However, it’s easy to become misled about this. You don’t need to know everything. “You don’t have to see the whole staircase; just take the first step.” And likewise, if you’re driving from Los Angeles to New York, just knowing that you’ll drive to the East is actually enough to start making a plan. In fact, you could just gas the car and start driving East.

And, lots of times, you simply cannot know everything.

Sometimes you cannot even research things very well. And if you take no action because the complete details of your plan are unclear, then very possibly no beginning step will *ever* be taken. And you’ll not reach the end of the path unless that first step is taken.

There are excellent ways to make a plan. [See STEP TWO for information on Targeting.]

But there’s a step that must come first! And, often, it’s overlooked!

What must come first is … Decision.

If you’re going to Do Something in the world, the very first step is to DECIDE that you’re going to do it. This harkens to the oft-quoted Law of Attraction. So often, discussions of the Law of Attraction center on how you can “get a lot of stuff.”

This is all very well and good. There’s nothing wrong with being, doing, and having things that interest and inspire you. In fact, the ability to be and do and have what interests and inspires you is a wonderful way to live. But let’s ignore “the stuff,” for just a moment.

::: YOU MUST DECIDE 

The first thing that happens — that must happen — is that you’ve got to CHOOSE what you want. You’ve got to SELECT your target. You’ve got to DECIDE what you want.

Now maybe you decide and then do some research. Or maybe you decide and then ride off madly in all directions, and by observing your results you can correct your direction and eventually arrive at your target. The wisdom of your plan, the cleverness of the details, and the speed of your arrival are not the point.

The point is that the first thing that has to happen is that you DECIDE.

Sometimes people are afraid to decide, because just thinking about such things triggers habitual unpleasant mental responses (failures and flops and embarassments!). For more about how this becomes built into the brain, see my articles “How to Approach a Woman” and “Breaking Up is Hard to Do.”)

To shy away from wanting to re-experience unpleasant memories is an understandable human aversion to further pain. However, shying away from something you’d like will just never get you there. And the first step is to DECIDE.

::: WHICH CAME FIRST — THE DECISION OR THE EGG?

It was the Decision.

Do you want to, in general, improve your life? Do you want to be more, do more, have more?

Then your first step is to decide to be more, do more, or have more.

If you’re not quite sure exactly how you’ll do it, that’s fine.

Ghandi didn’t know exactly how he would get the British out of India. Columbus didn’t know exactly how he would land on the shore of the Americas. They had to first decide, and then, in a way, everything else was just details.

If your targets aren’t exactly clear, or if you have an idea what you want, but no clue how to go about getting there, don’t worry. Just decide. That’s the first step.

::: FIVE STEP ABUNDANCE 

And, (ahem!) of course you could always use the Five Step Abundance method. It has five parts:

In the first part you learn how visualization and the Law of Attraction can be put to work for you.

In the second part you learn how to set targets and then work backwards to make a plan for getting there, and how to continually increase your energy, time, and money power.

In the third part you’ll learn how to simply and easily tune your body so that you maximize your energy, and enhance your health and your outlook on life.

In the fourth part you’ll learn how you can tweak your diet so as to avoid disease, extend your life, and feel better all the time.

And in the fifth part you learn two methods for clearing out all the old stuff from the past. This not only feels good, but produces increasing calm and focus in your life, and many physical ailments are often improved.

But, although this sounds like a plan, it’s not the first step.

The first step is … decide.

(Ladies, it will seem silly to you, but it’s going to make sense to most any guy.)

But what?

What can I be?

And what can I have? And what can I do?

And … what do I want?

Actually, if you’re not immediately in touch with what you want, then you’ve just covered it over with old hurts, old failures, old disappointments, old … something. Because when you were a child, you knew what you wanted. And it’s still in there.

The sellers of Manifestation Marvels! will tell you that you can be, do, or have anything that you want. And, most likely, you can.

But some people, faced with this radical idea, usually their lifetime of experience and their past decisions and perceptions have given them a more mechanical view of life, just can’t immediately think of anything they’d like to have. “Huh?” one fellow said. The lady sitting next to him, I think it was his wife, just shook her head.

“Not a thing,” she said, “I’ve got just everything I need.”

Do you believe that?

HOW TO UNCOVER THE TRUTH

There are actually several ways to open the door and see what it is that you’d like to do, have, or be.

1. Think back to when you were a teen, just past puberty. What interested you at that time is often something that is near to your heart. At that age, you’re adult enough to perceive things in the adult world, and you’re still child enough to tune into what interests you rather than what is practical, what is reasonable, what is mature, what is sensible, or what you think might be attainable.
2. Sit and close your eyes and relax, and imagine that some relative you never knew has departed this plane and left you immensely wealthy. You don’t have to work. You don’t have to worry. You can buy anything you want. You can spend your time any way you wish. And now, wealthy and idle as you are, just let your thoughts drift and dream up some things that you might do just for the heck of it. And keep these thoughts going for a few days, because when you open this flood gate, a lot may pour out.
3. Get some paper and pencil and start writing down possibilities, no matter how crazy or stupid they sound. Do not allow your habitual focusing squelch the idea factory; every single crazy idea gets put down on the page. Just by the practice of admitting all crazy ideas, you’ll find that you can begin to see possibilities in these ideas, once you get out of the habit of throwing them out automatically.
4. Take three pieces of paper, and on one of them write “People are …”, and on the next one “People can …”, and on the third one write “People have …” and then, over a couple of days, just jot down all the various things you think that people, other people, might be able to be, do, and have. Now on this list you may discover some of your self-limiting thoughts becoming exposed, and if you suddenly realize that you have the belief in this or that limiting factor, then ask yourself “Why not?” and “What if …” And of course on these pieces of paper you may find yourself listing things that other people could be, do, and have. And if they can have them, why not you? What if …

A half hour on these things will start turning up useful ideas.

A few days will work even more powerfully.

And then, when you start becoming more clear on what you want, then you can start thinking about how you might be able to be, do, and have these things.

It’s a good start.