How to find the one path to achieve life’s ultimate goals

There are five areas of life where people try to achieve results.

These are: self (meaning the areas of how they feel about themselves and their inner-most desires); spirituality and their connection to spirit; health and elements associated with their physical nature; relationships and interactions with others; and abundance, which has to do not just with money, but includes aspects of their work, business, free time and more.

In my seminars I ask students to select a goal they'd like to achieve in one of these areas. So I'll ask you the same thing. Once you select your goal, think carefully before you answer this next question.

How many paths are there to your goal?

People usually answer with all kinds of numbers. But the truth is there is only one path. What makes it seem like there could be many are the tools used to accomplish each step on the path.

Let me illustrate with this example: The path is like a road, yet you can choose what vehicle you will drive on the road.

Before I share what the one path is it's important to note that achieving results is not the first step on the path. In fact, it's not the end destination either.

Here's the path: Thinking leads to Beliefs to Emotion to Goals & Decisions to Actions to Results.

The ripples caused by your original thinking don't end here. As your actions begin to create results in the real world, they affect the following: You then Your Family then Your Network then Your Community or Tribe then (and this has changed a lot since the invention of the internet) the World and onward to the Universe.

Some of the effects of your actions are certainly more noticeable than others, and some of your actions have more profound effects on those around you than others.

But there is a concept called the Butterfly Effect that states that all things eventually are affected by the smallest of actions, even as small as a butterfly flapping its wings.

Thinking to create Beliefs which create Emotions which cause Goals & Decisions which create Actions which produce Results — this is the same for everyone.

There is only one way to create results and this is it. Even if the results you create happen as part of a team or delegation, the early steps from thought to decision are still included.

So how do people get the idea that there are different ways or paths? Well, there are definitely differences in thoughts, beliefs, emotions, goals and actions that produce those results.

Let's look again at the analogy of a road being the path. The differences in how people move along that path could be compared to modes of transportation. Some people are walking (very slowly I might add). Others are driving a high-powered sports car.

As you grow more successful in your ability to drive this path, you graduate to faster and more effective vehicles. As you're more creative in your approach and do things that others won't, can't or don't think of, the vehicle you select also improves.

As you enlist the help of others in your journey, your vehicle also improves and so does the quality of the ride.

Douglas Vermeeren (douglasvermeeren.com) is a leader in personal development and achievement psychology. He has extensively researched the lives of more than 400 of the world's top achievers and compiled the lessons he learned, along with the psychology that creates success, into a seminar series called Personal Power Mastery.