Are you motivated? Are you ready for your piece of pie? Are you ready to pay for your success?

How much will you pay for your success? When will you begin making your payments? Success has never come free to anyone. Riches may have been passed down from father to son, but success has never been handed down. Success always has a price tag dangling from its edge and the price changes depending upon who is looking at it.

Just like anything else, some people are willing to pay more for success than the tag demands. They will sacrifice self, family, and other things in hope of obtaining it. When it is all said and done, though, they soon discover they paid a high price for a tag and little more.

When bargaining for success, you must ask yourself the following questions:

1. What will I have to give up or do to achieve the goal I have set for myself?

2. What am I willing to give up or do to achieve the goal I have set for myself?

Once you have answered these questions you must add them up. If what you must give up is within the limits of what you are willing to give up, success is definitely within your price range.

To demonstrate this, consider the following example. Mary is a mother of two, a housewife, and a full-time employee. She desires to write a novel within the next twelve months, but feels she has too little time. She has set her long-term and short-term goals. As short-term goals, she must write eight pages a week. She asks herself the value questions.

“What must I give up or do?”

I must spend roughly 4 hours a week working on planning, editing, and writing, etc.

“What am I willing to give up?”

Bowling on Tuesday nights (3 hours), sleeping in on Saturdays (2 hours), two of my favorite TV shows (2 hours)

Clearly, what Mary must give up (4 hours) is within the boundaries of what she is willing to give up (7 hours). If it were the other way around, however, she would never be able to achieve her goal. She would have to have a two-year goal instead of a one-year goal.

Here comes the most important part. You have negotiated the price for success. Now pay it! Success never comes C.O.D. It is always marked Paid In Full before delivery.