Last week, I encouraged our readers to believe in themselves. Belief in oneself is a prerequisite for high achieve-ment. Faith brings into being what is not yet seen by our natural eyes and faith is the springboard from which one can launch oneself into great endeavours.

But having established the need for self-confidence, are there any defined steps that one could take to achieve success in any venture? The answer is 'absolutely' and I shall outline five steps or master keys to success. I shall deal with two of the five today.

DESIRE

The first master key is desire, not just a wish or a hope, but a burning, consuming desire to achieve your goals. Many of my readers email me and indicate, "I just don't have the motivation, the desire. Can you help me?" And, sadly, I have to reply, "I can't. If you don't have the desire, I am not sure even if God will help you, for motivation to succeed must come from your own desires, your thoughts, your mind." God will not push a man where he has no desire to go. Desire, then, must be your first driver.

VISION

Most of us know the scripture which says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Vision can be defined in several ways. Vision is the ability to see things not as they are now but as you want them to be. Vision is also the ability to project yourself mentally outside of the crippling confines of your present circumstances into a glorious tomorrow. Vision does not concentrate on the immediate, it sees the ultimate. Vision is also defined as solving tomorrow's problems today.

An example of this is the Mona Heights housing scheme. When those houses were built, many people were critical of them, saying they were too small. But the Matalons looked way down the road and saw a vision of a need for housing solutions near the university campus. This is today's problem. They solved it decades ago.

Critical element

A critical element of vision is to actually imagine yourself in possession of the thing you desire before you actually receive it. The brain is a marvellous gift. If you believe a thing strongly enough, it materialises in your life. This is the action of the reticular-activating system of your brain, the small section that, like a computer, receives thought impulses and programmes you relentlessly to achieve your dominant thoughts. As a man thinketh, so is he.

Many years ago as a young insurance agent, I heard a speech that changed my life. The speaker said that if you could believe something strongly enough, repeat it out loud, place it on 4x5 cards and internalise it daily, it would be yours. He said, 'Act as if you are already in possession of your desire, and it will come to you.'

At the time I was driving a nine-year-old Ford Zephyr 6. I, however, wanted a Mercedes-Benz. So I began to think it, dream it, speak it and 'own' it in my mind. I was also specific that it must be air-conditioned, so at times I would roll up the windows of my Zephyr to imagine air conditioning, then roll them back down. The desire was so strong that inevitably I got the Mercedes, air-conditioned as well.

Hard work

Mind you, a tremendous amount of hard work was what produced it, but the motivation to work hard was the dream. If you can dream it and believe it, it will be yours. As Napoleon Hill said, 'Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.'

The dream alone, however, will not by itself produce the desired thing. Between the dream and the reality are other steps, one of which is very hard work. I shall continue these thoughts next week.