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How Self Made Millionaires Achieve 100% of Their Dreams and Goals

September 21, 2023 by Tom Corley

How Self Made Millionaires Achieve 100 Percent of Their Dreams

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Realizing the life of your dreams is a process anyone can follow. I discovered this process after studying 233 millionaires over a five-year period. Here’s the process.

DREAM-SETTING PROCESS – 3 STEPS:

  • Step One – Define Your Dream Life: The first step is to identify those Dreams that need to be realized in order for you to reach your Destination – Living the Life of Your Dreams. You do this by scripting out your life, 10 – 20 years into the future. Each Dream, that makes up your Dream Life, is like a Rung on a Ladder. Each time you realize a Dream, you climb your Ladder. When you climb all of the Rungs (When you realize all of your Dreams), you reach the top of that ladder and that is when you reach your Destination – Living the Life of Your Dreams. 
  • Step Two – Create Umbrella Goals and Daily Goals: Each Dream, in order to be realized, requires that you create, pursue and achieve Goals. Each Dream may require the successful completion of multiple Umbrella Goals, which require the creation, pursuit and achievement of Daily Goals. 
  • Step Three – Repeat Steps 1 & 2 For Each Dream: After realizing Dream #1, you then move on to Dream #2 and, like before, create a new set of Umbrella Goals and Daily Goals, in order to realize that new Dream. 

REAL LIFE EXAMPLE 

In 2007, I wrote a Dream Script of what my ideal, future life would be like in 20 Years – my Dream Life. Embedded in that Dream Script were multiple Dreams:

  • Dream #1 Become a Virtuoso in Financial Planning in order to help ordinary people build wealth
  • Dream #2 Become a Successful Bestselling Author
  • Dream #3 Become a sought-after Professional Speaker
  • Dream #4 Buy a Home by the beach, at the Jersey Shore

So, what did I do?

Dream #1 Become a Virtuoso in Financial Planning 

  • Umbrella Goal #1 – Get my Series 7 Securities License
  • Daily Goals For Umbrella Goal #1 – Study 2 hours every day and take All of the Practice Tests Twice. This took me four months.  I took the Series 7 Exam in January 2008 and Passed. 
  • Umbrella Goal #2 – Study, Take & Pass the CFP Exam
  • Daily Goals For Umbrella Goal #2 – Study 2 hours every day and take All of the Practice Tests Twice. This took me ten months.  I took the CFP Exam in November of 2008 and Passed. 

I used this same Goal Setting Process to become a Bestselling Author and Professional Speaker.

Interestingly, Dream #4, which came to pass in 2020, was the byproduct of realizing Dreams 1-3. In other words, it was a Dream I was able to realize only because I accomplished the realization of my first 3 Dreams. 

And that is a very important point – Realizing some Dreams, like buying a house by the beach, are By-Product Dreams that can only be realized after realizing Pre-Requisite Dreams.

Dreams 1-3 were Pre-Requisite Dreams.

Dream #4 was a By-Product Dream

And now, thanks to this Dream-Setting Process, I live by the beach, at the Jersey Shore.  

Tom Corley Headshot
Tom Corley

Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner, public speaker, and author of the books “Effort-Less Wealth: Smart Money Habits At Every Stage of Your Life” and “RichKids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life“.  Corley’s work has appeared on CNN, USA Today, The Huffington Post, SUCCESS Magazine, and many other media outlets and podcasts in the U.S. and 27 other countries. Tom is a frequent contributor to Business Insider and CNBC.

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