Why do most people never achieve the goals they set? Here’s a metaphor that’s going to help you understanding exactly why...

You go to the store to buy a brand-new iPod, fresh from the factory with the seal still on the case. You take it home because you can’t wait to try it out. You tear open the box, plug in your earphones and start looking for your favorite song. You check each and every folder on the device, but for the life of you, can’t seem to find the song you want to play.

So, you decide to hustle harder. You practically kill yourself over the next several days – iPod in hand – trying desperately to find your song. No luck. So, you decide to use more willpower. You sit down, focus hard and refuse any distraction that comes your way in an attempt to locate this song. No luck. Next, you set a goal. You design a vision board, complete with photos of you actually listening to your song, and stare at it relentlessly as you work with all of your might to find that song. Still no luck.

In frustration, you throw the iPod out, convinced that it’s broken or somehow defective. Thing is, it’s not the iPod’s fault. The iPod is just the hardware. Although it functions just fine, the only reason you haven’t been able to locate your song is because the song itself is a piece of software that you simply haven’t loaded onto the hardware yet. Starting to see the point?

You’re the iPod. The hardware that makes the songs play. But unless or until you load the songs you want onto the device, it won’t ever play them. You can’t out-goal-set an unsuccessful mindset. You can’t out-hustle it. You can’t out-willpower it. And you can’t manifest what isn’t there. You aren’t broken or defective. The unconscious mind is the warehouse of all your “songs”. But it’s only able to play what it currently has.

Want to play a different song? Load different software.

• Review the direction you want to go with your life every single day.
• Count your wins related to that direction.
• Spend time imagining the outcome.
• Listen to your negative internal language as a measure of awareness.

That’s how you load new software. A completely new playlist. Your iPod won’t ever play the songs you haven’t loaded on it, and you can’t ever achieve what your unconscious mind doesn’t accept as possible.