VISUALISING A CLEAR GOAL FOR SUCCESS

It's absolutely vital for any kind of success! You must have a goal, or, to use the scientific term, an objective. And it is the first step. I've proved it. It's the foundation upon which all your actions - all your consequent actions - will be established. It's the first ingredient of a magic formula. There's no magic about it, of course - it just works like magic. It's the first step that unleashes - or begins to unleash - a creative force available to every and any human being. You've heard of Jesus's words about faith: 'If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible to you!' (Matthew 17:20). It's absolutely true. Faith is belief, and belief is based on something concrete - something clearly visualised - like that mustard seed. This metaphor of a mustard seed implies something that can be seen and touched and handled. You must know what you want - and then you must VISUALISE it! You must identify your goal and see it clearly in your mind - in your imagination. I think my acquisition of a Rolls Royce will best illustrate the power of goal-visualisation. I had heard before about this power. A member of my local Methodist church, one Sunday morning, told me about it. 'If you want a Mercedes Benz,' he said, 'you've not only got to ask the Lord for one; you've got to ask for a specific model and colour!' I thought it would be very wrong to ask the Lord for something so materialistic! 'I hardly think,' I said, 'that that would be right!' 'Well,' he said, 'it's just to illustrate an important rule when you pray for something. If a Mercedes is something you really want, you've a right to pray about it. If it's God's will for you, he will give it to you. But if you do ask the Lord for a Mercedes - to come back to my example - you've got to be specific. You've got to specify the model, the colour, the horsepower, the upholstery, the steering-wheel padding, and so on. After all, you wouldn't just walk into a shop and say "I want a Mercedes", would you? You've got to order a specific model and specify what you want. It's like going to an estate agent for a house. You don't just ask for a house. You've got to describe the house you want - four bedrooms, a study, air-conditioning, where situated, price range, and so forth.' It was years later, only after I had become a Professor of English, that I recalled my friend's words. Only then did I dare to aspire to something so materialistic as a luxury motorcar! Well, I didn't want a Mercedes, I thought. As a boy, I had always been aware of Rolls-Royce cars as fanciful wonders beyond my wildest dreams. To have and drive a Rolls, I thought, would really mean something. And I began to cherish a Rolls Royce in my heart. Of course, a professor's salary, even then, in 1982, was totally inadequate for saving up for a Rolls. The whole idea was madness. Nevertheless, I dared to ask the Lord, subject to his will! I read Matthew 7:7 - 'Everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds.' I had to ask and, the Bible told me, 'it will be given to you.' 'Well, Lord,' I prayed, 'I know this sounds ridiculous - but I know you know what's in my heart. If it's at all compatible with your will for me, Lord, may I find the means to have a Rolls Royce?' I must admit, it sounded very foolish and extravagant! Then I remembered about being specific. So I bought books on Rolls-Royce cars. I looked at the advertisements in recent copies of The Times and the Exchange and Mart, and in motor magazines from England. I was then living in Pietersburg, in the northern Transvaal of South Africa, where Rolls-Royce cars were thin on the ground. I took a trip to Johannesburg where I saw a few second-hand models in a garage for exotic cars. The prices, even then, were the same as the prices for expensive houses! But I sat in those cars, smelt the leather, touched the steering wheels, and looked down the long tapering bonnets towards the little silver ladies - the Spirits of Ecstasy - at the end of those bonnets, and I felt what it must be like to own a Rolls. Now I was in a position to be specific about what I wanted. I would have, I decided, a Silver Shadow, long-wheel base, gold in colour, with a gold-plated Spirit of Ecstasy, and with walnut picnic tables in the back. It would be a well-maintained second-hand model, of course - about a 1973 model, or later. And, half embarrassed by my audacity, I held up this vision to the Lord in prayer. Now I would need a strategy. How - and where - would I acquire the car? The South African prices were ridiculous. The British prices looked more reasonable, but that would mean importing - and even then I would have to pay 100% duty on the original cost. Most people simply dropped the idea of importing a car - any car, let alone a Rolls - when they were confronted with the fact of the 100% import duty! In effect you had to pay twice the British price, as well as the shipping cost over and above that! So I dropped the idea. But it resurfaced. It had gripped me. It wouldn't let me go. So I worked out a strategy. Indeed, the strategy seemed to present itself as the obvious solution. I was due for my 12-months sabbatical leave. I arranged for my sabbatical leave in a year's time - in 1984 - and, in the meantime, I had a year to save up the British price, around