We all want to be successful but we usually rely on luck to achieve our goals. A good example of this is someone who wants to get rich but who only plays the Lotto to try to obtain wealth. The chances of becoming rich overnight are unlikely. Designing a realistic plan to achieve your goals is important in any case, no matter how high or low your aspirations are.

One effective way is to take carefully planned steps toward your goal. Compare your goals with a swimming competition. First, to have a chance to win the race, you must make sure you are not afraid of the water. Before you even enter the race, you must overcome your fears. They may hold you back, but some of them might prevent you from getting hurt or from failing.

When you believe that your goal is worthy, you must begin the most difficult stage: preparation. You cannot win a swimming race if you don’t know how to swim. Begin with the basics and don’t skip steps to reach your goal faster. The experience you skip will probably hurt you later. Take gradually increasing steps. Swim half a lap; then move on to an entire lap. Your skills will progress, and you will begin to beat your own lap records. It could take years to prepare for the "race," depending on your goals. It’s important to enter the race, confident of your success and the skills that will help you win.

Taking small steps and basing your plan in reality gives important benefits. The order and precision of a plan instills confidence. Organizing your strategy increases the chances of making the right moves and better decisions. Secondly, having an organized plan has psychological benefits, and your subconscious mind is more confident, giving you more energy to focus on the important things. You are creating a pattern in your consciousness that craves success and brings it into your plan. When your conscious and your subconscious both believe you can reach a goal, you gain the power of concentration that eliminates outside influences and sets you on the shortest path to success.

Even though chance is likely to play a large role in your quest for your goal, having a reality-based plan allows you to change "unlikely" into "probably."