I so often keep talking about why it is absolutely necessary to keep a vision of what you want to achieve in life an exact plan of what you will be doing for the next 5 years to reach your goal — if you don’t know where you have to go, how exactly will you find a way to go there?

I have always pondered over why it is that people don’t care about keeping and working on their vision of life, considering how it can make or break them. I had always come up so many reasons but I always found flaws with them.

However, I think I’ve stumbled across the truth. That too because I had (or am having) to undergo a phase which I have come to consider the biggest reason why people fail to attain their visions. And, the reason is – Self Discipline to resist the temptations.

* Warning : Long Rant Ahead. But I do need to vent it to get back on track. *

Obstacles are one thing and temptations are another. Obstacles are nature’s mechanism to filter the men from boys and temptations are the games life plays with you to actually stop you from achieving your goals.

I have a habit – I don’t usually talk about my dreams and desires and my personal life with anyone. However, what I can indeed tell is that my ambition requires me to have money and a lot of it.

Another thing that I am going to do today is talk about two temptations that really have been taking toll on me. But hey, I overcame one and found a way to not let the other one affect me… would talk about that too.

What I want to do in life isn’t an easy goal to achieve but it isn’t impossible too. And oh, difficulty never intimidates me. But, there have been a few temptations which have been slowing down my pace and I am still in phase to overcome their negative aspects (more about this thing later).

Temptation #1 – Money. What? Am I calling the thing that I am ultimately trying to achieve a temptation which holds you back from achieving your ambitions. Actually no. It’s a different kind of money that I am talking about. Let me explain.

There are two kind of money that you can earn – a. Asset money; b. Work money.

a. Asset Money – I agree with how Robert Kiyosaki defines assets in his book Rich Dad Poor Dad as something that makes your money without you having to put any direct effort in managing it.

Assets can be your stock investments, real-estate, royalties or anything else of that nature.

Creating assets is a difficult art to master (though you attain perfection over time) and most of the times assets don’t start making moolah right away. And, even if they do make some money in the early stages, it is minimal.

However, it is long-term money and ‘the only’ way to be rich. And, if getting rich was that easy, wouldn’t everyone be filthy rich and riding in private jets by now?

b. Work Money – This kind of money is direct compensation for the effort you put in doing work and hence, directly proportional to the amount of work you do. Also, this kind of money is much easier to earn than creating assets.

There’s that f-word : Ease!

Don’t we all just love the easy way around everything? Well, that’s exactly the first temptation (and the money I was referring to).

You see the problem with this kind of money is when you find that you can make money instantly and more easily, as compared to creating assets, you start losing your focus (and time) to create assets which will make you much-much-much more money, but, in long term.

Recently, I found myself also falling in for this temptation and tried to start a few ventures which were not assets. Thankfully, it was easier for to remind me about the problem with doing so and got back on track.

However, there is another temptation which is a much-much bigger problem, than the temptation of easier money, which I (and perhaps you) have to overcome each day. And that temptation is women.

Oh BTW, please excuse me for being so candid.

Temptation #2 – Women. Dale Carnegie once said that there are just two things that motivate a man and they are Money and Sex. There is no denying that he was absolutely right. And, this exact lust can turn out to be the biggest hindrance in achieving your goals, if you do it the wrong way.

See, even though I don’t let emotions interfere with my business but I am no emotionless creature either. So, to preach or try to practice a complete restraint is simply impossible.

Simply speaking, women are a really important part of the whole game of life — they can keep you motivated to achieve your ultimate aims. If you come to think about it, they are also the reason why we run after money and other finer luxuries or life.

By the way, did you notice that I use the word can in the above statement? Women can be both a motivation as well as a hindrance. Lemme explain.

Flirting and casual encounters can be really-really great to keep you going. However, when you let women get over your mind and allow them to affect your business, then it is a problem. A huge one actually.

Tt isn’t really an easy temptation to overcome. I see it happening to me each day and it is a struggle to keep myself focused on my goal. Especially since I so very much like this one girl I know.

To be honest, I can’t offer you any solution to this problem as even I am experimenting what works to keep you going. But one thing that I’ve found to work on me is not to try an restrain me from going ahead with the girl.

This allows me to not keep thinking about what-next or how do I get her as I already have the comfort of thought that she is a good friend. And, remind myself that Sex and Money go hand in hand [Read this and this] to keep myself motivated to keep working to achieve the second part to attain the first thing.

If you have a better suggestion, do let me know about it please.

Anyway, thanks for keeping me company while I vented. I really needed to get it off my head.