we define ourselves with the words, “I am” – my thinking
and feeling. We completely define ourselves by what we
think and how we feel. So what is the problem with this?
Well, as explained in the previous section, we do not really
control our thinking and feeling, so if we do not really
control it, then it controls us. We are being controlled by
our thoughts and feelings. Please understand that I am
speaking with reference to your goals here.
Yes, it is easy to set the goals and get excited about

them, but where does the process start to fail? It starts
to fail when we allow our thinking and feeling to control
us. I may be excited about reaching my goals today,
but what about tomorrow when I suddenly don’t feel
like doing the work required? What happens when my
thinking suddenly changes, and I start thinking negative
thoughts regarding the achievement of my goals? This
is the reason people set New Year’s resolutions, which
they never achieve - because they base those resolutions
on their current thinking and feeling, which is not under
their control.

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So how can we do this better? How can we redefine

ourselves? What is the one thing you can base your decisions
on that is under your control? What is the one thing that
only you can start and only you can stop? Before you go any
further really think about this question...
Y o u r C o ntrol
Have you thought about it? In my trainings I ask this
question and get many different answers, so let me give you
my answer.
What about, in-

stead of defining What about, instead of
yourself as “I am defining yourself as “I am
my thinking and my thinking and feeling,”
feeling,” you define you define yourself as
“I am my WORD”?
yourself as “I am my
WORD”? There was
a time in history when a person’s word was their bond. It
was more powerful than a signed document. When some-
one gave you their word, they kept it, and there was power
in it. This is where real power lies. Your word is only yours
to command. You decide to give your word, and you decide
to break your word. It is the one thing that is totally under
your control.

Stanley Beckett
So what if, instead of making a decision based on your

current thinking and feelings, you base your decision on
being your word? Understand that the two are separate
realms. Being your word is not based on your thinking or
feeling. Look at an example of this in your life. Have you
ever woken up in the morning, and maybe it was cold and
rainy outside, and you thought and felt, “I do not feel like
going to work today. I would rather stay in bed and sleep
some more”? If you are like me, then I am sure this has
happened many times. However, despite this thinking and
feeling, were you still able to get out of bed and get dressed
for work? Of course you were. Why? Because your ability
to act is independent of your thinking and feeling.
Th e p o w e r of Commi tme n t
What does this mean for you? It means there is a secret key
or power available to all of us. Regrettably, so few people
are really aware of this power and how to use it. The power
in simple terms is called commitment. Consider this quote
from W.H. Murray concerning the power of commitment:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance

to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts
of initiative and creativity, there is one elementary truth,
the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid
plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself,

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then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to

help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A
whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in
one’s favour all manner of assistance, which no man could
have dreamt would have come his way.’’
Think about what Murray is saying here. Nothing

really happens in life until you commit, and this is
especially true for your goals. Until you commit to them,
there is always going to be the opportunity to back out of
the goal, to quit, which is what the majority of people in
life do. Look at what Murray says happens when you do
commit. He tells us that providence – God, the Universe,
call it what you want – moves in your favour, and things
happen which you could never have imagined. This is
the power of commitment, and this is the power of being
your word instead of being controlled by your thinking
and feeling.
So how do you invoke the power of commitment? It starts

with not only a decision, but with the word being spoken.
There are commitment words, and there are thinking and
feeling words. What is the difference? The first has power,
the second, not. Let’s take a look:
Thinking and feeling: These are statements such as, “I

hope,” “I’ll try,” “I wish,” “I’ll do my best,” and “one day.” You
know what I mean. Start paying attention to how many times

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you find yourself and others using these words. Can you see
how little power there is in saying something like, “I hope to
achieve my goal one day,” or “I’ll try to reach this goal.” There
is no power in these words, because they are based only on
your thinking and feelings.
Commitment: What are powerful commitment

words? They are: “I am,” “I will,” “I promise,” and “I
commit.” Can you see the difference in these words?
Consider using them instead, by saying something like,
“I will reach my goal by ... ,” or “I promise to reach this
goal by ...” Can you see the potential power here? This is
where you make the commitment to reach your goal – and
it is not based on how you think or feel about it tomorrow.
Do you want to know a secret? Your goals identified so far
cannot be reached unless you commit. If you happen to
reach these goals without commitment, it will be despite
you, not because of you.
C om m i t m en t an d Your Subconscious
If you really understand the previous section, then I am
going to share another BIG secret with you. If you remember
from the previous chapter, your real power lies in the
subconscious mind. The conscious mind is just the key to
the subconscious. Now you have the most powerful key to
using the subconscious. Let me explain.

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I invite you to imagine your subconscious mind as one

giant scorekeeper. It is constantly keeping score and observing
all around you, and one of these things is your word. How often
do you keep your word to yourself and others? How often do
you say you are going to do something and then not do it?
Probably more than you realize, which is why it is essential
you become aware of this. Every single time you say to yourself
or someone else that you are going to do something, and then
not do it, you are putting a negative mark or cross in your
subconscious mind. Now, one cross in your subconscious is
not so serious, but what about thousands gathered through a
lifetime? Every single cross you gather in your subconscious
mind causes you to lose power and trust in yourself.
Another secret here about the subconscious: it does not

care if that broken word is big or small. It can be as big
as setting a BIG goal and not doing anything to reach it,
and as small as promising to give someone a phone call
and not doing it. Every single time you say you are going
to do something and then not do it, you get a cross. And
one day, you decide on a big C- goal and guess what your
subconscious does? It looks at your scorecard, sees that you
never do what you say you will do, and goes, “Yeah right,
in your dreams.” And then everything becomes a great
effort – why? Because you are only using the four percent
conscious willpower and have 96 percent power fighting
against you in your subconscious. Can you understand how
detrimental that is to achieving any goal you set?

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So, how can you use this power for you, instead
of against you? You decide to be your word through
commitment in everything. When you say you will do
something, you do it, despite your possible negative thinking
and feeling. Here is the positive side of this – once again,
your subconscious cannot tell the difference between a big or
small commitment. Every single time you say you are going
to do something and then do it, you get a tick instead of a
cross in your subconscious mind, and can you guess what
happens then?
Every single time you get a tick, your power goes up and
your trust in yourself goes up. As above, you will not see a
great difference right away. But building on this consistently
through time will raise your power to such a level, that
miracles start to happen. All people of real power live this
way. When they say they are going to do something, then
they do it, and life just seems to happen for them. Have you
ever met individuals who just seem to have the rub of the
green? Things just always seem to work out for them? How
would you like to be one of those people?
How would you like to be the kind of person who sets a

goal – any goal, no matter how big or small, and just knows
it is going to happen? It is a matter of time. Be honest with
yourself here – when is the last time you really felt that
powerful in your life?

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T h e P o w er of In te gri ty
Here is another word that is poorly understood – integrity. I
know that there are many different definitions for integrity,
but I would like to offer one that connects very well with this
lesson. The definition is: “Integrity is doing what you said
you would do, by the time you said you would do it.” Think
about that. How different would this world be if people
lived with integrity? We respect people who live with this
definition of integrity.
So, if you understand this integrity, I invite you to

answer a question truthfully to yourself here. It is very
important to be
truthful to yourself Integrity is doing what
in all things. In you said you would do,
order to get to where by the time you said you
we need to go, we would do it.
first need to know
where we are. Let’s say you are lost, and you have a map
with you, but your map is a map of Durban, South Africa.
Can you agree with me that this map would be of no use to
you if you are lost in Boston, U.S.A.?

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It might be a great map, but it is not going to help

you. That is what lying to yourself does. It keeps you
stuck and lost. It might be a great lie, which helps you
feel better about your situation, but it is still going to
keep you stuck, or even worse, get you more lost than
you were before.
So honour yourself by being truthful here. If you had

to currently give yourself a percentage score of where your
integrity in life is right now – where would you score yourself?
30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent? The first time I looked at
this I had to admit my integrity was well below 50 percent,
but the power was realizing it and being honest with myself
so that I could move forward.
As a coach, I have
As a coach, I have found that miracles start
found that miracles to happen in my clients’
start to happen in lives when their integrity
my clients’ lives level is constantly above
when their integrity 80 percent. I do not
level is constantly
above 80 percent. believe it is possible to
constantly be at 100
percent integrity, but 80
percent is what you should be aiming for. If you live your
life there, then no goal will ever be unachievable. Why?
Because you will be using the power of your subconscious
mind! Imagine what life can be like if you use even 60

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percent of your available power as opposed to the 4 percent

most people use.
Think about this chapter. Do not go further until

two things have happened: 1) You really understand
the power of being your word, living with integrity and
committing to your goals instead of living by default – which
means being controlled by your thinking and feeling. 2) You
commit 100 percent to the goals you have set by creating a
commitment based on the section above (“I am,” “I will,” “I
promise,” “I commit”). Go back to your board and write out
a commitment to every single goal you have identified.
Well done! You are one step closer to Liftoff!

Stanley Beckett
“If you w a n t t o l iv e a hap p y l i f e ,

t ie it t o a goa l ,
n ot t o pe opl e or t hin g s . ”
— Albert Einstein
68 - The Burning Desire Scale

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The Burning Desire Scale
The Burning Desire Scale - 69

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T
his chapter, this secret, this step, is probably the most
important one in the book. A real understanding will
be the difference between success and failure when
reaching for C-goals. Through working with people in years
gone by, I have come to understand how few people really
understand or know about this. It is not rocket science, but for
the masses, it is still a secret. My mentor, Mr. Bob Proctor, told
me that the biggest problem in the world today is ignorance
– simply not knowing. I tend to agree with that statement.
So let us open up a little window of understanding here.
Desire
I remember an advert on TV which aired here in South
Africa many years ago. It showed a man climbing a
mountain of books, searching for one perfect book out of
millions. He asked, “If you could only choose one book to

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give to your child to read in life, what would it be?” That

really got me thinking. I can now say I know the answer to
that question for myself. It would be the book Think and
Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. If you have not read this
book, I highly recommend that you add it to your reading
list. I believe it is a book every person should read. In the
very first chapter, Hill devotes all his time and energy to
this word – desire. Why? Because without it, no C-goal is
reachable. Notice that I did not say no goal is reachable –
because you are able to reach A and B type goals without
much desire. That is what most people do every day. But to
reach a real C-goal you need to start with a desire, which you
then need to turn into a burning desire. It sounds simple,
a n d it i s , but it is not easy. There is a big difference
between simple and easy.
Bu r ni n g De si re
So let’s pause and look at this phrase – burning desire. What
is a burning desire? A burning desire is something you really,
really want. I heard about a student of an ancient master
who once asked his
master how he could If you could only choose
have anything he one book to give to your
wanted in life. The child to read in life,
master told him that what would it be?
he could show his

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student, but that it would not be easy. The student, keen

to learn the answer, agreed to take a walk with the master.
The master led the student to a river, and told the student
to get into the water with him. When the water was almost
shoulder high, the master, who was very strong, grabbed the
student, put his head under the water and held it there.
No matter how the student struggled, he could not get his head
above the water again. Just when the student thought that he was
going to pass out, the master let him up. As he was gasping for air,
the master asked him, “When you were below the water, what were
you thinking about?” The student answered, “All I could think
about was how much I
wanted to be able to breathe
The day you are in a again.” The master then told
similar situation,
and you want that him, “The day you are in a
goal more than you similar situation, and you
want a breath of air, want that goal more than
you will have it. you want a breath of air, you
will have it.”
This master understood the importance of having a

burning desire. When you have that, then nothing will stop
you from achieving your goal. I heard something once that
I have never forgotten. “Everything in life you really want,
you either already have, or you are on your way towards
getting.” Think about that for a while, as I did, and you will
see the truth in that statement.

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T h e B u r n i n g Desi re Scale
So how do you go about building a burning desire? I’m
sure, like I used to, you are thinking that it seems easy. If
you really want something, it’s in you. You don’t have to
turn it on or off. Just decide what you want and go for it. I
am hoping I can convince you why this is flawed thinking,
and why so many goals remain unreachable because of it.
To help explain this, I invite you to study the burning desire
diagram below:
100%
Burning Desire Burning Desire
Builder Killer
% %
WHAT HOW
As you will see, there are two sides to this scale. On the
right hand side, we have the HOW. This is the active, action
oriented side.

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How are we going to achieve this set goal? What are

the steps we need to take? What needs to be in place?
How much money do we need, and how are we going
to get it? What needs to happen so that this goal
can materialize?
On the left hand side of the scale, we have the WHAT.

What do I want? What is the goal? What do I want to achieve
with this goal? What do I want the end result to look like?
Now I invite you to take a few minutes, and be honest

with yourself. If we have 100 percent focus available to use
on the burning desire scale when we start focusing on a new
C-goal we have set for ourselves, then what percentage do
you believe we should use focusing on the left hand side of
the scale (the What), and what percentage should we use to
focus on the right hand side of the scale (the How)? Take
a moment to think about this and do not continue until you
have an answer for yourself.
Asking this question through the years, I have received

many different answers. Some people will put 90 percent
focus on the How and 10 percent on the What. Some
will reverse that equation. Many people will put it at a
50/50 split to be safe, and you get varying answers that lie
between those ranges. But by far the How outweighs the
What in most individuals’ minds, which is where the biggest
problem lies.

