Desire

It all begins with desire. Without a strong desire for a goal, you can't achieve it. That sounds self-evident, but I think a lot of people ignore this. I have done more than my fair share of wishing in my life. Wishing is vague, its half -hearted and it doesn't usually work. What this chapter talks about is desiring something completely. Committing to it unconditionally. To commit to something, you need to desire it, a lot. Without this strong desire, once the initial enthusiasm has passed, you won't have anything to keep you going.
Its the difference between someone saying "I wish I had more money" and another person saying "I am absolutely committed to saving $1 million by January 1st 2010". Who would be most likely to achieve their goal?

In this chapter, the story I really like is about Mme. Schuman-Heink, the opera singer, who, on her first ever audition was told by the director of the Vienna Court Opera she wasn't cut out for singing and to give up. The line from the book is fantastic:

"The director of the Vienna Court Opera knew much about the technique of singing. He knew little about the power of desire, when it assumes the proportion of an obsession."

Sometimes people have a goal, but because they are finding it hard to get motivated to consistently do anything about it, they question their actual desire for the goal.What do you do in those situations?
Well, two things:
1. You can decide maybe you dont really want it enough, and give up (what I used to do)
2. You can realise that desire does not always arrive full strength, and with some goals, the desire can be cultivated 0ver time. (This is my approach now.) There are stories later on in TAGR about people mulling over desires for many years, until they became an obsession. You don't have to be absolutely passionate about something straight away.