Every so often, every successful person sits down to evaluate direction his/her life is taking and decide where they want their life to go next.

We all know how important it is to have goals. We hear from every expert on self-improvement and success that those with clearly defined goals achieve at least 7 times more than those without goals.

If you're like me, you've followed along with one of these success speakers to outline a series of goals that will motivate you to work hard and become greater than you've ever been in your life.

But have those goals truly motivated you? Did you reach pinnacle of success? Did you make that million dollars, get that fancy sports car, or marry fashion model of your dreams? Or if you were more realistic, did you get that raise, improve your current relationship, or attain a measure of self-confidence?

There's certainly nothing wrong with setting goals. In fact I agree with motivational speakers in that goals are imperative if you are truly committed to creating kind of life you want.

But that's real secret. What kind of life do YOU want?

We've been programmed since birth that everyone wants money, good health, and ultimate relationship. Guys are programmed to want fancy sports cars and beautiful women. Women are programmed to want a happy household and a successful career at same time.

What I'd like to do now is to give you some questions to ask yourself to find out what you really want out of life so you can set your own goals, not someone else's.

The first set of questions to ask yourself are: What in your life irritates you? What makes you feel less than satisfied? What would you like to get rid of if you could?

Although most of us have been programmed to believe that certain things will make us happy, few of us have been programmed to believe that other things will make us unhappy. If you know what makes you unhappy, you have a good idea of what will really make you happy.

Now, ask yourself these questions: How would you like to spend your free time? If you were given a full month to do anything you'd like to do, where would you go? If you were told that you would die in six months, what would you do with time you had left to live?

That last question especially gets to heart of matter. Most people would very quickly dismiss all of programming society has fed them if they thought they were going to die in six months.

Now, using that concept for just another moment, is there anything you'd like to accomplish to leave your mark on world before you go?

This question starts to activate a part of your brain that normally stays quiet, thinking that there will always be time enough to do important things in life. We all like to think so, but no-one really knows for sure.

Is there something that you could do to make this world a better place? Are there people that you could help in some way? Is there something you could do that would be remembered a hundred years from now?

Don't worry if answer to that last question is 'no'. Not everyone is destined for greatness, and maybe you just aren't cut out to be a legend. There's no shame in just being a cog in machine.

But if you think that there may be something you could do that would impact world greatly, don't let modesty stand in your way either!

In my opinion, he was greatest man ever to become President of United States – and I write that knowing full well that men such as Washington, Jefferson, John Quincy Adams and Lincoln cannot be easily cast aside into second tier status. I doubt if any President of United States in future will ever be able to threaten TR’s status in that regard. I don’t think there will ever be another man like him.

One of things that makes Roosevelt so remarkable is that he pushed himself incredibly hard to overcome obstacles. And lest we think somehow that he had it easy, we should not forget that he encountered more obstacles than most people. Yes, he was born into a family with enough money to do things like take yearlong European trips. And he had an incredible father who was a great role model for his son.

But Roosevelt’s father died when he was only a sophomore at Harvard – that is, just about time when Roosevelt was becoming an adult, a man in his own right. The magnitude of that loss can hardly be appreciated from our point of view. Roosevelt’s near silence about loss is best indicator, seeing as he was otherwise never at a loss for words.

Furthermore, shortly after entering legislature, Roosevelt started his family only to lose his beloved young wife Alice after birth of their daughter. This tragedy was followed by death of his mother within a few hours. Later in life, one of Roosevelt’s sons would tragically die in World War I. Throughout his life, Roosevelt had more than his fair share of tragedy. Yet, he pressed on, every time.

In addition, Roosevelt’s famously poor health as a young boy can hardly be overlooked. Anyone who has ever struggled with a serious childhood illness can attest to difficulty and suffering it brings, not just physically but also mentally. Can we really appreciate fortitude and determination it took for him to defy doctors and to basically exercise his asthma out of his system? Extraordinary, indeed. The persistence and iron-willed determination which Roosevelt would show in building his physical strength would be replicated throughout his life, in his voluminous writing, in his rigorous hunting trips, in his all-night sessions with police on streets of New York, in his maniacal campaigning, in his play with his children, in giving a campaign speech after he had been shot in chest, in his charge up San Juan Hill.

As a friend once remarked to me, American boys (and men for that matter) do not need to read about pretend superheroes with imaginary powers. All they need to do is read about true life of Theodore Roosevelt.

Batman? Superman? Give me a break. These guys would lose a fight every time to TR. ***

Many schoolchildren in America no doubt learn today that Roosevelt was a great conservationist and that as President he set aside countless acres for national parks and forests. That is absolutely true.

But an important element of TR’s conservationist philosophy is largely ignored in contemporary education. The reason is that his reasons for conservation were profoundly different from many in environmentalist cause today. Many greens today seem to put nature into a moral category which is actually greater than human civilization. For them, conservation is a moral cause which is premised on idea that man should simply keep his grubby hands off of pristine nature. The more extreme environmentalist even speak in terms which suggest that earth has “rights.”

Roosevelt would have nothing to do with this bizarre philosophy. For TR, men are clearly called to conserve environment, but not because it has “rights”. Rather, we conserve nature because that is where men go to test themselves, to do battle as it were against elements. And above all, men must go outdoors into nature to hunt and to kill. The importance of hunting as both a means of conservation and one of chief ends of conservation can hardly be overstated. Though this legacy is ignored in textbooks today, it is alive and well among those who do much of heavy lifting of conservation. Today, true environmental legacy of TR is carried on by Boone and Crockett Club (which TR founded and which today is definitive arbiter of uncompromising ethics in hunting), International Safari Club and National Rifle Association.

For Theodore Roosevelt, conservation, battle, masculinity and strenuous life are inextricably bound. Nature is where boys become men. They learn to survive. They learn to conquer and exercise dominion. In short, TR’s conservation philosophy would drive many a squeamish environmentalist today to abandon cause.

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One of greatest tributes to Roosevelt is to let him speak for himself on virtue of perseverance: