Hasta La Vista, Baby!
Hollywood is really the land of overachievers. There are tons of stories about how actors set impossible personal goals and then make them come true. My favorite has to do with the Governator. Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
When the young “Ahhnold” was ten years old, living in a small village in Austria, he had the dream of coming to America. One of six children in a modest home, it seemed an unlikely dream, so Arnold created a plan. He was confident that if he could become a great bodybuilder and win the Mr. Universe competition, this would be his ticket to the United States.
With that goal in mind, Arnold started lifting weights seriously when he was fifteen years old and ultimately became the youngest ever Mr. Universe at the age of twenty. His success grew and he went on to win the most prestigious prize of all – the Mr. Olympia competition an unprecedented seven years in a row.
As a result of his bodybuilding success, Arnold was featured in a documentary called Pumping Iron (1977). Surprising everyone at the end of the film, Arnold announced that he would be retiring from professional bodybuilding. The astonished producer asked: “So what’s next for you?” And Arnold simply replied, “I have been the best bodybuilder in the world. Now I am going to Hollywood to be the best actor in the world.”
You can almost hear the chuckle coming from behind the camera and imagine the producer’s thoughts: Hollywood? You’ve got to be kidding. You’ve got muscles for brains. You have no formal education. You barely speak English and no one can pronounce your name! You’re going to Hollywood to be a great actor? Now that’s funny!
But Arnold wasn’t laughing. He may not have known exactly how he was going to get there – and I doubt he had any political aspirations at the time – but he had absolute clarity about where he was going and what he wanted to achieve.
And that, my dear reader, is what success is all about. Creating a big, audacious goal, believing in yourself and starting on the path, any path, towards making it happen.
There’s just one more really important little tip for making it happen. Follow my Rule of One. Simply stated, do one thing every single day – no matter how small, no matter how simple – towards moving you closer to your goal. Imagine your progress when you’ve moved five steps closer to your goal in one week and twenty steps closer in one month. Before you know it, you’ll be on your way to living your dream.
Create your own success story. Start today.
Dream it. Do it. Live it.
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