I want to be a millionaire. I want to be a rock star. I want to be a movie star. I want to be a writer. I want fame and fortune. I want a four hour workweek.

Are we really ready to do everything it takes to get there? 

Every goal has many small actions that we need to take to get there. We arrive at every goal by doing what is necessary.

Both our thoughts and our actions must be in balance. When we say something is positive, like positive thinking, we really mean purposeful thinking. When we say our thoughts are negative we are really saying thoughts that place limits on us.

Let us say that we want to build a birdhouse. A small goal, but like any other goal we get there step by step.

First of all we need to visualize what the birdhouse will look like. Is it a one hole or two hole birdhouse? How large is it? How much material do we need? What type of material?

We may even research the design to attract a certain type of bird. We may make a drawing of it. Then we decide on some lumber. We get our tools, a pencil for drawing lines, a saw to cut the wood, nails and a hammer and finally a drill to make the entry holes.

Next, we look at our drawing and decide what size each piece of wood will for the two sides, the front and back, the floor, and perhaps one piece for a roof that slopes from front to back.

We cut the pieces of wood. We drill the holes. We nail the pieces of wood together as shown in our plan. And soon enough we have our birdhouse.

We make a plan and perform all the steps necessary to accomplish our goal. From this successful act we may go on to create tables, larger pieces of furniture and if it is our goal, use the same basic principles to create a furniture company.

Along the way there are many thoughts that can stop us in our tracks. We may put things off and not even start. We may convince ourselves that we just cannot do it. We may imagine ourselves cutting a finger with a saw or banging our thumbs with a hammer.

We may focus too much on how all the details are going to unfold, how we are going to accomplish all those tasks as if they all needed to be done this moment, we will be overwhelmed by the task. We may lose all sense of what we want to accomplish.

Fear stops us in our tracks.

We must stop and regain our sense of purpose. After all, we can only take it one day at a time. We are here, now. We, each of us, can only say “What can I do today with the limited time I have between getting up this morning and going to bed tonight that will move me closer to my goal.”

This is purposeful thinking leading to purposeful action.Whether we focus on building a birdhouse or building a business, each day we set out to accomplish some task that moves us closer to our dream.

If we think in terms of positive and negative we will immediately polarize our actions. We will begin to judge the value of our actions. Positive is good. Negative is bad. Experiences are neither good nor bad. Whatever we experience moves us toward our goal.

Each of us can think in terms of  ‘I can, I will, I do, I am’ will to focus our thinking on our chosen purpose.