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T h e B u r n i n g Desi re Ki l l er
This need to control and understand the How is what I refer
to as the burning desire killer. So let me give you my answer
to the question above. Remember, I am referring to a new
C-goal, which you have just decided you have a desire
to attain. At this stage, the only way that the burning
desire scale can be in balance is if you focus 99.9 percent
on the What and 0.1 percent on the How. Can you see how
different this is from most peoples’ thinking? Many people
will immediately start arguing that you have to spend the
majority of your time focusing on how you are going to
achieve that goal, and what actions / steps you need to take,
but let us go back to the first chapter for a moment. Do
you remember the definition for a C-goal? If so, then you
will remember that one of the criteria is that it has to be
something you have never done before.
In other words, you are not going to know exactly how

to start; the fun is in finding out how. If you already know
the how, then it is a B-goal, at best. Napoleon Hill said, “You
don’t have to know how. Just take the first step, and the how
will be shown.” You do not have to see the whole staircase,
just where to put your feet for that first step – which is why
I left 0.1 percent focus on the How.
Why is this so important? Well, let us take a look

at what happens when this burning desire scale is out of

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balance. When you start with a C-goal, it has to start off

as a desire already. It is already something you want, or
else you would not have set it as your goal. In most cases,
the power behind that initial desire is nowhere near strong
enough to reach the goal. It is like a small tree growing; it
is very fragile and needs protection from all the elements,
until it has roots deep enough to support itself. So how do
we go about building these roots, and what are the elements
I am referring to? Well, as the burning desire scale shows, to
go about building these roots you have to spend almost all
your time focusing on the What. What do you really want?
It’s also good to focus on the Why. Why do you want this?
What will this give you that you do not currently have? The
tools for doing this can be found in the next chapter.
Why do we need to focus on the What and Why? Because

if we focus on the right side of the scale – the How – then
we are exposing ourselves to the elements. The elements
refers to the thinking that is going to keep reminding us that
we currently do not know how we are ever going to achieve
our set goal. I am sure you have heard this soft voice in the
background before. You know - the one that keeps asking
you: Where are you going to get the money to do that? Where
are you going to find the time? You are not smart enough;
you have never been able to do something like that. What will
other people say or think? What if you fail? It is so important
to understand and learn how to control this voice that I have
devoted a chapter to understanding it.

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The other elements will be very happy to assist if that

first big element is not enough to kill off your desire.
You know those people in your life who are always there
to “kindly” remind you that you are not as strong, good,
handsome or rich as you think you are? Maybe for your
own safety it would be better to give up on the goal before
you disappoint yourself? I really feel I do not have to
explain much further – we all know the elements that have
killed countless dreams before.
T h e B u r n i n g Desi re Bui l der

So, to keep building your burning desire instead of
breaking it down, you have to focus on the left hand side
of the scale – the How. Now, you might ask me how long
you need to do this? I could answer that question with a
question – how long is a piece of string? I do not know
how long you are going to have to do this. Do it for as
long as it takes. For some people it might require years,
for others days, depending on how you use the scale.
I say that because I have found that we use the scale

inconsistently. We might spend a period of time using it
correctly, spending all our focus on what we want. We
start getting excited about it, and then what happens?
The scale goes out of balance, because we start focusing
on the How again.

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We do not see how when we start doubting ourselves, all

the good work is undone. This is why it can take years. I had a
desire to work with my Mentor, Bob Proctor, for many years, but
it did not happen until it became my burning desire. Every time
I thought about the possibility I would start focusing on how, and
I had no idea where I was going to find the money to do it. So it
took two years of watching webinars, receiving emails, reading
up on the work and focusing on what I really wanted, before I
managed to get the burning desire scale in balance.
And then one morning my desire had finally turned into

a burning desire. I woke up and I just knew I had to do this.
And I also knew at that moment that nothing was going to
stop me. Have you ever felt that way about anything? You just
knew that you would make it happen no matter what? And
guess what? When that happens, nothing can stop you. You
become an invincible force. This is what happened to me. For
two years I had no idea how I was going to achieve my goal, or
where I was going to get the money. And then, after my desire
had turned into a burning desire, it took me only two weeks to
find the money and everything else I needed. At that stage the
balance of the scale could change from the What to the How.
Th e H o w - Radar
Before we get into the final part of the scale, let me first
explain the How-radar. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a

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radar screen in an air traffic control tower? Any aircraft in

the area in which the radar is focused gets picked up as a blip
on the radar’s screen. But does that radar see the whole sky?
Of course not. As best it can only focus on a small

percentage of the sky at any one time. Does that mean that
there are no aircraft flying in the other parts of the sky? Of
course not. They are there, just not being picked up by the
radar. When they fly into the area that the radar is focusing
on, they will be picked up by the radar.
The same principle can be applied to our C-goals. When you

start, the scope of your radar will be very small. Why? Because
you are going after something you have never done before. You
will probably only be able to see a very small percentage of what
is available to you. But, as in the example above, does this mean
that there is nothing else available? Of course not. It just means
either one of two things – either the possibility has not crossed
your path yet, or it is already there, but you are not yet powerful
enough to see it. You need to improve the power of your radar
and your vision. And how do you do that? By using the burning
desire scale correctly. By trusting that although you cannot see
the How yet, that the How will come, and your only job is to
make sure that the scale is in balance.
I would like to share one last secret about the How – from
my own experience in life. Whenever I have had a big C-goal
with a plan up front of how I was going to achieve that goal,

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I have found that once my goal has been achieved and I look
back at the process, the How never ends up being the How
I planned when I started. I could never have foreseen the
people I was going to meet, or the events that were going to
take place when I started the journey. It was all totally outside
of my radar screen. I just had to take the steps I could and
trust that the next step would be seen when the time came.
And you know what? The next step was always there. But the
challenge was recognising that step and not allowing my fears
and thoughts to prevent me from taking those steps.
If you have to look back on your life, would you say that you
have had similar experiences? Do things always work out exactly
as you plan them, in the exact sequence, or do you also discover
the How as you go along? Letting go of the need to know the
How is one of the most important lessons you can learn in life.
The C h a n gi n g of the Guar d

Once your desire has changed into a burning desire, it is
time to change the balance on the scale. How will you know
that this has happened?
When it happens, you
Never let your focus
on the How outweigh will know. You will have
your focus on a knowing inside that
the What. nothing is going to stop
you from achieving your

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goal. You will also find yourself consistently taking action

towards your goal without feeling it is a burden.
I had a client once who assured me that her desire for

her goal was a burning desire. When I questioned her to find
out what steps she had taken towards her goal, she told me
no steps yet, but that she was planning to start taking steps
real soon. This was not a burning desire – it was just a desire
at best. It can be like fool’s gold – it looks like the real thing,
but it’s far from it. When it is a burning desire, you will find
yourself taking consistent actions steps towards your goal.
When this happens, it is time to shift the balance of the

scale from the What to the How. Now when I say shift, I
am not saying that that the scale needs to shift 100 percent.
Nor I am not saying that now you have to start focusing 99
percent on the How. If you do that, you will kill the burning
desire off almost instantly. At best, I would say that you can
now create a 51/49 split. Never let your focus on the How
outweigh your focus on the What.
You have to keep your goal, and what the end result will
look like, in the front of your mind. But now is the time to
focus on your radar screen. What comes up for you as the
next step to take? I have to give a word of warning here. What
might come up for you at this point may make no sense right
now, but that is probably because you are asking the wrong
question. When it comes to steps towards our goals, most

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people ask the wrong question. The question they ask is, “If I
take this step, is it the right decision or the wrong decision?”
As I said, that is not a very powerful question to ask. I read
somewhere once that the difference between winners and losers
in life is that the winners ask themselves the right questions,
and here is a perfect example. So, instead of asking if your
decision is right or wrong, ask the question, “Would taking
this step take me closer,
or move me further away
Would taking
this step take me from my goal?” If you can
closer, or move me see clearly that taking that
further away from step would take you closer
my goal? to the achievement of the
goal, then take the step.
If you do not know if that step would take you closer or move
you further away, also take the step. The only time I would advise
not taking the step, is if you can clearly articulate why taking that
step would take you further away from the goal. And even then I
would be sceptical and ask if you are 100 percent sure of that fact,
or if it is not just your mind playing tricks on you?
So go and have a look once again at your goals. Take each

one and see if it is a desire or a burning desire, using the test
mentioned in this chapter. If it is not a burning desire yet,
then pay attention to your burning desire scale. Is it out of
balance? If so, then pay special attention to the next chapter.
You are yet another step closer to Liftoff.

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The Birth of Your Goal
The Birth of Your Goal - 83

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A re Y o u a Thi n ker?
I
was very amused once after reading a statement on
thinking. Archibald MacLeish, a playwright and
motivational speaker in the U.S.A. once stated, “Two
percent of the people in this world think, three percent think
that they think, and the other 95 percent would rather die than
have to think.” Which group do you believe you fall into? I
read another statement that said, “If most people said what
they were thinking, we would all be speechless.”
Why do so few people actively engage in the process of

thinking? Well I am sure there are many reasons, but the two
I want to mention here are: 1) Thinking is hard work. It really
is. That is why so many people would rather let others do
their thinking for them. I am here reminded of a statement
Adolf Hitler once made. He said: “What luck for rulers that
people do not think.” I am going to leave you to make up
84 - The Birth of Your Goal

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your own mind about that statement. 2) The second reason

is that people are not taught how to think. You might argue
that our schooling system teaches us to think, but it really
does not. What it teaches us instead, is WHAT to think, and
that is very different from HOW to think.
We get taught in schools to learn things like a parrot

and to follow the thinking of others without asking too
many questions, and we end up living the rest of our lives
the same way. So do some inspection at this point. As we
like to say, give yourself a bit of a check up from the neck up.
When is the last time you remember having a unique,

original thought of your own? When is the last time you
literally “thought outside the box”? We would like to believe
that we do it all the time, but the truth is that we hardly ever
do it if at all. The parameters within which our thinking
takes place stay pretty much the same most of our lives. Is
this true for you? If so, then now is the perfect time to
change that. You are going to need this change in order to
reach the goals you set for yourself.
H o w d o w e thi n k?
So that brings us to the question on how we think. Let us
put it to the test. I invite you to stop for a moment and think
about your fridge at home.

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Think about the last time you opened the fridge door. Which
way did it open? Left to right, or right to left? Now think about
what was on the top shelf of the fridge. Can you name all the
items? What about the middle and bottom shelf? What about the
side compartments?
Now think about the car you drive or ride in. It

might be your own car, or it might be another form of
transportation you usually use. What colour is it? How
many doors? Is it clean, or are there items on the floor?
What items are lying around?
Next, think about someone you really care about,

maybe your partner in life, it could be your children,
it could be any other member of the family. What are they
doing in your current thoughts?
Now think about something completely different, let’s

say a roaring lion.
Ok – stop the process for a moment and let us see

what is happening. While you were thinking about all
these different objects, what was occurring on the screen of
your mind? Let us take the fridge as an example. While
you were thinking about it, what happened on the screen
of your mind? Did you see the word FRIDGE? Did you see
Webster’s dictionary definition of what a fridge is? What
did you see? ( Same with the car and the loved one and the

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lion.) If you really investigate this, you will find that what
you ‘saw’ in your mind in each case was a picture of the items.
And this is another one of the big secrets – WE THINK IN
PICTURES. We all do! If you think about any event from
the past, you see the pictures in the screen of your mind as if
it were happening now. This is a very simple, but also VERY
important concept. We think in pictures. This is a crucial
link to all the previous chapters. If you cannot see a clear
picture of what your goal is supposed to look like, then you
are going to struggle to ever achieve that goal.
Av o i d t he Negati v e
Try the following. I
am going to instruct If you cannot see a clear
you now, as you are picture of what your
reading this – DO goal is supposed to look
NOT think about like, then you are going
to struggle to ever
a yellow canary!
achieve that goal.
Can you see what
just happened? Just
saying the words yellow canary activated cells of recognition
in your mind and before you could stop yourself, the picture
appeared. This is a very important principle.
Our minds do not understand the word NOT. Think

about it for a while. We have already established that we think

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in pictures. Now answer

Never tell yourself this – what picture do you
what you have in your mind for the
do not want. word “not”? I have asked
this question hundreds of
times, and I get hundreds of different answers ranging from
a cross, to a stop sign, to a blank picture, but none of these
things is “not.” In truth, there is no picture for the word “not.”
This is so important,
because the conclusion is
So as you are
setting your goals – that you must never use
make sure that you the word “NOT” when
are focusing on what it comes to your goals.
you do want, instead Never tell yourself what
of what you you do not want. Let us
do not want.
say for example someone
who is struggling
financially sets themselves the goal, “I do not want to be
poor.” Guess what picture that will bring to the mind? The
picture of someone who is poor! Your cells of recognition
will pick up the word “poor” in the same way it picked up
“yellow canary.” The same thing occurs if you say you do
not want to be sick or any other thing with the word “not” in
front of it. Consider small children. If you ever tell them not
to do something – how often do they go ahead and do that
exact thing? They already had an image of what they wanted
to do in their minds.

