I met an exceptional American man in Athens in my younger years. He had a beautiful and gentle French girlfriend, and everyone was always complimenting him and telling him how "lucky" he was. His usual reply was something to effect of "Lucky or unlucky is hard for me to say, as this is only one small moment in my whole life. But I will tell you this, at this moment, I am very definitely enjoying myself and feeling thankful."

Shortly after meeting him he was thrown in jail in Greece, which in those days was run by a brutal military dictator. All his friends sat around in Athens talking about how "unlucky" he was, since police threw him in jail with no real evidence. When I visited him and told him his friends felt terrible about his bad luck he smiled warmly and said, "Lucky or unlucky is hard for me to say. But I am sure I will have a great story to tell some day! And for this I am thankful."

After several years in jail he was released, and he returned to States. He was traveling along coast roads of California, when he met a lovely woman in a roadside cafe, and began to flirt with her. Unbeknownst to my friend, woman had a boyfriend who belonged to a gang, and boyfriend soon appeared with his buddies and became furious. In order to "teach my friend a lesson" they proceeded to throw him off side of road, and down rocky expanse leading to ocean some one hundred feet below. They left him for dead.

Although they can see results it has brought for me, and sense of well being that goes along with it, I haven’t explained theory to them in a way that they can easily sum up.

I think this is because it is so ingrained in me, that I assume everyone understands it. That’s a mistake on my part, so here goes, 8-part theory of goal achievement.

1. Define your goal. It may be a new car, house, a certain amount of money, a job, whatever. Define it as precisely as possible.

2. Visualize. You need to visualize goal coming true. Picture yourself after goal has come true.

3.Write goals down. Write goals on a little card, and look at it often throughout day, certainly morning and night, preferably repeating them out loud.