Ever heard that joke: "Which would you prefer: five easy lessons or one hard one"?

There are only two ways to jolt yourself into the sort of action necessary for success: the hard way or the more gentle way. This is because every cell in your body wants to remain as it is. It's programmed to resist change.

This is a recognised medical state, called homeostasis. From your body's point of view -- provided you're warm and breathing -- it makes complete sense to do nothing, because its top priority is survival. So, if everything is fine, it figures if nothing changes, everything will stay that way.

But not much good if you want to bring about a change for the better.

But so strong is this instinct to just drift along, it often takes a massive shock to literally force change upon ourselves. I was recently reading about one of my favourite internet marketers, Stephen Pierce. His life was originally rudderless. He had been bankrupt a couple of times and finally ended up in the gutter with a bullet in him.

This terrible event forced him to stop and really examine exactly where his life was going. The stark choice, between carrying on in this downward spiral or making the supreme effort, galvanised him into the action needed to turn his life around and become a multi-millionaire with many successful businesses to his credit.

Nor is Stephen alone, the internet is particularly well endowed with "rag to riches" cases of famous names who have risen from trailer parks to enjoy life in beautiful oceanside mansions. Some have even come back from bankruptcy and gone on to become millionaires.

Of course, that's the hard way. If you don't want to wait until your own particular "Road to Damascus" moment before you are forced into taking action, try this instead.

First take a close look at your present life and write down a list of the aspects you really hate about it.

It could be you hate being a job slave, having to get up and drive to work five days a week. You might dread the winter. Those cold, dark mornings, which make going to work even worse. You might hate just "getting by", when there's too much month left at the end of your salary.

Then write down, in some detail, exactly how you really want your life to be: if you want to tell the boss what to do with his job, write it down. If you want to move somewhere warm and sunny, where the word "winter" isn't in the lexicon, write it down.

Inevitably, the main barrier to your perfect life will be lack of money. However, don't limit your imagination. Think big and think out of the box.

For example, you have a job you hate in a place that is freezing for half the year.

Why is this?

Because that's where the jobs are.

But, what if you don't need a job?

That would mean you could live where you wanted -- even somewhere warm and sunny. On top of that, it could very well be that, even though it's warm and sunny, where you choose to live is actually cheaper to buy a house and eat well than where you live now. So you would actually need less money.

But are there decent jobs where it's warm and sunny?

Job? I thought you hated having a job?

Remember: we're thinking out of the box. So, if you were to start a business on the internet that would solve several problems at once. Because you could give up the hated job and you could also live anywhere in the world -- even where it's really cheap to live.

And the beauty of the internet is you need little more than a good idea and a phone line to make a fortune, from anywhere in the world.

That means you could live like a prince, because you could make the same money you make now -- with a good chance of making a great deal more -- yet everything could cost less, a lot less. And, you can choose somewhere where it's cheap to live, has great food and also has sunshine all year round.

When you have settled on the details of your particular dream, bring it to reality in your mind by finding out all about where you will live. Get pictures and stick them in a scrap book. Review them twice a day, coupled with revulsion for your present situation, on rising and before retiring at night.

Having a scrap book with pictures might seem -- at first glance -- to be silly, wishful thinking. In fact, "dream setting" like this is far more effective than the well known process of goal setting.

Setting a goal, such as "By this time next year I will be making one million dollars" is actually project management and will not enter your subconscious mind effectively for these reasons.

• You should not put a date by which time the change will take place.
• Words are the language of your conscious mind and will not so easily translate into the language of your subconscious mind.

Want proof?

Think back to the last time you had a vivid dream. These take place when you're in a deep sleep and your subconscious is fully in charge. You can be in the most bizarre and impossible situations, like flying though the air like Superman, yet they will seem totally rational.

So, by giving your subconscious mind vivid visual representations of the life you want, coupled with complete revulsion for your present situation, you point it in the direction you want your life to go. So, not only will your subconscious not question the quantum leap you are asking it to perform, it will also use its awesome powers to come up with ideas to move you from where you are now to where you want to be.

This is because your brain is success orientated. Give it a specific target and it will go to it like a cruise missile, adjusting its course around any obstacles to finally arrive exactly at the target.

And the reason you should not put a date on your dream list is simply this: it will be nothing more than a guess. And the danger is you'll put a date that is too optimistic and, if you reach that date without the changes having manifested themselves, you'll give up the whole idea and never get out of your present situation.

So, set out your dream life and feed images of it into your subconscious twice a day. Keep doing that and it will all work out for you.