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So as you are setting your goals – make sure that you are
focusing on what you do want, instead of what you do not
want. How do we do this, you ask?
D e s c r i b i n g Y our Goal
As I said in the beginning of this chapter, we think in pictures.
In order to achieve your goals, you need to have a clear vision
of your goal. Everything in life is created twice – first in your
mind, and then in reality. Now is the opportunity for you
to focus on the first creation step – creating the goal in your
head. I invite you to create some time for yourself. All the
exercises in this chapter are time consuming, but I promise
you that they will be well worth the effort.
Create some time now to really think about your chosen

goals from the first two chapters. Create the image in your
mind of that goal being achieved. The key here is to invoke
as many of your senses as you can. Take each goal and ask
yourself the following questions:
1. What does your goal look like? How will you know
you have achieved the goal? What will you see?
Let us say, for example, you have a goal of winning
a race. Can you picture yourself on that podium
receiving a medal? What is happening around you?
What are the people doing? How do you look?

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What are you wearing? What if the goal is a new

house? Can you see every detail of that house?
Is it next to the ocean? How many rooms? What
does each room look like? Take a walk through the
house as if it already exists, and is already yours.
2. What a r e y o u hearing? What sounds are you

hearing around you in t h e completion of your
goal? Are you hearing crowds cheering? Are you
hearing the sounds of the waves hitting the shore?

3. What are you smelling? What does victory smell
like? What does the ocean smell like? Add as many
details as you can.
4. What are you tasting? Is there any particular taste

in your mouth that you can associate with the
achievement of your goal?
5. What are you feeling? This one is very important.

What do you feel? Do you feel pride?
Happiness? Contentment? Love? Create as many separate

positive feelings as you can.
The important thing is that you need to create the picture

of your goal as completely as you possibly can – because
we think in pictures. When I say that, what I really mean

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is that the conscious part of your mind thinks in pictures,

therefore, the stronger the picture of what you want, the
stronger the feeling associated with that picture. And why
is this important? You guessed it – because as mentioned
earlier in this book, your subconscious is the feeling part of
the mind and in order to get it to work for you, you have to
work on your feelings.
T h e G o a l Board
I invite you now to go back to the goal list that you created
in chapter two. Consider the A, B, and C-goals that you
created and linked together. Now it is time to create pictures
around those goals. There are several ways of doing this;
you need to find which one works best for you. One of the
ways you could do this is through the use of magazines,
although, to be honest, I find this method outdated. But it
could certainly help to spark the creativity you might need
at this stage by helping to create pictures and ideas. Simply
gather together as many magazines as you can and page
through them, finding as many pictures as you can to link to
your goal. You will p aste, t ap e or pi n t hes e i mages to
a p o ster b o ard, elaborating on all the written goals you
created earlier. Ensure that you create a big enough board
to use as your goal board. It should look very colourful and
creative, and should inspire the feelings you wish to associate
with the achievement of your goals.

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The second way is more creative, but can be very

challenging if you are not a good artist. (That would be me.
I cannot even seem to draw a stickperson properly.) But if
you are good at drawing or painting, this method can be very
powerful in getting the conscious and subconscious mind
working in the process. Here you will draw an image of your
goal, instead of using a picture from a magazine. This will be
your own creative picture – something that cannot be found
in any magazine in the world, because it is uniquely yours.
If you choose this route, you will likely feel the process in a
way no other method allows. You will see the images in your
mind, and in this way you powerfully combine the conscious
and subconscious.
The third way is my preferred method – the use of

technology. You can use the Internet to search for images that
connect with your goal. In a search engine of your choosing,
you can type in any word and find literally thousands, if not
hundreds of thousands of images for your subject. There
are so many great tools available online that can help you
in the process of creating your goal/vision board. There
is a great app called “Vision Board Deluxe,” which can be
downloaded at a very reasonable price. Other websites
include www.dreamitalive.com, www.visionboardsite.com
and many others. With a minimal amount of effort, you
should be able to find a site that works well for you. But like
I mentioned, you do not really need technology to create
goal board.

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You can choose to use one or all of the above methods

to create your vision board. (See how it has now evolved into
a Vision Board from a Goal Board, because you have now
included the visual representations of your goals). It does not
matter which method you use. All that matters is that you get
going, as this is all a very important step of the whole process.
A f f i r m i ng Y our Goals
Affirmations can also be a very important part of the whole
process. What are affirmations? Well, like the word says –
they are statements that we affirm to ourselves over and over
again. If you are sitting there thinking that affirmations do
not really work for you, consider the possibility that you
use affirmations all the time in your life; you are just not
aware that you are using them.
I read that the average person thinks something like 50 –

60 thousand thoughts a day. Are you aware of all the thoughts
you are thinking? Thankfully, no. I think we would all go
mad if we were. We are not aware of these thoughts because
probably about 90 percent of them are thoughts we think
over and over again. In other words, they are affirmations.
We keep telling ourselves over and over again that we cannot
do something. I would venture to say the majority of those
unconscious thoughts are unhealthy and negative, due to
things we might have learned in our childhood.

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So the idea here is to replace those negative affirmations

with positive affirmations, which support the achievement
of our goals. The variety of possible affirmations is as vast
as the variety of possible goals, so I am going to suggest
that you use the Internet once more. Just type in the word
“affirmations” and you will find thousands of web pages that
can help you find the affirmations that move you. You can
either use the ones you find, or you can adjust them to suit
you. As I said before, I believe that affirmations are a very
powerful addition to any goal and any vision board.
M u s i c i s t he Spi ce of Li fe
We all love music because of the emotions it creates in us.
The right song can make us feel happy, sad, in love, exited,
energetic, any sort of emotion. Hollywood directors know
this well. They know the importance of finding the right
song to convey the emotion they want their audience to feel
and we all know how a piece of music can create an image
or emotion. Think of the theme to the movie “Jaws,” or to
“James bond,” or so many other classic themes.
Now I invite you to consider which piece of music really

inspires and uplifts you? Think about it in the following
way: imagine you could choose a piece of music to be your
theme song in life. Whenever you enter a room, this piece
of music would announce your arrival. You would want this

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music or song to be the most inspiring one you could find.

Which song would you choose? Which song really inspires
and uplifts you. Which song is “YOU”? Go and find that
song. Once again it is not about finding it as quickly as you
can. It is about finding the right song. Do not continue
with this process until you have everything in place – that
includes your goal board, which has been converted into a
vision board, your list of affirmations, and your song. When
you have all of that together, then you can continue.
L i g h t s , Camera, Acti on
Now it is time to put it all together in another way - through
the creation of your Mind Movie. Let’s face it; life is not a
series of still images like a photo. It is more like moving
images – a movie. So it makes sense for you to create your
own movie with regards to your goals. I invite you now to
create your own Mind Movie. This is a process where you
take all your images, your affirmations and your song, and
put them together to create a moving montage of images,
sounds and emotions.
Once again there are many tools available to support you

in this. I know that Microsoft Windows has a movie maker
application that is very easy to use, and can support you.
There is also a great website I can once again recommend
to help you here. It can be found at www.mindmovies.com.

Stanley Beckett
The advantage of this site is that you instruct which images,

affirmations and song to use, and the website builds the movie
for you. Having a movie like this that supports you in your
goals is a wonderful tool, and one which I recommend very
strongly. You will understand the power of it once you have
created your own, so I suggest once again that you do not
proceed further until you have created your own Mind Movie.
The I m p o r t an ce of These T ools

I would like to end this chapter by addressing the importance
of using these tools, and I need to quote Napoleon Hill once
more. He said in his book Think and Grow Rich, “We become
what we think about MOST of the time.” This is a very powerful
statement. It’s true that we become what we think about most
of the time. Not all of the time, because no one can think
about just one thing all of
We become what we the time, but we do spend
t h i n k a b o u t M OS T o f the majority of our time
the time. thinking about specific
things.
A classic example of this is a statement I heard once:

“The only people who think more about money than rich
people do, are poor people. They keep thinking about and
lamenting the fact that they will never have it.” Is that not so
true? Both classes are thinking about the same things, but

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it is the way we are thinking about them which ultimately

influences the outcome.
What are you thinking about most of the time? Are

you thinking about your goals, or about the fact that you
believe you will never achieve them? If you become what
you think about most of the time, the idea is to consistently
think about your goals. Remember the burning desire scale
from the previous chapter? You need to be consistently
thinking about what you want.
Now this brings about an interesting question. I have

often been asked about the use of vision boards and mind
movies. The question will go along the lines of, “Why do
I need to create a vision board or mind movie to remind
myself of my goals? I already know what my goals are. If I
had to keep reminding myself what they were, they would
not be real goals?” Well, I agree with that statement, but it is
missing the point.
Creating the vision board and mind movie is not to

remind you what your goals are, but TO REMIND YOU TO
KEEP THINKING ABOUT YOUR GOALS – to help you
keep focusing on the What. (Since we become what we think
about most of the time.) It will be of no use to you to think
about your goals for 10 minutes a day and then forget about
them for the rest of that day.

Stanley Beckett
You need to be thinking about those goals consistently

throughout the day and the vision board and mind movie
support you with this.
Every time you see

Do not wait until them, they will remind
tomorrow, because you to think about your
for most people goals and how it will feel
tomorrow to achieve them. So be
never comes.
certain to place your
vision board somewhere
where you will see it as much as possible – at the office or at
home – and make a commitment to yourself to watch your
mind movie at least twice a day, once in the morning and
once at night before you go to sleep. I know you might
be thinking, “This is a big commitment,” but who are
you ultimately doing it for? Yourself, right?
Go ahead and apply what you have learned in this

chapter. Start right now. Do not wait until tomorrow, because
for most people tomorrow never comes.
Well done, you are one more step closer to Liftoff.

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Changing Habits
Changing Habits - 99
Stanley Beckett
A
ll the work in the chapters up until now has been
what I would call the setup, the foundation. As any
building is only as strong as its foundation, so the
process of goal achievement will depend on the strength
of your foundation. It is vitally important that the correct
amount of time be invested in that process. Once that is
done, the real work begins. This is the place where the
burning desire scale needs to start tipping more on the side
of the How than the What, though it is not simply a case of
going out and doing what needs to be done. It is a lot more
complicated than that.
Paradigm
In order to make the changes you are going to have to make to
achieve your goals, you will need to change your paradigm.
“Paradigm” is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but is
100 - Changing Habits

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seldom understood, so let me ask you: how would you define

“paradigm”? When I ask this question of groups, I receive
answers in the vein of: “It is your thinking,” or “It is your
view of life.” However, in my opinion, those responses refer
to a personal philosophy, which is different from paradigm.
So to explain paradigm, let me ask you: when you got

dressed this morning, presuming you are wearing pants,
which leg did you dress first? The right or the left? I am
sure it will not take you long to answer the question, even
though, if you were truthful, you would admit that you really
cannot recall the process – because you were not paying any
conscious attention to the action, due to the fact that you
have done it so many times in your life. You were probably
thinking about something totally different today while you
were getting dressed.
So how can you be
so sure about which Up to 90 percent of the
things you do every day,
leg you dressed first?
are habitual.
Because you do the
same thing every
morning of your life. We call that habit. And you know
what? Up to 90 percent of the things you do every day, are
habitual. You put no real conscious thought to the process.
Your subconscious mind is doing most of the work.
All the processes we learn in life start off travelling

through the conscious thinking mind and end up in the

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subconscious habitual mind. Think of driving a car if you

are able to. When you learned to do it, it took a lot of
conscious effort focusing on the accelerator, the clutch, the
gears, the brakes, where to look in your mirrors, etc. I
am sure, like me, there were times when you doubted
you would ever be able to do it. Then one day you stopped
consciously thinking about it, and you found yourself driving
to a destination and getting there having no recollection of
driving. You might just as well have been a passenger. Can
you see how the subconscious mind takes over?
So we have this
what are multitude of habits that
paradigms? Well, rule our lives, which
simply put, brings me back to the
paradigms are a
multitude of habits. question – what are
paradigms? Well, simply
put, paradigms are a
multitude of habits. If you are going to change the results
in your life, if you are going to reach the goals that you have
set for yourself, then you are going to have to change your
paradigms (the habits that shape your every day existence).
That sounds simple enough, and in truth, it is. However,
it is not easy, and there is a big difference between simple
and easy.

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T h e B i g gest Gap
What do you think is the biggest gap in life? Now this may
sound like a loaded question, but to me, the biggest gap in
life is the gap between what we know and what we do. Think
about it – there are people who have a lot of knowledge, who
seem to know a bit about everything. Yet they are not very
effective human beings, never really seeming to get things
done. On the other hand, there are people who do not seem
to have that much knowledge, but they are always getting
things done. Why is that?
The problem likely begins in schools. Traditional

schooling systems typically teach students to study
information by rote memory in order to regurgitate it for
tests, like parrots. A teacher will teach a subject, and a
student will take the work and textbook home, study it like
a parrot, and at the end of the year write an exam to see if
he ‘knows’ the work. If he gets a good mark, then they say,
“Look how clever this student is. He really knows his stuff.”
But the truth is, he does not really know. He can remember,
but does he really know?
You only really know when you do. So this gap between
what you know and what you do starts forming and as we
become adults, the gap gets wider and wider. In a typical
working situation, employees are being placed on training
to support them in knowing more, with the idea that they

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will perform better in their jobs. But what employers find,

to their dismay, is that the performance of employees does
not match the training they are given and this is becoming
a big challenge for companies, thus, the knowing / doing
gap. Until companies learn to go to the root of the problem
(changing paradigms), there will be no real change.
Th e S e c r e t to Chan gi n g Habits
So what is the secret to changing these habits, and hence our
paradigms? Here I have to take a moment and recommend the
work of Jeff Olson, author of The Slight Edge: Turning Simple
Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness. This is a book
I recommend to anyone who wants to understand the process
of truly and forever changing habits. It takes a lot of time and
effort to change habits, which I will explain further in the next
chapter. For now, just know that if you are going to change your
habits, you are going to have to be prepared to go to war with
your subconscious mind, which is pretty much set in its ways.
In The Slight
For now, just know Edge, Olson speaks
that if you are going to
about the failure and
change your habits, you
are going to have to be success curve. In
prepared to go to war the beginning they
with your subconscious. run parallel to each
other. They look the

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same, and the action steps you take in life seem to lead you
down the same path. Consider a person who decides that
she wants to be financially independent. Every decision
she makes concerning money is leading her down either a
path of success, or a path of failure. We tend to think it is
the big decisions that determine where we ultimately end
up, but it is actually the small decisions we make on a daily
basis that determine our financial outcome.
So let us use the ‘latte factor’ as an example. You walk

past a coffee shop and you have a decision to make. You
can either walk in and buy yourself a latte on the way home,
or you could walk past, have a coffee at home, and put the
money you would have spent on that latte in a savings
account. Which decision do you think is going to place
you on the success curve ultimately, and which one on the
failure curve?
Let’s say the latte would have cost you R30. If you
save that R30, will it make you financially independent
within a day? Within a week? Within a month? Of
course not. But what if you make that decision – along
with hundreds of similar decisions over the course of a
couple of years – do you think it could make a difference
then? Absolutely! A substantial, positive financial
outcome requires changing a lot of habits – changing
your paradigm around money.

