Before Step 1:

Start making, setting and following goals. According to Tracy, goal setting is the key to getting started. I tend to agree with her. I suck at setting and writing down goals. That is probably why I have never amounted to anything. I never write down my goals or hold myself to anything.

Begin with the end in mind. I first heard this term when I read (half of) "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" (maybe another reason why I have never amounted to anything, I never finished the book. Maybe because I never wrote down a goal to finish the book. Maybe there is a trend emerging here.

Here are my Goals:

1. Follow Tracy Repchuk's advice by the letter and see if it works.
2. Make enough money that I can spend all the quality time with my family that I can handle.
3. Have a recurring source of revenue so that I can continue spending as much quality time with my family as I can handle.
4. Make enough money that I can take care of my crippled, decrepit parents. (Great People, just have really bad luck)
5. Make enough money that I can get out of debt and spend a few years on a full-time mission with my family serving my church.
6. Make enough money that we can give back to the community and help others. (I would help everyone if I could - I really like helping people out - it is my weakness. I am too nice.)

Create an Action Plan and Victory Chart. This seems like a good idea. I like listening to Dave Ramsey on the Radio and I have read his book "Total Money Makeover" - A GREAT book. I highly recommend it. You can buy it here (insert link). He follows much of the same strategy. If you celebrate the small victories, it makes it easier to keep motivated if you are celebrating the small steps along the way to your big goals.

So here is my action plan on what I need to do to get this to work for me:
1. Get on a schedule - Up at 6:30 and to bed at 11:00
2. Write down goals on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and long-term basis.
3. Limit my "Time Wasters" like the 3-5 hours of TV that I watch a day.
4. Dedicate 1 hour a day UNINTERRUPTED to my kids and lovely supportive wife.
5. Write down the flood of ideas that I constantly have and determine which ones are really feasible and which ones are not going to be productive.

And here is my Victory Chart:
* All websites running - I will treat my family and myself to lunch.

* First Online Sell - I buy myself a Western Bacon 6-Dollar Burger from Carl's Jr. (I LOVE that Burger)

* First Recurring Revenue Customer - Take my lovely wife out to dinner without my kids. (anyone know a good babysitter)

* First 100 sells/customers -Buy myself another Hand Gun (I am a collector)

* First $100 Profit - Go out to Dinner with my kids and my wife. (See how long it takes us to get kicked out of the restaurant)

* First $10,000 Profit - Get Mom and Dad a car. They have two pieces of junk. All my Mom wants is a Hyundai Santa Fe.

* First $100,000 Profit - Buy down my house and try to get more out of debt. (I have a huge debt that I incurred when a corrupt contractor took out bankruptcy on me on a whole bunch of work that I did for him, and rather than file bankruptcy and stick it to the bank, I decided that I would honor my debts - even if they weren't mine and try to pay them off myself.)

* First $1,000,000 Profit - Get a new 6-bedroom house. My wife wants to have 5-6 kids and our small 1500 sq. ft. home is really not cutting it. Nothing huge and extravagant - just large enough to be comfortable and in a nicer neighborhood.

* First $1,500,000 Profit - Pay off Mom and Dad's house so that they can enjoy their lives. They have struggled financially non-stop since they got married, and I really would like them to have a break.

* First $1,750,000 Profit - Get my Sister and her husband out of debt. They have really struggled financially as well, and My Brother-in-Law has really worked his butt off for me in our small business, and I would really like to see them get some kind of pay-out for it.

* First $2,000,000 Profit - Go on a full-time mission with my wife (and with my kids if they are still at home) and dedicate two full years to serving the people of a foreign country and the Lord that gave me life.

So create your action plan and victory chart and I'll meet you back here for Step One.