It is Thursday and the week is nearly over. I promised you yesterday that I was going to speak more about core desires today, and so I'm going to keep my promise.

We are going to look a little bit more at core desires; at exactly what they are, how to discover your core desires and how to develop them.

It is actually a very big subject, so I am just going to touch on it a little more today to try and help you to identify your core desires.

Now you need to firstly understand one thing very clearly. A core desire is more than a goal. A core desire is an unfulfilled dream.

When you reach a goal it loses its power to motivate you. But a long range, unfulfilled dream is something that keeps you going throughout life. It is something you are reaching forward for all the time. It will develop within you a passion and a very strong desire to keep going.

Have Many Dreams

Now it is very important that you have more than one dream. If you only have one dream or core desire in life, what will happen when you reach your goal?

What is going to happen when your core desire has been fulfilled? You will actually have nothing more to live for.

A lot of people have a very strong core desire. They push hard and they reach their goal quite early in life. Then they think it is a wonderful thing to now retire because they have reached their goal.

But if you don't have another dream - a higher or a longer range dream to keep you going - then what really are you living for?

You need more than one dream, and you need more than one goal to keep you going. What you need is a long range dream, and you need a lower level or shorter range dream.

Now you don't want too many of these, otherwise you are not really going to know what you are aiming for. That would be like trying to shoot several targets at the same time. You can only aim at one target at a time.

One of Each Dream

It is good to only have one long range dream and another short range dream – just one of each. You don't need anything more than that.

The long range dream will keep you going in a direction. And somewhere in between where you are now and where that long range dream or goal is, there is a shorter range one which you are going to reach.

So you are facing both of them at the same time, but in your mind you know,

“I'm not going to reach the long range one yet. But in the meantime I'm going to reach this shorter range goal.”

You see the long range dream must keep burning. That is what keeps you going. And when you lose that, actually that is when you lose your zest for life.

You will find very often that people who decide to retire don't live for long after that, because they have nothing more to live for.

You see you may have been dreaming all your life and saying,

“It will be wonderful to one day be able to have all my time to myself - to go fishing, playing golf and doing whatever I want to do.”

It is a great dream and goal to have in your mind, that one day you won't have to go and work for a boss anymore. You won't have to work hard every day. You could wake up in the morning and do whatever you wanted to do.

That is a wonderful dream, but when that dream is fulfilled you will have nothing more to live for. You will have no more core desire and nothing more to reach for.

Well your goal might change. Because you have time to play golf all day, you might dream now of becoming a professional or famous golfer. But you see again there will be a long range goal for you to aim for. That is your core desire.

Now if you have read my teaching on Dreams, Goals, Plans and Action, then you should have had something burning inside of you while you were listening.

If you haven't done this it is available in my series 'The Way to Success'.

Write Down Your Core Desires

If you already have that teaching I want you to go and review again what I taught on Dreams, Goals, Plans and Actions. As you are doing this I want you to take out a pen and paper, and I want you to write down everything that pops out.

Write down every goal, every dream and every picture that comes to your mind. Some of the things have burned in you for many years and perhaps you have even given up on them already.

I want you to write them down, and I want you to try and identify a desire that has perhaps been in you longer than anything else. It may have started back in childhood. It may have been developed during adolescence, or it may have started after you got your first job.

At some stage something took hold of you; a burning desire. I want you to find that.

If you can't find one, then think back on what used to burn in you. Perhaps you have given up on it now, because you have given up hope that you will ever reach it.

Maybe you are a bit older now. You look at some of the great desires that you had when you were younger and you say,

“I'm too old. I can't do that anymore.”

Stir Those Dreams Up

Do you want to know when you are too old to fulfill your dreams? It is when they put you in a hole in the ground and cover it up with dirt.

Only then will your dreams die. But while you have breath in your body; while you are still a living creature in this world, you have dreams. If you will admit that to yourself you can face them and say,

“I'm not afraid to dream again.”

I want to encourage you to take those dreams and bring them back to life again.

You say, “But I've tried to fulfill those dreams before. I've tried to set the goals. I've attempted this many times and failed.”

I Can Help

Well that is what I am here for; to try and help you fulfill your dreams. So I want you to just take those dreams and to write them down.

I don't want you to try and figure out how you are going to reach those goals. Don't try and figure out what you need to do or don't need to do, what it is going to cost or what is involved. I want you to leave that to me.

Why don't you go and write down your dreams now and I will share more with you tomorrow.