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U n d e r s t a n di n g the Curv e
There are a few things that are important for you to know
about the success and failure curves in life. Let’s start with
the failure curve. First, the things on the failure curve are
things that are easy NOT to do. Take exercising for example.
Would you agree that it is easy not to exercise? Let’s say you
wake up early in the morning with plans to do so. Would
you agree that it is easier to stay in a nice warm bed? I am
sure you would agree that it is.
What if I challenged you on this and said that it is actually

just as easy to get out of bed as it is to stay in bed? The truth
of the matter is that it is more comfortable to stay in bed - at
least for now. There is a big difference between the two and
this needs to be understood.
So the second thing to understand about the failure curve

is that it is comfortable right now. However, later in life the
comfort factor will change around dramatically. In other
words, if you choose to remain comfortable now by not
exercising, later in life you will likely be very uncomfortable,
and your life will be quite difficult.
It is also easier to spend money on things you want right

now than to save for later. But what is the result further
down the failure curve? Can you see that if your health
deteriorates, how life can become very hard, and very

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uncomfortable? It is the same with finances. Can you see

how not looking after your future financially can lead to
a very hard and uncomfortable life later on? And when
you get to that stage, you often look to the cause of your
circumstances as if only one thing on its own caused your
troubles, but it was years of negative decisions – or bad
habits – which lead to where you find yourself.
Now let’s take a look at the success curve, which is

naturally the opposite of the failure curve. Whereas with the
failure curve, the things you need to do are easy not to do, on
the success curve you will find they are actually easy to do.
Let us take the exercise example. If you take it step-by-step,
you will find it is easy. It is easy to pull off the blankets. It
is easy to put your feet on the floor. It is easy to get dressed.
It is easy to put on your running shoes. It is easy to open
the front door. It is easy to start putting one foot in front
of the other. I am sure you get what I am saying. But the
difference here is that although it is easy, these things are not
comfortable. Once again, do not confuse the two.
Let us look and see what happens further down the line.
At an older age, if you keep exercising and staying healthy
and fit, life is a lot easier and much more comfortable for
you than for someone who chose not to keep fit, and the same
thing is true of financial fitness. Making those right decisions
every day, creating healthy habits and changing your paradigms
beginning today can make all the difference in your life later on.

Stanley Beckett
In the same way, if you want to achieve your goals, you

need to start creating the habits that will lead you towards
your goals, instead of away from them. Remember that for
a long time the two paths run parallel to each other and look
the same, but one day you will suddenly find yourself in a
position where you have either reached your goals, or fallen
short of them. And if you do reach that big C- goal, people
will look at you and try to find how you did it, as if it were
one thing you did which helped you. But now you know the
secret is in consistently making healthy choices and positive
steps, and staying on the success curve. As the saying goes,
“Overnight success usually takes about 10 years.”
Th e R i g h t Habi ts
Here is the opportunity for you to put some actions into your
goals. Go and have a look at your goals and ask yourself what
action steps you need to start taking consistently in order to
achieve them. I am going to give you a few examples to help
you along the way.
F i n a n c i a l Goals
The most common goals people have are either in the area
of finances or something that will require financing. People
frequently ask me how to begin their approach to fulfilling

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these goals. They will say something along the lines of, “I do
not even have enough money to support me right now. How
will I ever achieve my financial goals?”
There is a first essential step you have to take, and without it,
succeeding – if you happen to – will be despite yourself, not
because of yourself. The first and most important step anyone
must take to change financial or other goals is to change your
thinking! Remember that wealthy people think completely
differently than poor people. This is the only real difference,
which is good news because anybody can learn to think
differently! As with all things, however it is easy to do but not
always comfortable because
it requires time and the
willingness to change – but
Remember that
wealthy people
it can be done. Let’s say you think completely
decide from today to read differently than
just 10 pages of a good book poor people.
each day.
Take a classic like Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon

Hill or The Richest Man in Babylon: The Success Secrets
of the Ancients, by George S. Clason. How long would it
take you to read 10 pages per day? Maybe 20 minutes?
Can you really say that you cannot find the time? I would
rather say you are not willing to make the time, and that
takes us back to chapter one; are you willing or not? If
you are willing to read just 10 pages per day, how much

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can you read in one year? Well, if there are 365 days in the
year, and you read 10 pages per day, it works out to 3,650
pages per year, which equates to about 10 – 12 good books
per year.
You cannot even begin to imagine how your thinking

would change if you were willing to commit to that positive
habit. And like I said, if you change your thinking, you will
change your results. And as you change your thinking, the
ideas to increase your wealth will start to find you. So there
already is one great habit you can adapt to put you on the
financial curve of success.
Another idea you could use is the principle of paying

yourself first. You can read about this principle in Clason’s
The Richest Man in Babylon. The idea is that when you get
your paycheck, the first person you need to pay is yourself.
Now you might once again be saying, “But I can’t even pay
my current debts. How am I supposed to find a way to do
this?” It is a crucial principle if you ever hope to reach your
financial goals.
You need to find a way to do this; START, even if you

only save 10 cents per month. Just begin. What will really
be doing is developing the habit, and that is what this
chapter is all about. At the same time you are changing
your thinking, and you will find sooner than you think how
everything else changes as well. Just a note of caution: this

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money you save must not be used to pay off debts or buy
things for yourself. This money needs to be used to invest in
order to grow your money.
Another thing you can do is to pay attention to the ‘latte

factor’ as mentioned earlier. What are the things you spend your
money on that you really can do without for now (important:
only for now), money that can be used to grow your wealth?
Really begin paying attention and change this habit. 
The next habit is very challenging for most people. Be

willing to lower your means for a while. Do you have to
drive the newest model car? Do you have to live in such a
big house? Do you have to wear the latest fashions? There
is another brilliant book I recommend, The Millionaire
Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy, by
Thomas J. Stanley. It explores how the majority of self-
made millionaires live simple lives over lavish ones, because
they understand this principle and live it.
He a l t h Goals
Without health, all the other goals mean very little. I am
sure that throughout history there have been many wealthy
people who would have given it all to have had their
health, but could not. Do not wait until you find yourself in
a similar position before you decide to do something about

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it. If you had to honestly access yourself right now, would

you say you are currently walking on the success or failure
curve when it comes to your health?
If you are on the failure curve, there are so many

things you can start doing t o d a y to change course. We
can all make changes around diet and exercise. You do not
have to start big; start small. Just like saving a small amount
each month can lead to the overall habit of saving, which
can lead, in turn, to financial success, making small habitual
changes in your health can make all the difference in your
overall wellness.
How about deciding on just one litre of water per day,

instead of soda? You could eventually increase the amount
to two litres. And how about starting with just one healthy
meal per week. Eventually work towards changing that
to one per day, and maybe someday eating healthy all the
time. This can be such an easy goal to reach, if you just know
how to get started. Another great book to get you on track
and keep you there is Gremlin to Goddess: Secrets for Total
Transformation, by Elanie Basson.
These same principles hold true for exercise. If you are

not exercising at all, then I would definitely not recommend
that you start off running 10 kilometers per day. Start off
small - maybe just a walk around the block. The secret
here is consistency – building the exercise habit. You would

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rather start off and walk around the block and keep doing
it than to run 10 km once, and injure yourself or end up so
tired that you decide never to do it again.
There are so many other simple things you can do, like
taking the stairs instead of the escalator, going to bed earlier
to make sure you get enough sleep, slowly stopping smoking,
controlling your food portions, taking vitamins, etc. I am
sure you can see how making these small changes, and
keeping to them, can have big effects in your life and keep
you on the success curve when it comes to health.
O t h e r G oal s
There are so many other areas where these principles can be
applied. You can create goals around your spirituality, your
family, your friends, your work life – any goal you can think
of. Once you have used the previous principles to lay the
foundation for these goals, you can get to work building
the right habits and paradigms. Remember, there is no easy
way out; there is no short cut in life. But I guarantee that all
your positive steps will be worth the effort.
I wish I could say that from here on it will be easy

sailing, but there is another secret you need to learn. The
understanding of it will support you further, so keep reading.
You are well on your way, and one step closer to Liftoff.

Stanley Beckett
“A year f rom n ow y ou ma y w i s h y o u h ad
st a rt e d t oda y . ”
— Karen Lamb
114 - When Fear Strikes

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When Fear Strikes
When Fear Strikes - 115

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S
o let us take a look at what we have achieved thus far:
we have defined and understood what goals really are.
We have chosen C-goals for ourselves, goals that really
motivate and inspire us. We have come to understand a
vital part of the whole system – the difference between the
conscious and the subconscious mind, and how the two
work either for or against us. We have come to understand
the most powerful tool we can use to get the subconscious
mind working in our favour: that in order to really start
taking action we need to be on the right side of the burning
desire scale. And then we looked at how building the right
habits and paradigms is essential to reaching our goals.
Now looking at all of that, one would think the blueprint

is done and ready, but there is another very important
part of the puzzle we need to understand. It is actually so
important that I need to dedicate two chapters to it. Without
a proper understanding, you are sure to trip up and be left
wondering why.

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Y o u r I nte re sti n g Brai n

Before I begin this section, let me say that I am by no means
an expert on the human brain. I am not a neurosurgeon,
and this is not meant to be a study of the brain. I would
probably be slated by academics for the simplicity of
my explanations, but I believe they suit the purposes – to
understand what is happening behind the scenes - and I
choose my words carefully here because there is something
happening behind the scenes. There is a “man/woman
behind the curtain” who is very much controlling things, and
we are about to expose him/her. Exciting stuff! But before
we get to that, let’s get back to the brain.
Mother Nature, in some ways, is very lazy. The human

brain has been developing through millions of years, but
instead of building new updated models, she has chosen
to build newer models on top of older models. It is very
important to understand the function of the older models if
we are going to understand the newer model.
The oldest model, in simplest terminology, is referred

to as the brain stem. This connects the brain to the spinal
cord, which in turn connects to the rest of the body. The
brain stem’s function is a simple one – to make sure all our
organs are doing what they need to in order to function.
The brain stem ensures our heart keeps pumping blood, our
lungs keep inhaling and exhaling air, our liver gets rid of

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toxins, our white blood cells fight off germs, among many
other things. Can you imagine how many more people
would die daily if we had to consciously remember to do all
these things ourselves?
The next model up is commonly referred to as the

reptilian brain, because it resembles the brain of reptiles and
birds. There are, once again, many functions for this part
of the brain, but for our purposes, the function we are most
interested in, is survival. This part of the brain ensures we
do not do anything that can harm us. It is a big challenge
to bypass this system, which I found out recently when
I REALLY had to motivate myself to jump off a bridge in
my first ever bungee attempt. My whole reptilian brain was
screaming, “NOOOO!,” and did everything in its power to
stop me from jumping. Remember this part of the brain,
because we are going to return to it shortly.
The newest part of our brain is called the neo-cortex,

or “new brain.” This is that scrunched up grey matter that
you see in the movies. It is scrunched up that way to allow
more of it to fit into your skull. This is the thinking brain.
When we experience conscious thoughts, the neo-cortex
is doing the work. Why am I telling you all this? Because
this basic understanding is where we are going to find
another secret to what is happening when we reach for
our goals.

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T h e M a n Behi n d the Curt ain

So let us take our first look at the man behind the curtain.
(It might as well be a woman, but for our purposes I will call
it a man, so that the male gender can take all the blame). Be
careful though – he does not want you to know that he is
there; that’s part of his power. I am going to refer to him by
the same name my mentor, Mr. Bob Proctor, refers to him.
We will call him Mr. X. What you need to know up front
about Mr. X is that he is actually a good guy. He has our
best interests in mind, so we do not need to make him the
enemy just yet. His purpose is to keep us alive, to keep us
safe from harm.
Now, if you had to go back and read about the three

parts of the brain once more, which part do you believe he
resides in? Yes, in the reptilian brain. His sole purpose is to
keep you safe from harm and generally he does a great job.
He hates anything new or different. If it were up to him,
nothing would ever change in your life. You would stay the
same throughout it. You would have the same job, shop at
the same mall, eat the same food, go on the same holidays,
do the same thing on weekends, etc. Now let me ask you up
front: do you know any people like that?
Change is Mr. X’s worst enemy. He hates change. He

hates anything new or different. Why do you think that is?
In his opinion, the way things are right now is great! Why?

