If you are serious about improving your lot, you have got to take decisive action. There is no point in mingling with people who want the easy out and prefer to idle their time at fast foods or bars or in front of the television. They are all a waste of time.

There are three commodities that you have to monitor if you want to achieve your goals and they are time, money and effort. You have to ensure that each of these is used productively.

Improving your lot requires you to get off your butt and isolate yourself and to plan what you really want. Then you have to move forward into action. What are you going to do to achieve that goal? There must be something that you have to do. Writing down your goal and looking at it each day is not enough to help you to achieve it.

The only way forward is to spend some money on some kind of training which should be regarded as an investment not an expense. If you think that you can avoid this, you will find that you achieve nothing at all.

For example, if you have a goal to be well-educated, then you need to invest in some kind of education. If you do not want to spend the money, would you achieve your goal?

if you want to be well-read, you need to subscribe yourself to some kind of magazine or book. If you do not, will you be well-read?

You see, many people merely boast of their goals but seldom spring into action. Their hearts are not willing to spend the time, money and effort. If you carry on this way you will be very sad when you reach the end of your life span because then it will be too late to turn back the clock. The clock ticks rather unkindly too fast at times and is not always in our favour.

So if you have a goal and are not spending time, money or effort in working towards it then consider those goals to be useless. No matter how difficult life may be, spend some time in improving yourself. It must be something that you really like. In this way, you will look forward to each day just because you have something nice to do.

For example, if you are a caregiver to your elderly parents, it can take a lot from you. But if you plan your day in such a way that about two or three hours should be just for you, you will find that your care giving tasks are not that heavy anymore.

The secret is to isolate yourself and grow and love yourself - even if it means that you have to lie to make a getaway. Do it then if there is no other way. In other words, you have to learn to say ’‘no.’’

To motivate yourself you could read biographies of famous people who endured much suffering. For example, Marie Curie had to teach so as to earn enough money for her research programs which later brought relief to people. The funds were not handed to her on a silver platter. Helen Keller was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. So there you are.

So what is stopping you from achieving your goals?