Be like Muhammad Ali. Articulate your goal for success.

I love a one liner that makes me think. And I love it even more if it makes me act! That’s when I get a double barrel shot at successfully changing myself.

I believe (and I’m not alone on this) that it’s our inability to change that explains a lot of our disappointments in life.

It staggers me how so many people want something that if they thought about it, they’d call success but somehow seem almost afraid to utter the desire to be successful. It’s like they have a concealed goal and want to keep it under wraps, so people don’t know what they want lest they fail and then have to deal with that failure.

My favourite Muhammad Ali quote underlines the value of articulating your goal for success. Ali once said: “It is the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief and once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”

So the process is having a goal that turns into an affirmation, which is an action or process of affirming something. This gets repeated over and over and eventually the mind absorbs it and that leads to a belief. Then after a time and because of related success and advancement, that belief turns into a deep conviction.

Ali says that when all that occurs, “things begin to happen.”

Over the years I’ve used this quote to inspire people who were finding it hard to grow a business, get a promotion or build their wealth. But I’ve never actually looked into what else Ali did to turn his affirmation into a belief and then a deep conviction.

‘Talking the talk’ is the start and it’s an important point of commencement. But it’s the easy part. ‘Walking the talk’ can undermine the initially enthused because you start to realise how hard change and improvement really is. Ali did the walk, as Fortisfight.com revealed:

“Angelo Dundee (who was Muhammad Ali’s trainer) said when Ali couldn’t get a ride to the gym, he’d run to the gym and when he’d finished, he’d run all the way back home as well. His house to the gym was 7 miles and he’d do this regularly.

“When interviewed on what he usually does, he said that he wakes up at 5.30am and did some light stretching followed by a 6 mile run, which he'd usually do in 40 minutes. That’s just over 6 minutes a mile.”

Ali was ahead of his time favouring whole and natural foods but his strengthening was old school.

“When it came to training, Ali adapted an old school style of boxing training. He didn’t really lift weights and relied on calisthenic training like push ups, sit ups and pull ups,” Fortis.com tells us. “At times, he would do old school Rocky IV style training, like chopping wood, hitting sledgehammers on tyres and run while wearing heavy boots.”

One thing Ali was famous for was going public with his affirmation/goal, that is, he wanted to become what he said he was, even before that was effectively true. When he said “I am the greatest!”, that wasn’t true. But he inevitably proved that he was by the time his career was over. That was a huge effort. But I suspect his naming of his goal meant he had an incentive to avoid the failure that might led to the shaming he might have copped if he hadn’t delivered.

Not many of us would take a gamble like that but it is something we need to think about when we set goals for ourselves.

Jim Collins, author of a number of best-selling books including Good to Great, makes a big deal about those who’ve led world class businesses setting BHAGs — big, hairy, audacious, goals.

“Jim Collins says that in 1994 when he and his co-author Jerry Porras were writing the seminal book Built to Last, they debated what to call ambitious long-term goals that galvanize successful companies,” Leigh Buchanan of Inc.com writes. “Porras favored something businesslike and decorous, like “corporate mission.” Collins held out for a term that vividly conveyed the excitement, energy, and envelope-pushing boldness stirred up by such endeavours. He prevailed, and BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) came galumphing into the management lexicon.”

Collins says his analysis of successful people running successful businesses convinced him a BHAG stops you from thinking small.

“A great BHAG changes the time frame and simultaneously creates a sense of urgency,” Buchanan explains. “It’s a real paradox. So on the one hand, you’re not going to get a BHAG done in three years. You’re not going to get it done in five years. A really good BHAG probably has a minimum length of about a decade, and many take longer than that. Two decades. Three decades. So time frames extend to where you are no longer managing for the quarter but for the quarter century!”

When I think about that idea of having a big goal that might take a long time to come to reality, it makes me think about building wealth. In my book Join the Rich Club (I’m sure I’ve told you about this before!), I look at how $10,000 in the All Ords becomes over $450,000 over 1970 to 2009, which was one year after the stock market crash of 50% with the GFC.

By 1975 that $10,000 was about $2,000! Yes, it went down! Then by 1981 it was $30,000! By 1987 it was $100,000 but fell to $70,000 one year later! (These are just rough guesses off a Vanguard chart that shows the growth of the $10,000 between 1970-2009.) But what I’m trying to show you is that you can have these bad periods but if you’re strategy is good, it comes good time and time again.

This growth process to make a BHAG having a great retirement nest egg, reminds me of what John Maxwell, the author of the book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership once told me, when I MC’d him in a conference in Dubai: “Leadership is not learnt in a day but daily.”

Yep, it’s a daily commitment to your BHAG that turns a goal/affirmation into a belief and eventually a conviction.

Inc.com gave us the seven steps to transform ourselves and they’re worth sharing. Here they are:

1. See yourself outside yourself.
2. Find the habit associated with the thing you want to change.
3. Practice every day, no matter what.
4. Set realistic goals.
5. Constantly look in the mirror to be objective about yourself and your performance.
6. Surround yourself with people who tell you the truth.
7. Take risks.

There are some things in life I can do myself but being realistic about myself I know I perform better when I have to be accountable to a coach, a mentor or someone I love or respect.

I recently set a goal to kill 7kgs to get back to my fighting weight. I knew I needed to weigh in each week. My dietician is a tough lady, who came to Australia some time ago from South Africa. She takes no crap or excuses.

I put in the hard yards but having this accountability helped me lose 5kgs in six weeks!

Accountability plus a desire to want to achieve the goal generally explains a good outcome. And this brings me to my favourite quote from former tennis great, Chris Evert.

How good was she?

Well, look at these stats:

• Singles — 90% success rate!
• Career titles — 157!
• Grand Slam Singles — 18!
• Grand Slam Doubles — 7.

What summed up her attitude? This: “There were times when deep down inside I wanted to win so badly I could actually will it to happen. I think most of my career has been based on desire.”

I think that says it all.