I have a confession to make: I did not join Success University for the outstanding residual income program it offers. When I made a decision to start my own home business, my intention was not to replace my regular job, it was just to supplement it. Like so many people, I had successfully scraped by for over 20 years while raising my three children. We have never had any real luxuries, but I was able to provide a stable home, food on the table and even an occasion budget vacation. In fact, two of my children were already through college, and one of them had a beautiful wedding last year, complete with most of the nice trimmings.

Fortunately, I had no plans at all of every retiring because there is nothing left over. I am very happy to have been able to provide all of these things, but nowhere in my vision was there any allowance for then being able to enjoy my life once my nest began to empty. Being fairly young when I jumped into parenthood, until my grandson came along and my own mother moved out of our childhood home and into a senior living facility, I really did not give a whole lot of consideration into needing just as much money when I reached this new stage of my life at a fairly young age. No plans had been made for my childrens' or my grandchildrens' inheritance.

Now that I no longer have to attend daily practices and sporting events and parent-teacher conferences, I have extra time on my hands. And so, much too late, I begin my journey of making and saving the income for what I will survive on with the bleak prospects of Social Security in our country, and what I would like to pass down to my family when I leave this world. My internet marketing carer was born.

Sure, you can run a minimally successful business from your home on a part-time basis. But with my extremely limited knowledge of the internet marketing world and affiliate programs, I found myself spending endless hours on my home computer searching for answers and devouring an enormous supply of e-books trying to understand just how to make this dream of a successful, legitimate home internet business a reality. Thank goodness that I was introduced to Success University, one of the income streams recommended through the Plug-in-Profit system. My entire education in one place -- who could ask for more?

So each month I eagerly await Matt Morris' newsletter. He is the the founder of Success University, and last month he wrote something about "goals" and "vision" that really hit home:

"We all know what a goal is, but vision is a topic of confusion for many. To put it in the simplest of terms, your vision is how you see yourself. You can set goals all day long, but if you cannot truly see yourself achieving them, your goals will never be realized. To accomplish a goal, you must truly expect to achieve it."

The key word is "see". He was talking directly to me. I never saw myself being able to make a full-time living with my business, instead of having to stay up on my computer until midnight and then struggling to make it into my office a few hours later for my "regular" job. But here were mentors in Success University who had come from much more humble beginnings and been able to forge a career from virtually nothing but the desire to succeed. I had the determination to stick it out through the learning curve, even while doctoring the stomach ulcers I was soon inflicted with as a result of trying to now work a full-time job, a part-time job and keep up with the needs of my family and my network of friends. I was getting it all done, but my home business was going nowhere fast, thanks to my self-imposed restraints of time and resources.

Then Matt told me that we fail to achieve goals because we don't give them real substance in the subconscious by visualizing them taking place. Oh, I have worthy enough goals, but they lack vision. Like Matt Morris, I focused on struggling financially, and so these circumstances came to dominate my subconscious mind. Setting a goal like having a successful home internet business without first seeing a real vision of it being so successful that you can replace your 9-5 existence and have all the things that a successful business can afford means you fail to appeal to your subconscious mind. You must use pictures that compel -- see yourself not bothering to set an alarm clock each night, planning trips to dream destinations, investing money wisely without worry. If you cannot see it, you will never have it.

The subconscious mind will draw on whatever is at hand. If poverty and failure are the only materials available, they will be drawn upon and they will certainly
continue to show up in your life. But you CAN change the vision in your subconscious.

First, be more conscious of spending your time with people who have similar goals and vision. Are you afraid to tell a close friend about your goals? If so, they are not as close a friend as you may have thought. Seek out mentors to guide you on your path. Try an online mentoring program such as Success University.

Look at your past in a more positive light. Turn your past into a source of strength, not weakness and self-defeat. If necessary, change the way you speak and think about yourself. This is where positive thinking is important - in the thoughts you have about yourself.

Finally, build your vision by creating pictures in your mind, as vividly and as often as possible. Again, the support of an organization like Success University will provide you with daily reinforcement and help in this area of personal reorientation. When your subconscious is impressed with a clear vision it will work towards your goals by encouraging you to take action or respond to opportunities. When the inevitable failures and false leads hinder your progress, you will have the basis to fight the urges to just give up.

Tiger Woods, a man who has spent much of his life in the company of great mentors, talks about failure like this: "The most we can ask of ourselves is to give it our best shot, knowing that sometimes we will fail. We are often defined by how we handle that failure."

You too, can achieve your goals - provided you turn them into a compelling vision for your subconscious mind.