I like hockey.

I don't follow it as much as I used to because I moved back to the Southeastern part of the United States about 18 years ago and college football is king in these parts. But I grew up watching hockey on CBS Sports and I was a big St. Louis Blues fan back then. I'm not sure why I started following them. It was probably because I was a Cardinals baseball fan so I stuck with the same city for hockey. Also, I could pick up the games in Alabama on KMOX at night.

As I got older, my brother moved away to the New York area and became a huge Islander fan and his enthusiam rubbed off on me. This was back when the Islanders were winning all those championships with Billy Smith in goal, and they had players like Bossy, Potvin, and Trottier. They were the epitome of a dynasty back them and a symbol of what hard work, dedication, and perseverance could produce.

I didn't get to attend many games in person since I lived in Alabama but one of my favorite memories was going to Madison Square Garden, when I visited by brother, and seeing the Atlanta Flames (yes, they were from a different city back then) take on the hated New York Rangers. (If you were an Islander fan, it was a requirement to hate the Rangers). What a fun time that was that night.

And my favorite part of any game was when my team scored and you heard the announcer yell "Gooooooooal!"

Then the players would all rush together in one big scrum, reminiscent of a rugby game, and hug one another in a congratulatory celebration.

The goal was the ultimate accomplishment of all their hard work practicing over and over again for all those many hours on the rink and in the film room studying their opponents as well as themselves.

And the same holds true for any goals we set for ourselves in life.

We must define exactly what it is we want to accomplish and then set about step-by-step on achieving it. But how does one go about that that?

You see the number one problem I see with people, when training them in internet marketing, is that they really have no clear vision of what it is they want to achieve.

Let me provide a perfect example because I see this all the time.

One of the first things I ask is "What do you want to achieve with your internet marketing business?"

And inevitably the answer is "To make a lot of money."

And there's certainly nothing wrong with that.

The problem is that the answer is not specific enough to create a concrete goal for your mind to grasp. "I want to make a lot of money" is too broad and undefined for your brain to determine what that really means, because there are no specifics, no parameters, no guidelines with which your brain can work.

Feed your mind with a specific attainable goal and it will set about a plan to achieve it.

I always liked the adage "Believe it and you can achieve it".

Thoughts are tangible things. Your brain acts on them. And like a computer if you feed "garbage in" then you will get "garbage out". But enter in rock solid data, and you will get a finished result.

How does this translate to goal setting?

In the internet marketing world, I tell my students to start off with defined goals. If they've never made a dollar online, then that is their first goal. Then we set $25, then $100.

We eventually turn that into a visualization exercise. No longer do we try to achieve a monetary amount, but we see that monetary amount translated into a monthly bill payment. In other words, they want to make enough online to pay the cable bill each month, the car payment, or the rent or mortgage.

I then tell them to picture in their mind earning that much money each month, and paying that bill. When they do that, their mind now is fed a tangible thought (a goal) that it knows they want to accomplish, and it goes about figuring out a way to achieve that goal, even while they sleep.

Have you ever gone to bed thinking about a problem, and when you woke up you had the solution?

Most people have had that experience. I know I have. That's your brain satisfying your request for information. It wants to solve and goes about resolving any issue you give it. And if that issue happens to be about earning enough to make a bill payment, it will find a way for you to do so.

But then comes the hard part.

It's not enough to just have your mind provide you solutions to achieve your goals.

You have to act on those solutions, and unfortunately, that is where I have seen most people fail.

Goals don't just magically occur. It takes planning, hard work, and diligence to see them to fruition. And it's the people who are willing to do these things who are likely to see success.

And this goes for any goal you set for yourself.

I discuss this more in a Jean Shaw interview that she did with me after we attended a seminar together in San Antonio last year.

So just like the hockey team who develop offensive and defensive schemes (the plan), put in the hours of practice on the rink (hard work), and practice over and over again (diligence) to see that puck go into the net, you can develop these same attributes to see you score in life. Remember, goals aren't just for sports.