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Because you are still alive. His logic works in the following way:
if what you have done up to this point has kept you alive, then
KEEP DOING IT! Don’t change anything, because if you change
something you might be in danger and that is bad! Another
important thing to note about Mr. X: he could not care less if you
are happy or unhappy. Remember that he lives in the reptilian
part of the brain, so he has little concern for happiness; all he cares
about is your survival. And the best way to ensure that you stay
safe? Keep doing what you have been doing up to now.
Th e T h o u ght Process
So let me ask you another question. Why do you think it
is so important for us to monitor our thoughts? Remember
I told you that we cannot really control them? Well, not
100 percent, in any case. What we can do instead is to
monitor our thinking and when we find our thoughts are
not aligned to our purpose, we have the ability to change
the course of our thinking to
something that suits us more.
What you think This is important because
determines how our thoughts determine our
you feel.
feelings. What you think
determines how you feel.
It is impossible to think of something you really love doing

and feel down. As soon as you think about something you love,

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you feel great. In the same way you cannot think of something
you hate and feel good. The two just do not work together. So it is
very important to monitor your thinking and keep it as positive
as you possibly can. If our thoughts lead to our feelings, then
what do our feelings lead to? As we have already examined, our
feelings lead to actions. For most people, what they do depends
on how they feel. If they feel like doing something, then they
do it. If they do not feel like doing something, then they do not
do it, or if they have to do it, they are very unhappy about it. So
our feelings lead to our actions. And what do our actions lead
to? Our actions lead to our results.
If you understand this process, then you will find we

are all the same. We have certain thoughts, which lead to
certain feelings, which lead to certain actions, which lead to
certain results. Your thinking about a subject is ultimately
going to determine your results in that area. And you can
change your feelings by changing your thoughts!
Let us use an example of wealth. Do you think that a

person who earns R20 000 per month is thinking the same
thoughts about money as a person who is earning R300 000
per month? Not even close. The two are thinking totally
different thoughts when it comes to the area of money. And
these different thoughts lead to different feelings, actions and
results. So, if you want to honestly look at where your current
thoughts are in any area – be it health, wealth, work, anything
– have a look at your current results. The results never lie.

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A N e w I d e a i s Born
Let us now take a look at what happens when a new idea
enters a person’s thinking. Here is where we need to bring
Mr. X back into the picture. At this point he is sitting happily
enjoying life – because everything is normal, no real danger.
For this example, we have a person who is fed up with her

financial situation, and decides that it is time to make a change
in her life. So she finds out about a seminar entitled “Grow
Your Wealth,” and signs up to attend. At this seminar all kinds
of new ideas and thoughts are presented to her. A whole new
set of ideas enters her conscious thinking mind. One key idea
is: “I can take some of my money, learn how to invest it, start
using my money to
make money, and
One key idea is: “I can then one day, I can
take some of my money,
be wealthy and my
learn how to invest it,
start using my money to whole financial life
make money, and then one will change.” Great
day, I can be wealthy and idea, right? Well,
my whole financial life let’s see what Mr. X
will change.”
thinks about this
new idea.
A red light goes on in Mr. X’s residence and he is aware

that a new outside idea has just entere d. Remember,
new idea’s mean changes, which Mr. X does not like. Is he

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worried? Not at all. Why? Because he has seen this all a

thousand times before. He knows this person has had many
great ideas in her life, but has failed to act on any of them, and
he also knows exactly how to control this person. So what
does he do? Mr. X calmly gets up, heads over to the filing
cabinet and opens a drawer. The filing cabinet is labeled
“EXCUSES.” Mr. X is not worried about which excuse to
use; any one of them will work. So, he selects from one of
the excuses: “I don’t have the money now,” “I don’t have the
time to learn a new system,” “I am not smart enough,” – any
old excuse, and sends it up to the thinking brain. And can
you guess what happens almost 100 percent of the time?
We grab onto the excuse, only too happy to have one, and
forget about the whole new idea. And Mr. X happily goes
about his business like he always does. Have you seen this
process at work in your own life? I hope so, because you
have to see it before you can change it. As for how to go
about dealing with these excuses, we will look at that in
the next chapter. For now, we really need to ask ourselves:
how do we move ahead?
M o v i n g Ahe ad
So how do we move ahead? To understand the answer, we
first need to ask where our new idea is currently sitting? It
is currently sitting in the thinking part of the brain. Next,
we need to ask: what is the purpose of this new idea? We

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want to change a result in our lives. So if the idea is currently

sitting in the thinking part of the mind, and we want to move
it to a result, where does it need to travel first?
Through the actions we need to take, yes, but before

that it must travel through the feeling part of our minds.
Remember, thinking needs to lead to feelings before it can
lead to actions. We need to get emotionally involved with an
idea. And how do we do that? We need to turn a new desire
into a burning desire. Do you once again see the importance
of that chapter? We will not take action on any new idea
until we are 100 percent emotionally involved with the idea –
in other words, until we turn it into a burning desire.
Th e I n v i s i bl e Wal l
Once again, I wish I could say that this is the end of the process
– that you just have to do the work to become emotionally
involved with a goal – but it goes further still. We need to
keep our eye on Mr. X. He now realizes that the old excuses
are no longer working. New ideas are starting to gain traction
in your emotional center. If a new idea is going to move in,
then Mr. X is going to have to move out. Mr. X may feel the
need to launch into full-scale war. He no longer uses subtle
excuses; now he is willing to attack physically, and here you
hit an invisible wall. This wall can have many names, but I
like the one my mentor uses, “the terror barrier.”

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You know you have reached the terror barrier when you
think about your goal and negative thoughts and feelings
begin to flood your body and mind. You experience fear,
anxiety and worry. Not only do you experience persistent
negative thoughts, but you feel them in your body. You can
always identify this thinking – I call it “What if ” thinking.
You know the type: “What if I invest my money and loose
it all?,” “What if I cannot do this and everyone turns around
and says, ‘I told you so’?,” “What if this is all just a scam,
and I and up regretting everything?” We tend to experience
the worst of it in our bodies. We may feel nauseous, have
trouble sleeping, experience headaches, etc. Remember, Mr.
X is at full-scale war now.
What happens to the majority of people when they reach

this place, this invisible wall? Well, they hit it, and bounce
right back into the safety zone where they began. After
having made the decision to invest and grow her money this
person now phones to cancel, giving some or other excuse.
Then she goes back to living the safe life she led before, and
gives a sigh of relief, “That was a close one!”
T h e S a d ness Wi thi n
At this point all seems well and back to normal, but deep
within this person is a sadness she cannot explain – a sadness
that she cannot hide or ignore, no matter how much she tries.

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A sadness that knows that the freedom she has been looking for
was within reach but she was overcome. Mr. X won again. And
the result of this? X has gotten that much stronger. X is now
even more in control than before – so much that this person
almost never goes beyond the point of excuses in her life again.
She is sad because she knows it is just another dream in her life
that she has given up on. How many of these moments, and
these sadnesses, have you experienced in your life? Do you want
to add to them, or are you ready to turn it all around?
Tu r n i ng i t Aroun d
How do we go about turning this course of events
around? How do we break through this invisible wall that
seemingly blocks our path? There are three things you need
– all of them important.
The first thing you need is understanding. The greatest

barrier people can possess is ignorance – simply not knowing.
You need to understand what is happening behind the scenes.
You need to be willing to see the “man behind the curtain.”
That is what this chapter has been about – seeing that the
wall that you hit is not some unknown entity that cannot be
understood. It is not some “sign” trying to direct your path,
although Mr. X loves it when you think so. Rather, these
overwhelming negative thoughts and feelings are just Mr. X
doing what Mr. X does – trying to keep you safe.

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Trying to keep you doing what you have always done, because
it has kept you alive thus far.
As I mentioned, Mr. X is not the bad guy here; he is

simply doing his job. If you can understand this, if you can
understand what is happening in the background, then you
will have the knowledge and power to overcome it. And
I will give you a statement that always works on Mr. X.
From this day forward, whenever Mr. X comes with one of
his “What if ” ... statements, just answer it with a very polite,
“Thank you for sharing.” Do not attempt to ignore the
thought or feeling, because that will not work. Acknowledge
it, knowing that Mr. X is just doing his best, and say “Thank
you for sharing.” And you know what?
This works for all those naysayers out there as well.

You know the ones I am talking about – the people who
are always happy to tell you why something will not work for
you. Next time they share their endless wisdom with you,
just smile at them and say, “Thank you for sharing.”
The second thing you need i n o r d e r to break through

the wall is courage. You are going to have to develop
courage. Unfortunately, courage does not come in bottles –
not permanent courage, in any case. It is something that can
only be developed over time. So go and do something that
you have never done before. Make a point to do something
every week you have never done before, even if it is as simple

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as eating something at a restaurant that you have never tried

before. As I mentioned, I bungee jumped, and I know that if
I can do that, I can do almost anything. What can you do to
improve your courage?
The third thing you will need is a big enough reason

to break through this wall, because it is going to take some
effort. And this is where the good news comes in. You should
already have your good enough reason – your C-goals. If a
C-goal has become a real burning desire, then nothing will
stop you from reaching the other side – not even Mr. X or the
invisible wall.
And can you guess what the most rewarding thing will
be about reaching the other side of that wall? Instead of Mr.
X growing stronger, he will grow weaker, because you will
have learned how to overcome him. I am not saying that X
will ever go away – it is not possible – but it is possible for
you to control him, instead of him controlling you. And that
is what all the great achievers in history have managed to do.
You could add yourself to that list.
So, well done. You are almost ready for Liftoff.

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No More Excuses
No More Excuses - 129

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I
n this chapter we are going to talk about everybody’s
favourite pastime when it comes to getting things done.
Well, nearly everyone. Let us create two sets of groups
here. Group one, we will call the Achievers in life – those
people who set goals for themselves, know what they want
out of life and, most importantly, achieve their set goals. In
the other group, we will place the Non-Achievers. They are
people who do not really know what they want, who never
really set goals for themselves and if they were ever really
honest with themselves, they would recognise that they do
not have what they really want out of life, but simply what
they have settled for.
Now, there is something that the people in group two,

the Non-Achievers, use every day of their lives, something
that the people in group one, the Achievers, never use. Can
you guess what that is? I will give you a moment to think
about it.
130 - No More Excuses

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M r . X a t Work
So, have you figured it out yet? If you said excuses, then
you would be correct. The Achievers in life never use
excuses, whilst the Non-Achievers use them almost daily.
I read something once that said something along the lines
of, “There are two types of people in this world: those who
have what they want, and those who have excuses for why
they do not have what they want.” Which group do you
currently fall into? If it is group two, then this really is the
chapter for you. I would like to advise you against being
too hard on yourself if you know you constantly use excuses.
Remember who is at work behind the curtain – Mr. X. Read
the previous chapter to remind yourself of how he loves to
use excuses to stop your momentum.
The List
I would like to acknowledge Dr. Wayne Dyer for his work in
Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking
Habits. His book held great lessons for me, and I share some of
his work in this chapter. I highly recommend that you read his
book to gain a deeper understanding on this subject.
Although there are probably many more, there are 18

main excuses we use to stop ourselves from moving forward.
I define an excuse as anything we say to ourselves that stops

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us from moving
Nothing in the world is forward. Yes, there
difficult for those who will be challenges
set their mind to it.
along the way, but
if your desire is a
burning desire, then you will find a way around or through
any challenges to your goal. As I always say, the only thing I
hate more than an excuse, is a good excuse. As we go through
this list, I invite you to identify which of these excuses you
have either used before, or are currently using.
1. It will be too difficult.

Most people use this excuse before they have even taken
the first step. How do you know that something will be
difficult if you have never tried it? An Ancient Taoist master
once observed, “Nothing in the world is difficult for those
who set their mind to it.” Most often, the hardest part is
getting off your butt and getting started – not because it is
difficult, but because it is uncomfortable.
2. It will be too risky.

I happen to agree 100 percent with this excuse, because
everything in life involves risk. There is nothing that is risk
free. Getting into your car in the morning and driving to
work involves great risk, but it does not stop you from going
to work. The question that you really need to ask yourself is:
what is the risk of not taking action?

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3. It will take too long.

How long is “too long” when it comes to your dreams? Do
you have a number? It is kind of like asking: how long is a
piece of string? There is no logical answer. Just get going.
Take that first step. The journey of a thousand miles begins
with a single step; take yours. You might be surprised to find
that it takes a lot less time than Mr. X is telling you it will take.
4. There will be too much family drama.

Here’s a secret: there will always be drama when it comes to family.
That is the nature of family. This is why family dramas have been
airing on TV for decades; they hold some basis in reality. Get
used to it and get over it. You owe happiness to yourself, and my
experience in life has
been that if you are
happy, those in your You don’t belong to your
life who care for you i mmediate family; you are
a member of the
will be happy for you. human family.
I love what Dr. Wayne
Dyer has to say on
this matter: “You don’t belong to your immediate family; you are a
member of the human family. You are here to create your music,
and you don’t have to die with your music still in you.”
5. I don’t deserve it.

