A Texas oil billionaire once revealed the secret of his success. He said you only have to ask yourself two questions:

1. What is it that you really want?
2. Are you willing to pay the price to get it?

He mentioned that most people fail to answer the first question.

Often, it's hard to decide what we want. This might be the main reason why people don't write down their goals.

However, the process of clarifying what we really want out of life can be greatly facilitated by doing the opposite. In other words, write on a piece of paper all the things you do NOT want in your life.

Then, on the other side, write the opposite of what you do not want. That will get you started in clarifying what it is that you DO want.

For example, here are things a person might NOT want in her life:

• A boring job
• Having to work 9 to 5 at the office
• Struggling to pay the bills every month
• An insensitive boss
• Stress

• An exciting job
• Working 9 to 5 for an employer who allows working from home
• No problem paying the bills every month
• A sensitive, supportive boss
• Stress-free lifestyle

This is the trick that turned Anthony Robbins' life around. One day, in the 80s, he decided that he'd had enough bad luck in his life, so while sitting on a beach, he began to write down all the things he wanted in his life. He went on and on and on and wrote profusely!

Now, what exactly is the psychological effect of such hectic writing about what you want?

The great and mysterious effect is that your beliefs begins to align with your desires. In other words, what's hard is not knowing what you want. In Tony's case, for example, it was quite easy for him to write out all the things he wanted.

It was easy because he had led a very difficult life, and his biography gave rise to all the desires within him. So it was not hard at all to let those desires come out. They were dying to come out!

What was hard, however, was for him to BELIEVE that he deserved what he desired. By the simple act of writing down in a notebook all the things he desired, he subconsciously told himself: "Hey, I want all these things and I sure as heck deserve them all, which is why I'm writing them all down as goals. I want all of it, and I deserve all of it."

So that's the first step toward success, wealth, fulfillment, or anything you want in life.

The second step, strangely enough, is not as difficult. In fact, if you do the first step properly, the second step -- paying the price -- is a piece of cake.

"Paying the price" is often associated with something negative, like "make a sacrifice" or "suffer pain" or "give up something you value." 

That's not what is meant here. What is meant here is "giving up something of lower value so you can get something of higher value." It's not a sacrifice at all. In fact, it's a great deal!

For example, if in step 1, you decide that health is valuable to you and that you want all the benefits and joy and well-being and good feelings that come from being healthy, then "paying the price" is not hard.

Giving up potato chips is not hard, because now, in your mind, health is more important than potato chips. Giving up bad eating habits is not hard.

However, if step 1 is not done properly and you did not take the time to clearly describe, vividly, what your ideal life looks like and feels like, then step 2 will be hard.

For example, in doing step 1, a person might say: "I want a great, rewarding, fulfilling career"

Yet, he fails to get into the specific details and the vivid description of how it would FEEL to have such a career.

He then moves to step 2, and finds that it's hard to give up his current and comfortable daily routine. As a result, he is unwilling to "pay the price," hence he remains trapped in a job that is boring and unfulfilling.

Here's the success secret that you probably never heard of and that mysteriously merges the two steps (decide what you want and pay the price) into one single masterful stroke of genius.

This secret is contained in the statement "The Price Is Write."

"Writing" here refers not only to writing down one's goals or ideal life or dream on a piece of paper. It refers to writing all of that directly into the wiring of your very being, so that you FEEL already like the ideal person you want to be.

To be continued...