If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else
. - Yogi Berri

    If we don't set a target we are unlike to hit it.   If we don't have a destination we are unlikely to get there.  As Montaigne once said:

"No wind favors him who has no destined port."

    Anthony Robbins in one of his infomercial interviews said that a lot of people don't know what they want.  If he asks them what their idea of an ideal job is they don't know.   He said that if one asks them what they don't want, that they can answer.  He said that once they list what they don't want the opposite is the answer to what they do want.

     It's a lot harder to get what you want if you don't know what it is.  The first step is to define what you want, to create a target.  Once you create the target you have a chance at hitting it.  William Tell would never have hit the apple if there was no apple.

    Once people define what they want and think about trying to obtain what they want they start talking about the obstacles in the way.   Once the obstacles are defined one can think of ways of overcoming them.  This process of defining the obstacles by trying to achieve what one wants is similar to the process of diagnosing resistance to happiness as discussed in the section "The Happiness Muscle".

Steps toward success include:

1. Define your goals that you want to achieve.
2. Identify the obstacles in your way.
3. Plan a course of action toward achieving your goals and overcoming the obstacles.  Every morning it can be helpful to ask oneself "What are my goals?" and "How will I achieve them today?"
4. Make a schedule in which you allocate time periods during which you will achieve those goals.
5. Start executing your plan. 

    People often settle for things the way they are even they want things to get better.  By going through these procedure they are taking the first steps to making things better.  A difficult part of this is sticking to a schedule.  Frequently things one wants to do or has to do takes  longer than one expects  and that prevents time being spent on achieving goals.