Jonathan Swift said it best. “Vision is art of seeing things invisible.”

In order to continue to work toward that which we cannot yet see, our motives must be very personal and very compelling, indeed. So, let’s have a closer look at first of necessary components, desire.

Desire, even a fervent one, can easily become clouded by obstacles if we choose to focus on obstacles instead of on our goals. Obstacles are what we see when we take our eyes off goal.

I believe it helps if we accept from outset that obstacles and setbacks will arise. It should come as no surprise or source of irritation when this occurs. This is simply part of natural ebb and flow of business.

If you stop and think about it, it’s ridiculous to expect that it will be clear sailing entire way. And yet, people do become unduly irritated and discouraged when things don’t go according to plan.

Hitting a few bumps and potholes in road only signifies that we are in fact traveling road, and not necessarily that we’re going down wrong one. Viewed in this light, you could say that dealing with a few snags here and there is a good thing. It certainly beats sitting around doing nothing to further our progress, right?

Now granted, in order to endure a ride that isn’t always comfortable, you had better have a really good reason for doing so. So here comes your self-appointed cheerleader to urge you on. GRAB THAT GOAL, HONEY!

That’s right. Reach out and grab it! Take those vague, unformed thoughts that flutter around in your head and solidify them by setting them down in black and white. Grapple with them. Tie them down to paper. Wrap some words around them. You might need to change and rearrange some words. Why, you might even need to think about what it is that you really, really want.

There are mountains of evidence to show that daily ritual of writing down one’s goals is of stupendous importance. Motivational speakers have delivered volumes of goal-setting information. Entire books have been devoted to this topic. Writing down your desires is a recurrent theme in just about every single success book ever published.

And consider this. Harvard studies indicate that of 3% of people who enjoy extreme success, one common link among them was this practice of writing down their goals, a practice NOT shared with other 97% of “also ran.”

And this is just our curse for life. Work is not meant to be fun. Work is not meant to be enjoyed. Just look at ants, those busybodies. We are supposed to work like them. There has to be an easier way.

I have inside me this paradox. I want to become successful, but not with too much work. My struggle is with laziness and with not following through with things I have started. Sub-consciously I have had mentality: "Nobody really likes work. Why would I be different?" I want to take easy road to success. I have even set goals to achieve what I perceive as success, only to come short of one ingredient - action. I want to be like Robert Frost and say that I took path less travelled, yet path of least resistance, of laziness, is much easier. I have come to realise for things to change I must change.

But where does one begin? I went back to books I have read and people whom I respect. I studied likes of Tiger Woods and Bill Gates. Of all successful people I have studied, to last one, they are hard workers. We often dream of living a life like Tiger Woods must surely lead. But Tiger's work on golf started when he was just three years old. Would you want to work for seventeen years at one thing until you make a success of it and continue to work on it day in and day out? Bill Gates would often work throughout night and his co-workers would go home and when they would come back next day, he would still be there. Eighteen-hour days, seven days per week. Do you want to work that hard?