Last Sunday night my Dad called me in a panic. He had a job lined up for Monay to paint a pool deck and he couldn't find anyone to help him. He asked me if I would help him for a day or two.

I thought about it for a second and then said,"yes."

I showed up to the job around 7:30am on Monday. My dad wasn't there yet. I walked to the back to take a look at what was in store for the next few days. I was releieved to see that it was just some pressure washing and painting around a pool patio.

Since Dad wasn't there I was able to sit for a moment and enjoy the fresh morning air. While sitting there reflecting, I realized that it had been almost 2 years since I've done any construction work.

At that moment I asked myself, "Am I a success?"

It was only five years ago that I was employed as an electrician. I spent five days a week getting up at 5am every morning, figthing I-4 traffic, to get to a place that I really didn't like.

2 years before I quit my job as an electrician I bought one of those late night infomercial "No Money Down" home study courses. I got through the whole course in two weeks. Then....nothing.

The best thing that I learned was the idea of setting goals. This was a practice that I hadn't really implemented in my life. As my first goal I decided that I didn't want to have to work as an electrician anymore.

I wasn't really sure how I would make this happen, but this was the first step in breaking free from this job that I didn't like.

Over the next year I read as many real estate investing books as I could. I began attending seminars and studying investing strategies.

Around this time I experienced a life changing event. My mom passed away.

For the next 10 months I became very depressed. I didn't like my job before and now I couldn't stand it. Each day that passed left me feeling emptier.

I decided that I needed a change in May of 2004. I quit my job and took my realtor exam and passed it. This was the beginning of my new career. I couldn't beleive it. I had met the goal that I set almost 2 years earlier.

Next month marks the four year anniversary of that goal. Since then I have set many other goals and achieved them. Today I run my business on goals we set. There's no greater feeling than achieving the goals that you 've set for yourself.

Without goals, how will you ever know if you are succesful?

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