People love to play this card, as if some people are more
deserving of happiness in life than others. I believe that we are
all equally deserving of all that life has to offer. Unfortunately,

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we have all been conditioned through thousands of years to

believe that some are more deserving than others.
6. It’s not in my nature.

This one I refer to as the lazy excuse. The “I have always
been this way and there is nothing I can do about it,”
excuse. Yes, you have probably always been that way but it
is because you likely have never tried to be any other way.
I would suggest you go back and read the previous chapter.
You have always been the way you are because it suits Mr.
X for you to remain the same. Bertrand Russell observed:
“If human nature were unchangeable, as ignorant people still
suppose it to be, the situation would indeed be hopeless …
What passes as ‘human nature’ is at most one tenth nature,
the other nine-tenths nurture.”
7. I can’t afford it.

This is the most common excuse that people use – the belief
that they cannot afford something that they really want.
And this belief keeps so many people stuck in life. Most will
use this excuse before even looking at the price of an item or
idea. I am going to invite you to change the statement from
“I cannot afford it,” to “I cannot afford it right now, but I
can find a way.” You need to decide to shift your focus and
awareness from one of lack and poverty consciousness to
a wealth and abundance consciousness. Then consciously
wait and watch for ideas to start showing up.

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8. No one will help me.

This excuse goes hand in hand with the belief that you
cannot trust anyone. What a sad world if you have that
belief! It borders on paranoia. I agree that you should not
trust everyone that you meet, but I do not agree that you
should not trust anyone. There are so many people out
there willing to help, if you are just willing to take a risk and
ask for that help.
9. It has never happened before.

My answer to this excuse is always the same: “Great, then you
will be the first! No one remembers who came in second.”
History is filled with events that happened for the first time,
things that had never happened before: n o one had ever
invented a light bulb before, no one had ever driven a car
before, no one had ever seen a computer before, no one had
ever made a phone call before, no one had ever climbed
Mount Everest. I could go on for a few pages, but I am sure
you understand.
10. I am not strong enough.

Here I am not
referring to physical
strength, but instead, Strength does not come
to inner strength. from physical capacity.
It comes from an
The excuse that, indomitable will.
should things not
work out the way

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you choose, then you are not strong enough to handle it and
you will probably die. Any guesses as to who is working
behind the scenes here? (We see you Mr. X!) Ghandi once
observed: “Strength does not come from physical capacity.
It comes from an indomitable will.” There is that burning
desire thing again.
11. I am not smart enough.

We have people who were really not smart enough to
thank for this excuse – those people who invented the IQ
test, and had everyone believe that only people with a high
IQ are smart enough, or that only the select few who belong
to MENSA are smart enough. Well let me assure you that
there are many people with a very high IQ in history who
did not achieve anything with their lives. And on the other
side of the scale, there are many people with a low or average
IQ who achieved great success in life.
We now know that there are many different types of

intelligence and all of us score high in at least one of them.
There is Linguistic, Mathematical, Visual, Physical, Musical,
Social, Environmental, Practical, Emotional and Spiritual
intelligence. I would advise you to read up on it and find
out where you score well. I love what Einstein had to say
about this: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by
its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that
it is stupid.”

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12. I am too old / not old enough.

This is another very common excuse. I am sure you can see
where this excuse originates. Think about how many things
you are told you cannot do when you are young. You cannot
ride a bike until you are ..., you cannot sleep at a friend’s
until you are ..., you cannot drive a car or drink alcohol
until you are ... . And then, when you get older: “You can’t
change occupation. You are too old already,” “You can’t fall
in love again at your age,” “It’s too late for you to write a
book,” or “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Can you
see where we get these beliefs that we are either too young
or too old for something?
13. The rules will not allow me.

All I am going to say on this matter is that rules were made
to be broken. History is filled with such examples. I am not
referring here to the laws of a country, but rather to other
peoples’ rules about how things are or should be.
14. It’s too big.

The only reason something appears too big is because your
thinking is still too small. Increase the size of your thinking,
and you will increase the size of your dreams.
15. I do not have the energy.

This is an interesting one. I love using children as an example
here. Is it not amazing how kids will always complain about
being tired when they are asked to do something they really

Stanley Beckett
do not want to do,

Find your passion and but yet suddenly find
turn it into a burning the energy when you
desire. Then you will find suggest something
the energy.
they like? And we
are all still like big
children in this regard. When I hear someone say they are
too tired to go for their goals, or lack the energy, what I
am hearing is, “I do not have the passion.” No passion, no
energy. Find your passion and turn it into a burning desire.
Then you will find the energy.
16. I can’t because of my personal history.

Many people use their past as an excuse. This would be along
the lines of, “I cannot have a happy relationship because of
my past bad relationships.” The past does not have to be
your future unless you choose to allow it to.
17. I am too busy.

On this excuse I actually agree with people. But then my
next question is – busy with what? We tend to fill our lives
with lots of things, but none of the really important things.
I once had a client who told me she was just too busy to do
15 minutes of meditation that she wanted to do each day.
On closer inspection she spent an average of three hours
a day watching TV. Yes, I agree, she was busy. But busy
with what?

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18. I am too scared.

Fear, especially fear of change, is an underlying reason for
many of the above excuses, which is why I dedicated the
previous chapter to it.
Did you identify with any of the listed excuses? I am

going to show you a very powerful way to turn these excuses
around. I now invite you to choose at least one from the list
above, one that you know is currently stopping you from
moving forward.
T u r ni n g i t Aroun d
Speaker and author Byron Katie uses a meaningful process
of self-inquiry she refers to as “The Work,” and I’d like to
use to it here as we seek to turn these excuses around. I am
sure that, like me, you will find it a very powerful process.
Be warned though – after this you cannot legitimately use
excuses again, so if you want to stay in the comfort zone
and keep using excuses, then do not read any further. If,
however, you would like to join group one – the Achievers –
those who do not allow excuses to stop them, then read on.
Still reading? Great. I invite you now to take the excuse

that you have identified and ask yourself the following
questions:

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1. Is it true?
Is your excuse true? Let’s take the “I can’t afford it” excuse or
the “I am too busy” excuse. Is it really true that you cannot
afford your goal or that you do not have the time? If your
answer is yes, then continue to question two. If your answer
is no, then continue to question three.
2. Can you be 100 percent certain that it is true?

Now, I know what you are going to want to argue here; yes
you can be 100 percent certain. I have seen it a hundred
times in my trainings, but I invite you to really think about
the question. Can you be 100 percent certain? Even 99.9
percent is not 100 percent. If there is even the smallest
chance that the statement might not be true then the whole
excuse cannot be true.
Something can only be true if it is 100 percent true. Can

you be 100 percent certain that if you put your mind to it,
and things outside of your current radar started happening,
that you could not afford it? You could win the lotto. An
unknown rich uncle could die and leave you millions. I
know it sounds absurd, but I 100 percent guarantee you these
things have happened many times in history. There is really
nothing we can be 100 percent certain about. This leads us to
the conclusion that the excuse is in fact not 100 percent true.
And if you cannot be 100 percent certain of its truth, then
how can the excuse hold merit? It cannot.

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3. How do you react when you believe that thought?

Think about the question. How do you react when you believe
that thought – that excuse that you keep using? To answer this
question, look at the word “react.” It means to act again in a
certain way when something has happened. So how do you act
again in response to your excuse? What you will find is that
you do not act, because reacting is not acting, it is repeating an
emotional response. That thought, that belief, keeps you stuck
and keeps you from acting. That is why it is called an excuse.
4. Who would you be without that thought?

This is a very interesting question. Who would you be without
your excuse? If you woke up tomorrow morning and you
no longer had that excuse, what would be different? I could
extend that question: if you woke up tomorrow morning and
no longer had any excuses, what would be different for you?
I guarantee you would get up and just start doing whatever
you needed to do to achieve your goals and not give it a
second thought. In other words, you would take action.
Using our example, if you awoke and no longer had the
thought, “I can’t afford it,” you would get up and find a
way to get the money you needed. It is not the reality of the
situation that is keeping you stuck, it is a thought – an excuse.
5. Now turn it around.

If you can really see the truth up to this point, then you can
choose to turn your excuse around. What would the exact
opposite of your excuse be? In the case of the “I can’t

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afford it” excuse, turning it around would be “I can afford

it.” Do that now with whatever excuse you chose.
6. Is this new thought true?

So ask yourself once again – is this new thought true? This
thought that you can afford it, or whatever new statement
you have chosen? Some of you may be saying no, and some
of you may be saying yes. For those saying yes, go on to the
next question.
7. Can you be 100 percent certain that this new thought

is true?
And here we hit a bit of a problem because as we have just
discussed, you cannot be 100 percent certain of anything.
No need to discuss it again. So the answer to this question is
once again, no. Now we have a situation where we have two
opposing thoughts – and as we have just discovered, neither of
them is true. That is why we need to go on to the next question.
8. If you can choose what to think, which thought will

you adopt?
Remember that we discussed that the power of the conscious
mind is that it can choose which thought you want to believe
and hold in your mind? Which of these two thoughts do you
believe is the most powerful – the first, or the second? The
answer is pretty obvious. One of these thoughts is going to
get you moving forward, and one of these thoughts is going
to keep you stuck. Which one will you choose?

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9. How would you react if you believed this new thought?

If you woke up and not only found the old excuse gone,
but also really believed the new thought, how would you
behave? I guarantee that you would wake up with a spring
in your step, ready to overcome any obstacle that life might
place in your path. You would take action.
10. What would your life look like if this new thought
were true?
This is a great question because it locks you onto your goal
once more. Instead of focusing on impossibility, you start
focusing on what you want and what your life could look
like. You are back on the right side of the scale and growing
that burning desire once more.
11. Can you find any evidence to support this new belief?
This final question is a very powerful one. The more evidence
you can find to support this new belief, the stronger you will
root it in your life. I find that there are two great sources
you can use to support yourself in a new belief. One is to
use examples from your own life, and the second is to use
examples from other peoples’ lives. Let us use the “I cannot
afford it” excuse, which has now turned into “I can afford it.”
Are there any examples in your life where you have

really wanted something, and not had the money for it, yet
somehow you found a way to get the money together? I
am sure there are many such examples that you can use.

Stanley Beckett
The more examples you can find, the stronger the new belief
will be rooted. If you find it difficult to find examples in your
life, then go to the second source – other peoples’ lives.
Are there other people you have heard or read about,

or know personally, who wanted something they could not
afford, yet made a plan to be able to afford it eventually and
saw their goal fulfilled? History is filled with such people.
Go and find examples and know that what anyone else has
done, you can also do.
Great work! You are only one step away from Liftoff.

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The Secret Ingredient
The Secret Ingredient - 145

Stanley Beckett
A
nd so we have reached the final chapter. The fact
that you are still reading this is all the proof I need
that you have all it takes to be a success in anything
you choose. However, the picture would not be complete
without this final chapter. It is a very important piece of the
puzzle as it deals with a quality that is the glue for everything
else. You cannot really get by without it, so I invite you to
pay attention one last time before you are ready for Liftoff.
To Q u i t o r Not to Qui t
In his book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill tells the
story of R.U. Darby, whose story took place in the 1800’s,
during the California gold rush. Darby bought a piece of
land with his uncle and decided to mine it for gold. At first
146 - The Secret Ingredient

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they found signs of gold, so they covered it up, and headed

back home. Once there, they got their friends and family
together, borrowed money to buy the mining equipment
they would need, and promised to pay the money back once
they were rich. They went back to the site with their new
equipment and started to dig for the gold. But, to their
dismay, they could find no gold. They kept digging for
days, but it seemed the well had dried up. After much
frustration, “Finally, they decided to quit.” I want you to
think about that statement for a while, as I am going to
return to it soon.
Darby and his uncle cut their losses and found a buyer
of scrap metal in a nearby town to buy their equipment and
piece of land from them at a very cheap price. This buyer
was excited because this was the opportunity he had been
waiting for, a chance to get into the mining game. He went
back to the piece of land and experienced the same result as
Darby, but he decided to do something different.
He got a friend of his who was an expert in geology to

take a look at the land. What he discovered was that Darby
and his team did not know much about fault lines, and that
the gold that they were looking for was only three feet away
from where they had been busy mining. The new buyer
became very rich. Can you imagine what Darby and his
uncle must have thought when they found this out?

