Page 22 - Exercise 1

Page 22 - Exercise 1

How to be successful

Hopes, ambitions, dreams. How many of yours will you achieve? When you look back at your life in the future, will you have good memories of all the things that you did? Or will you regret all the things that you didn’t do?

Of course, there’s no easy road to success, but one thing is certain: success won’t come if you don’t do anything. If you look at successful people - scientists, writers, business people, sports stars, musicians - you’ll see that they all worked hard to get what they wanted. So how do you do it?

This four-step model will help you to turn your dreams into reality. Remember: at every stage, write your ideas down and put them somewhere where you’ll see them every day - on your bedroom wall, for example. If you do this, it will be more difficult to ignore them.

STEP 1: THINK ABOUT YOUR AMBITIONS

What would you like to do? Write down all your ideas. They may be very general, such as I would like to be fitter. I want to be famous, or It would be nice to have more friends. Or they may be more specific, like I’ve always wanted to play a musical instrument, or I would really like to go windsurfing.

STEP 2: CHANGE I WOULD LIKE TO. TO / WILL .

Now you need to do two things:

1) Choose one or two ambitions. If you try to do everything, you won’t do anything.

2) Set a time limit. This is very important, because you will have a goal to aim at and you will also know when you have reached it.

So, for example, I would like to be fitter, in Step 1 now becomes I will be fit enough to join a half-marathon race by the end of August.

STEP 3: CHANGE / WILL . TO I ‘M GOING TO .

Now that you’ve made your choice, what are you actually going to do to achieve your goal? So, in our example, I will be fit enough to join a half-marathon race by the end of August, becomes I’m going to join a running club, or I’m going to go jogging three times a week.

At this stage, you need to think about practical things like time and money. If you decide to do something that you or your parents can’t afford, for example, it won’t work.

STEP 4: CHANGE I’M GOING TO. TO I’M DOING, ON, AT.

This is when you change your intentions into specific actions. Make an arrangement to do something at a specific time. If you don’t do this, nothing will actually happen. Your dreams and plans will just stay as dreams and plans. So now I’m going to join a running club, becomes I’m meeting the president of the Cheetahs Running Club on Monday evening at 5.30.

Don’t let your ambitions die. Follow this four-step plan and make your dreams come true. You won’t regret it.