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Now I would like to go back to the statement, “Finally, they

decided to quit.” What do you think is the most significant
word in that statement? Think about it for a minute. Most
people first believe it is the word “quit,” but in fact, it is the
word “decided.” They decided to quit. Quitting is a decision
that only you can make. No one can ever force you to quit,
no matter what the circumstances. Only you can decide that.
Failing at something does not make you a failure; you only
fail when you decide to give up.
F ai l u r e
After this story, Napoleon Hill speaks about this thing called
failure. I cannot say it any better than he did, so I would like to
quote him on this matter. “Before success comes in anyone’s
life, that individual is sure to meet with much temporary de-
feat and, perhaps, some failure.” Notice what he says. He does
not say that individual is likely to meet with temporary defeat
and perhaps failure,
he says that person
Before success comes
is sure to meet with
in anyone’s life, that
individual is sure it. It means you have
to meet with much to prepare yourself
temporary defeat and, and be strong when
perhaps, some failure. it happens. Think
about this is well:

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why do some people meet with temporary defeat, and why do

some people meet with failure? You should know the answer
by now. It is because some people decide to quit.
Hill goes on to say, “When defeat overtakes a person,

the easiest and most logical thing to do is to QUIT. That
is exactly what the majority of people do.” Can you once
again identify a major difference between Achievers and
Non-Achievers in life? He goes on to say, “More than 500
of the most successful individuals this country has ever
known have told me that their greatest success came just
one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken
them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony
and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one when
success is almost within reach.” Is that not interesting? It
is like there is a force out there, testing us all, to see how
much we really want our C-goals. Do you really possess a
burning desire? You will be tested.
F a i l u r e - to- Success Ex amples

Napoleon Hill talks about the great achievers of his time,
but let us take a look at some more recent achievers. I am
sure that you can go into the life story of any achiever in
history, and find they were all tested in some way or another
before they reached their success. Let us take a look at a few
examples of people you might have heard of:

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Hendry Ford: His early businesses failed and left him

broke five times before he founded Ford Motor Company.
Soichiro Honda: Honda began with a series

of failures. He was turned down by Toyota Motor
Corporation for a job as an engineer, leaving him jobless
for a long time.
Ever hear of a company called Traf-O Data? I would be

surprised if you had. You might have heard of its founder,
though – a man by the name of Bill Gates. It was the first
business he started after leaving Harvard, though it failed.
Walt Disney: Disney was fired by a newspaper because

“he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” He started
a number of businesses that did not last long and ended in
bankruptcy and failure.
Albert Einstein: He did not speak until he was four-

years-old, did not read until seven and teachers labeled him
mentally handicapped. He was even expelled from school.
Harland David Sanders: After retiring from the military

and receiving his pension he realized that he would not be
able to live on it. The only thing he had going for him was a
recipe for fried chicken that his mother had given him. He
packed up his belongings and drove around to restaurants
all over the country asking them if they would be interested in

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testing out his fried chicken recipe. Can you guess how many
times he was rejected? One thousand and nine times before
someone finally decided to give it a try! How many people
would give up after receiving five, maybe 10 rejections? How
many would still be going at it after their first 200 rejections?
Oprah Winfrey: She was fired from her job as a

television reporter because she was “unfit for TV.”
Vincent van Gogh: Although his paintings now sell for

millions, during his lifetime he sold only one painting – to a
friend for a small amount.
Fred Astaire: During his first screen test he was told,

“You can’t act, can’t sing, slightly bald, can’t dance.”
Sidney Poitier: He was the first African American to

win an Oscar, yet after his first audition he was told, “Why
don’t you stop wasting people’s time and go out and become
a dishwasher or something?”
Steven Spielberg: He was rejected by the University of

Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television
three times.
Steven King: His first book, Carrie, was rejected 30

times. He finally threw it in the trash. His wife dished it out
again and sent it to another publisher.

Stanley Beckett
J.K. Rowling: She went from being homeless on welfare,

living in her car with her children, to becoming one of the
richest women in the world.
Elvis Presley: He got fired after only one performance

and was told, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go
back to driving a truck.”
Michael Jordan: When he was in school he got cut

from his high school basketball team. He locked himself
in his room and cried, but then decided to get back up and
prove them wrong. He had the following to say about his
career: “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.
I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been
entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I
have failed over and over and over again in my life. And
that is why I succeed.”
The S e c r e t In gre di en t
So what is this secret ingredient that all these individuals
and thousands of others through the ages have in common?
They all had that magical quality called PERSISTENCE.
Persistence is the
Persistence is the exact exact opposite to
opposite to quitting. quitting. Napoleon
Hill states that lack

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of persistence is one of the major causes of failure. He goes

on to state that there is no substitute for this thing called
persistence. It cannot be supplanted by any other quality.
To that statement, I say amen.
So how do you go about developing this quality? There

are four very important things you need to do if you wish to
develop persistence.
1. A definite purpose backed by a burning desire for

its fulfillment.
You will require a
C-goal coupled with
a burning desire. A skill for blocking
Go back to the negative influence is
something that can
first chapter again develop over time. It
and make sure that will not always be easy,
you have a C-goal, but it is possible.
something that really
inspires and excites
you. Make sure that your purpose is clear. Like I said before,
if the Why is big enough, then the How does not matter. Then
make sure you do what you need to do to turn your goal into
a burning desire. How will you know that it has turned into a
burning desire? Trust me, you will know!
2. A definite plan, expressed in continuous action.

You need to have some sort of a plan. Now do not get confused

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with what I said earlier. I never said that you should not have
a plan. I only stated that you should not begin with the How
until the What is clear. And then there needs to be a process
of continuous action. We discussed this in the chapter on
building habits and paradigms. I invite you to read through
that chapter again if you need a reminder.
3. A mind closed tightly against all negative and

discouraging influences, including negative suggestions
of relatives, friends and acquaintances.
And of course this includes Mr. X. A skill for blocking
negative influence is something that can develop over time.
It will not always be easy, but it is possible. Stay as far away
from people who are constantly negative as you can. Avoid
them at all cost, as they really are dream killers. I’m often
asked, “What if I have family who are constantly negative? I
cannot stay away from them all the time.” I’ll lend to you the
best advice I ever received on this matter: Just don’t visit so
often, and when you do, just don’t stay so long.
4. A friendly alliance with one or more people who

will encourage you to follow through with both plan
and purpose.
This is, once again, a crucial step on the path towards
developing persistence. Nothing of any significance has ever
been achieved by only one person. You have to surround
yourself with like- minded people – people who will uplift
and motivate you. Another thing I highly recommend is

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that you start surrounding yourself with great minds in other

ways. There are so many great books that you can buy and
read. When you are reading them, you are in the company
of that author. Listen to audiotapes or podcasts on your way
to work or some other destination. That way you will have
these great minds driving with you and speaking to you while
you travel. Use the power of these tools and surround yourself
with influential individuals who will encourage and uplift you.
A F i n a l Check
If you find that you are lacking in persistence, then I
recommend you do the following check to help you identify
where the problem might be. The sooner you identify it, the
sooner you can fix it and move on.
1. Definiteness of purpose
Do you have a clearly defined goal? Could you define it in
such a way that you could write it down, explain the picture
you see in your head, have a stranger read it and visualise what
you do? It needs to be that clear to you. I once again invite
you to go through the first two chapters if this is not the case.
2. Desire
Is your goal not only a desire for you, but a burning desire? How
do you know? Once again, you will know it when you know it.
You cannot mistake a burning desire for anything else. And I

Stanley Beckett
am sure you have experienced it at some point in your life. I

am sure that there has been something or someone you have
wanted so badly that you felt you could not live without it.
3. Self-reliance
Do you really believe that you can achieve this goal? As I
mentioned in the first chapter, to turn a fantasy into a goal
you first need to ask yourself an important question: am I
able to achieve this goal? You are going to have to rely on
yourself and your own skills more than anyone else, so you
have to build confidence in yourself if you do not have it.
How do you do that? Remember, start doing things that
push you out of your comfort zone and start building trust in
yourself by learning to be your word in all things.
4. Definiteness of plans
Do you have some plan of action? Once again, you will
not be able to see the whole picture when you start, but
you need to start at some point. Even if the current plan of
action is just to get a book to read up on the subject you are
working on. Reading that book could lead to an idea that
takes you on the next step in your action plan.
5. Co-Operation
Are you working on co-operation with like-minded people?
We have discussed lots of ways that you can begin to do
so, and I encourage you to consider more.

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6. Willpower
When I refer to willpower, I am not suggesting forcing yourself
to sit and do something, although there might be times you
need to do that. I am speaking about the second question you
need to ask yourself before you turn a fantasy into a goal – Am
I willing? Where do you fall on the willingness-scale to do
whatever you need to achieve your goal? If you were totally
honest with yourself, where would you find your willingness?
If I had to measure it after observing you, where do you think
I would put it? Would it be a five, six or seven out of 10? It is
probably going to have to be 10 out of 10 for you to achieve
your C-goals.
7. Habits
Are you willing to develop good habits and paradigms,
habits that will help instead of hurt your chances of success?
Have you begun to identify your negative habits? You
might find that difficult to do, because they are working on
a subconscious level. This is where you might require two
things – family and friends who will be honest with you, and
some vulnerability. But I assure you it will be well worth
the effort. You cannot get to your destination, or reach your
goals, if you are not honest with yourself about where you
currently are. Just like an alcoholic cannot be cured if he
or she cannot be honest with him or herself about having
a problem, you cannot move forward if you are not honest
with yourself about where your challenges lie.

Stanley Beckett
8. Self-satisfaction
Are you willing to delay gratification? Or are you like so
many people who always want everything now? Are you
willing to work for what you want, or are you always looking
for the quick fix, the short cut? Keep going; in my experience,
it is well worth the effort.
9. Compromising with life

Are you willing to compromise when it comes to your goals?
Often I will find myself in a shopping mall observing people.
Often you will find a person who picks up a garment and you
can see that he or she instantly loves it. A woman stands in
front of a mirror holding a dress against her body, and you
can see she is imagining what she will look like in it. You can
see that it is something she really wants. Or a man looks at a
nice pair of Italian leather shoes and considers trying them
on. What happens next is very interesting. He looks at the
price tag, and quickly puts them back on the shelf – as if just
holding them any longer would mean that he had to pay for
them. A while later you will see this man or this woman
walking out of the store with a bag of items, but the things in
that bag are not what that person really wanted. Instead, it
is a bag full of what they have settled for. How many people
are walking around with bags in life – not what they really
wanted, but what they have settled for? Are you walking
around with a bag such as this? When are you going to stop
settling? When are you going to decide to go for what you
really want? Maybe, the time is now.

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A F i n a l W ord
That’s it. You now
have everything
It’s time for your Liftoff.
you need for Liftoff.
And the greatest
thing is that the sky is your limit. When you start to realize
the power that lies within you, you will see that nothing is
impossible. Whatever your mind can conceive and believe,
it can achieve. I wish you all the best on this journey – a very
special journey – because it is yours, and there will never
again be another journey like it. You are here to create your
music. You are here to write your story – a story that has not
yet been written. The pages are blank, just waiting for you
to put pen to paper. I hope that we will meet someday and
that you can share with me the awesome story that is you.
It’s time for your Liftoff.
Stanley Beckett
Author | Speaker | Trainer | Life/Executive Coach
Email stanley@invisioncoaching.co.za
or call +27 82 3081799

Stanley Beckett
Acknowledgments
I
would firstly like to thank the person who started this
journey for me. Berdine, I don’t think you will ever
truly know how grateful I am for you. It’s true that
one person can change the world, because you changed
mine. You changed the way I think about myself and my
life, and instilled the fire to do the same for others. Thank
you for your support, your patience and helping me create
something special with InVision Coaching.
I would also not be who I am today without the

support of my Mom and Dad. Mom, Dad, once again I
am at a loss for words to convey my true thanks to you.
You believed in me, and never stood in my way but rather
encouraged me. You backed me when no one else would.
I could never have asked for better parents and I love you
both dearly.
To Gerry Robert – you are a life changer. You got me

to believe in the possibility of this book. Thank you to
you and your whole team. Keep inspiring others to share
their stories.
160
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A special thanks to all my teachers and mentors

through the years. I am who I am today because I stand on
the shoulders of giants like you. Thank you to Bob Proctor,
Marc Steinberg, Les Brown, Paul Martenelli, Paul Hutsey,
Brandon Dangerfield, John Maxwell, Andy Harrington,
Brendon Burchard and countless other teachers through
the years.
To all my friends and family, especially my three sisters,

Iris, Engela and Betty, thank you for keeping me humble and
teaching me some of life’s most valuable lessons. I am able to
share them in my work on a daily basis.
Thank you to Wilderness Safaris, Always On and SetPoint

for sponsoring me. I have loved working with every single
one of you. Please turn to the back of this book to find out
more about these incredible companies who are consciously
changing the world.
And finally, thank you to you Elanie. You have been

my constant support in the writing of this book. Your
encouragement and belief in me was my motivation when I
thought I was crazy. Thank you for editing the book – I can
only imagine what it would have looked like without your
help. And thank you for loving me unconditionally – there
is no greater power than that. I cannot wait to share our
mutual success together.
161
Stanley Beckett
About Invision Coaching
I
nVision Coaching was established in July 2007 and is
a leading personal development training and coaching
company, facilitating world class material developed by
the world’s most advanced leaders including Bob Proctor,
the undisputed leader of the self-improvement industry and
chairman of the LifeSuccess Corporation.
Our unique training solutions are based upon 50 years of

research and what sets us apart from our leading edge training
solutions, is also our extensive training in executive and personal
coaching services. This we believe, is the ideal combination to
assist and create more tangible results personally or professionally.
We offer a variety of in-person seminars, workshops, and one-
on-one coaching programs as part of a tailor-made professional
and high-value solution. You will find our approach professional,
dynamic, personable and dedicated to producing the results
required. Our core service offerings are:
• The Thinking into Results corporate program

• Personal and professional coaching
• Strengths based team interventions and coaching
• Thinking into Sales
162
Both of InVision Coaching’s founders completed their
studies through the Consciousness Coaching Academy and
received their international coach diplomas. Stanley Beckett is
an accredited Consciousness Coach as well as an Independent
Licensed LifeSuccess Consultant - and a business partner of
Bob Proctor of LifeSuccess Productions. Stanley is also the first
accredited Thinking into Results Facilitator in Africa. Berdine
Beckett is a former attorney turned Accredited Consciousness
Coach and Co-Facilitator of the Thinking into Results Program.
Berdine also qualified as a Specialist Strengths Coach skilled in
doing one on one Strengths coaching as well as moving teams to
operate and function optimally, strengths based.
www.invisioncoaching.co.za/
Stanley Beckett
Introduction
To ALWAYS ON
A
lways On have not only pioneered free Wi-
Fi public internet access in South Africa, but
have continued to set the benchmark for Wi-
Fi Internet access. Prior to 2004, high speed Internet
access was mainly available at work places and if South
Africans or foreign visitors required Internet access,
dial-up access was their only option. The founders (Nico
Pretorius and Jaco van Tonder) saw the need to provide
the public with Internet access when they were not at
their offices or away from home. Travellers’ primary
Internet needs were to be able to communicate via email,
access business applications, or internet browsing. After
2004, broadband changed the Internet scene by enabling
individuals to not only access high speed Internet from
their offices, but now gave them continuous high speed
Internet access at home.
Always On saw the novelty in broadband Internet

connectivity for individuals when they were away from
the office or home. The challenge was that the founders
had limited resources and also knew that the costs
for internet access in South Africa were high, which
164
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required substantial operating cash. Because of capital

and operational cash constraints they had to develop
a flexible and innovative business model, with limited
risk, and low input and overhead costs. To address the
aforementioned the strategy was to partner with venue
owners and Internet service providers (ISP’s), to reduce
and to distribute costs and risks, while enabling them to
offer Wi-Fi internet access as value added services to their
patrons and subscribers.
Today the Always On national network offers free

Internet access at more than 1300 venues throughout
South Africa. Some of the most popular brands with
whom Always On have exclusive partnerships in South
Africa include Mugg and Bean, Wimpy, McDonalds,
Woolworths, City Lodge hotels, Tsogo Sun hotels and
Airports Company S.A.
Always On, also established roaming agreements with

the majority of the South African ISP’s and our agreement
with international roaming aggregator, iPass, enables us to
offer our customers affordable uncapped Wi-Fi internet
access in more than a 110 countries at more than 1 million
venues, worldwide.
Always On is not only seen as leaders in Wi-Fi

development in South Africa, but also internationally
recognised as leading role players.
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Stanley Beckett
Always On makes a difference to the productivity of

South Africa, by enabling more than 330 000 free Wi-Fi
Internet connections to the value of 25 years’ worth of free
Internet access to the South African economy, per month
during 2013.
Always On pioneered a Wi-Fi solution through

innovation whereby all our SA citizens, particularly those
who least can afford it, have free Wi-Fi Internet access
throughout the country, while it continues to deliver value
to its partners and healthy profits to its shareholders.
www.alwayson.co.za
AlwaysOn Reg. no. 2009/09664/07
Postal P.O. Box 930052, Eldopark, 0166
Directors J.J. van Tonder, N.A. Pretorius, S.R.
Nourse, P.N. Padayachee
Tel +27 (0) 12 664 6921 Fax +27 (0) 12 664 1347
Helpdesk 0861 HOTSPOT (0861 468 7768)
166
LIFTOFF
Introduction
To the Set Point Group
T
he Set Point Group comprises seven distinct
divisions that serve the mining and general industry
in the areas of analytical services, fluid handling and
mining services.
WearCheck is a leading oil condition monitoring

company that undertakes scientific analysis of used oil
from mechanical and electrical systems. The results of the
analysis inform organisations of maintenance requirements
and machine component wear, so that preventative
maintenance can be undertaken. Complement to this
service is the condition monitoring offering which includes
thermography, vibration analysis and other aligned services
to reduce expensive and unscheduled plant stoppages
that result in breakdowns, and save customers money by
boosting the lifespan of machinery.
Also on the analytical side is Set Point Laboratories that

conducts chemical analysis on a host of minerals including
gold, copper and other PGM’s. There are also specific
laboratories to deal with water and coal analysis which are
conveniently located. Set Point Laboratories have specific
167
Stanley Beckett
expertise and experience to establish and operate full on-

site and underground lab facilities, which also serve as
water sample drop-off points.
The third of the analytical companies is African Mineral

Standards or AMIS, which produces grade and matrix matched
certified reference materials. These are mineral samples which
have been tested by an international network of laboratories,
and the results are verified and then certified by a renowned
Canadian professor. Certified reference materials are used
in mineral assay laboratory quality assurance programs, in
particular to test for laboratory bias and precision .
Pneumax, one of the three fluid handling companies,

supplies pneumatic equipment such as components for
pneumatic automation, actuators, valves, fittings and
tubing, deceleration and vibration technology which can
be used in virtually any industry or application. Pneumax
is also committed to industry skills-development
programmes, and offer various pneumatic training courses
at some of or branches across South Africa, or on-site at
customers’ request.
Meter Systems supplies flow measurement and

lubrication and garage equipment mainly to the fuel and oil
industries, including flow meters, nozzles, hoses, dispensers,
loading arms, pumps and a myriad of complementary
products and accessories.
168
LIFTOFF
Letaba Pumps is a leading solutions provider in the

pumping arena, offering some internationally revered brands
in the pumping industry. They are known for an impressive
dewatering rental fleet, which is available 27/7/365 – that’s
all day, every day! Other pumps on offer include submersible
pumps, self-priming pumps, mag-drive pumps, diaphragm
pumps, plus much more.
Set Point’s mining section comprises NW GoPro based

in Stilfontein, North West Province, and RENG based in
Rustenburg. These companies manufacture and repair
locomotive and hopper wheels, as well as skip guide rollers
for the mining industry.
Being a diverse group is challenging but it also has

benefits. The Maxim, ‘Harnessed diversity, Disciplined
Excellence’ forms the basis of the culture within the Set
Point Group, and no more is this more visible than in the
training provided to staff. Set Point has invested in training
with InVision and Mentorship 4 Success for over 3-years,
receiving excellent feedback from our staff.
www.setpoint.co.za
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LIFTOFF
Wilderness Safaris
Creating life-changing African journeys
W
ilderness Safaris is Africa’s leading ecotourism
and conservation organisation, creating life-
changing journeys in order to build sustainable
conservation economies and inspire positive action. It
specialises in memorable wildlife experiences in some of
Africa’s most remote and pristine areas. In this way it offers
its guests private access to three million hectares of Africa’s
finest wildlife reserves, while remaining fiercely committed to
protecting our planet’s precious natural and cultural resources.
From humble beginnings in 1983, the company has

grown substantially – not only in size but also in its ability
to positively impact Africa. Today, Wilderness Safaris owns
and operates more than 60 safari camps and 15 set-departure
guided Explorations across nine African countries: Botswana,
Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa,
Zambia and Zimbabwe. Its reputation and operating
experience has enabled the company to successfully tender
for prime leases in key wildlife areas, offering guests an
unrivalled suite of camps and concessions in Africa, and, in
turn, contributing materially to their ongoing conservation.
171
Stanley Beckett
A Wilderness journey is an immersive experience,

one that changes how guests view the world in general
and, most importantly, the wild places of Africa. The
environment is at the heart of the company’s beliefs
and values and its quest is to come to understand the
wilderness better, to respect it, to care for it and to share
it with their guests. Working together with guests’ travel
agents, each safari is tailor-made and perfectly designed
to ensure that each traveller’s needs are met – whether it’s
gliding down the clear channels of the Okavango Delta
on a mokoro (dug-out canoe), tracking western lowland
gorilla deep in the rainforests of Congo’s Odzala-Kokoua
National Park or exploring the world’s tallest dunes and
expansive desert- landscapes in Namibia. Each diverse
wilderness experience creates a unique sense of seclusion,
comfort, privacy and the luxury of space, in addition to
extraordinary wildlife encounters.
Sustainability is inextricably woven into the daily

fabric and philosophy of the business and all operations
are underpinned by Wilderness Safaris’ 4Cs ethos –
Commerce, Conservation, Community and Culture.
Recognising that conservation is as much about people
as about the environment, the company has also pursued
important goals through its non-profit Trusts, Children in
the Wilderness and the Wilderness Wildlife Trust, which
have helped change the face of nature-based tourism
in Africa.
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LIFTOFF
The Wildlife Trust provides funding or in kind support

to more than 50 significant conservation projects each year.
About 500 rural children are hosted annually in Wilderness
Safaris camps as part of the Children in the Wilderness
programme, and thereafter participate in regular Eco-Clubs
in their communities that help change perceptions about
wildlife, tourism and conservation.
Wilderness Safaris believes that its most important

achievement to date is to have built a sustainable business
model that does not compromise environmental principles
and which provides jobs, training, skills, careers, adjusted
horizons, hope and a realistic alternative to less sustainable
development. Just by choosing to travel with Wilderness
Safaris, its guests are helping to make a difference to Africa,
her people and her wildlife.
www.wilderness-safaris.com
173
Stanley Beckett
Goddess Creations
Hair, Health and Beauty
G
oddess Creations Hair, Health and Beauty was
founded in 2012 with one sole objective in mind:
To deliver outstanding service to women of all
walks of life at prices that would make beauty accessible
to everyone. Founder Elanie Beckett, author of Gremlin
to Goddess: The Secrets for Total Transformation, delivers
hands-on services and offers personalized advice to clients
in an effort to bring out the true beauty potential of every
woman who walks through her salon’s doors. What makes
the salon a destination for the elite, is the fact that all
technicians employed at Goddess Creations, are specialists
in their individual fields of expertise. The market trend for
average beauty salons is that all the technicians can render
all the services offered at an average level. For the modern
woman, that is no longer enough. The Specialists at Goddess
Creations have years of experience and have honed their
skills in their chosen niche to perfection, earning Goddess
Creations Hair, Health & Beauty its reputation of excellence
and outstanding client service with a personal touch.
174
LIFTOFF
www.goddesscreations.co.za
175
Stanley Beckett
176
SELF-HELP / General
The Secret
LIFTOFF
Keys to Launching Your Goals
“In the Liftoff training I have learned how to think differently. I
have learned how to think positively and be positive; to set goals
and just go for it. If I fail, I can try again. I believe that I can change
my life. I have a better life at home and at work. The lessons I have
learned you will not get in any other place. You have changed my
life, my finances, my lifestyle, my work and my way of thinking.
I am now a better person at home and at work. Thank you for
changing my life.”
Casper Matthee, Senior Manager, ARC Repairs
The Book
Why is it that so many people set goals, but never seem to reach the heights of which they know
they are capable? Why do so many people get excited about the new year, a time when they
can set new resolutions, only to be disappointed a few months later because they have once
again failed to keep them? Why do so many companies struggle to grow or achieve the success
they envision? It is because most people have never learned the two fundamentals of goals:
(1) How to set proper goals which inspire and motivate; and (2) How to go about achieving those
goals? Liftoff – The Secret Keys to Launching Your Goals is the all-in-one, step-by-step guide
to not only setting the right goals in life, but also learning the secrets to achieving these goals.
USD 34.00
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LIFTOFF The SecretKeys

1st edition, VII, MMXIV

Author: Stanley Beckett

Printed in South Africa

“When the ‘Liftoff’ program was

— Mi ke Jackson , Ex e cutive He ad, Vodacom

9 - What Type of Goals Should I set? . . . . . . . . . . . 25

8 – The Power of the Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

7 – The Power of Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

6 – The Burning Desire Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5 – The Birth of Your Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

3 – When Fear Strikes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

2 – No More Excuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

1 – The Secret Ingredient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

“Stanley’s ‘Liftoff ’ program is the first

- Graham Hore sfie l d, CEO , Setpoint

What Stanley has managed to do in this book is to put

I met Stanley at one of my seminars where I discovered

Bob Proctor, to Earl Nightingale and Lloyd Conant, to the

Take up this first challenge: write down a list of your

The answer to this question is something I am going to

The second important definition is: a goal is

belong in Fantasia. Here on earth, we need a little bit

Now most people would sit back, pat themselves on the

I’m not sure if they decided to give themselves a much

If this was not enough, they got together again in the

W h y D o n ’t Pe opl e Set Goals?

1. They do not know how.

2. They are afraid of failing. Fear of failure is probably

chapter. For now,

3. They don’t know “how” they are going to achieve

I have found that the answers I usually get to this

Consider that the

If I had the awareness, and provided I had the correct

The second purpose of a goal is linked to a Universal

Wha t D o You Real l y Wan t?

that would simply

I love what my mentor, Bob Proctor, has to say about this.

The other problem is that so many people in life have

Therefore, I would like you to take a good look at the

So what do you need to do to turn a fantasy into a goal?

Therefore I would venture to say that the answer to the

I would like to introduce another law here, called The

So let’s say, for example, that you want to create financial

In order to convert the fantasy into a goal, you first

“The ‘Liftoff’ program has helped me on

- W arre n Erasmus, MD, Meter Systems

24 - What Type of Goals Should I set?

What Type of Goals

What Type of Goals Should I set? - 25

When it comes to goals, there are 3 levels that we need to

A-Type goals: A-type goals are things that we already

26 - What Type of Goals Should I set?

you are a salesperson, and this year you set a goal of R5

What do you think the problem with an A-type goal is?

B-Type goals: B-type goals are goals you “think” you

What Type of Goals Should I set? - 27

Now looking at that list, what do you think are the

C-Type goals: C-type goals are what you REALLY

28 - What Type of Goals Should I set?

The challenge, though, with most C-type goals is that

Now, before I discuss this any further, I invite you to go

What Type of Goals Should I set? - 29