Does this sound familiar?

"Do I ever hate my job! I'd like to..." or "If only I would have..." or I should have listened to..." or "What can I do, I'm trapped in this job by a family, mortgage, car payments and all that stuff?. What do you want me to do?" or worse, "I love what I'm doing, look at all the 'stuff' I own."

The words don't matter, it's the feeling behind the words that is important. If you are feeling trapped, don't know where to turn, but absolutely know for a fact you need to change something in your life, this is for you.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?
Start with the basics . . . and before we begin . . .let me say this step is the most difficult part.

Just what do you want? What burning passion keeps you awake at night dreaming the 'what if' game? What turn you on? Is it just money or does something else drive you to distraction?

It could be as simple as money, but let's put money in it's proper frame. It's not the money itself, it's what you can do with money that counts!. Money could mean a 4500 square foot house instead of your 1800 square foot tract home, or it could mean a 10,000 square foot mansion if that's your desire! Money could provide your first real home instead of renting. Money could give you that boat you've always wanted, paid for in full!

How about 'no debt'? That means no credit card debt, no car payments, no mortgages or whatever.

Money could maybe mean allowing your wife stay at home and properly take care of the kids instead of letting a service do it for you - even if that service is adequately performed by your mother-in-law. At the same time, if your wife want's to keep on working, money could mean a Nanny at home, a well-cooked meal on the table, and a clean house.

Maybe you dream of travel, but know without a doubt that you don't have the money to spare, or maybe it's the fact that you have no time available for anything, and it doesn't look like you will ever have any real time. And even if you do travel, wouldn't it be nice to not have to direct your travel so you can stay with relatives?

I don't know what will drive you to excellence, but deep down you do, and it's time you discovered what it is and brought it out. After that, your goal is to channel your energies into making your dream come true instead of just living a life of quiet desperation.

THE FIRST STEP
A large number of 'successful' people make gathering wealth the focus of their life. These are the doctors, attorneys and other business people in their fourth marriage who may not even remember the names of their children from the first, much less their birthdays, achievements and celebrations. You too can be like this if you make the gathering of wealth a prime focus. What is more important is what you do with your wealth! Does it buy you time with your family? Your children? Your spouse?

You don't know what to do other than what you're doing now? I can understand that. Here are some suggestions.

• Set aside a quite day with yourself or your spouse and play word games. Start like this: "What would I do with myself and my life if I had all the money I could use and all the time in which to use it? What would I buy? What good deeds could I do with money? Where would I spend my time? What would I do for fun? What would I do to help others? How would my life be different?

• Work through this exercise until you can clearly define a passion other than wealth gathering. When you're finished, write a 'mission or dream statement' that says in one to three paragraphs what you are about, who you are, what your dreams and mission on this earth is all about. It matters not what your dream is, it won't happen unless you decide to make it happen. Here's a 90-day plan that works.

THE 90 DAY SPECIAL
Begin this program by determining how long you want it to take to achieve your dream. It could be as short as next year or as distant as 10 to 25 years from today. Regardless, your next task is to set a 90-day agenda that takes you towards your dream. Maybe it's to obtain three new customers for your business, or maybe take a course at a local community college, or it could be to explore a business for yourself instead of working for others.

Ninety days is time enough. Longer than this permits you to sluff-off and do nothing. A shorter time often presents a challenge you cannot meet.

Next, set real goals that must be achieved if you are to meet your dream, then accomplish those goals. When you're done with one set of goals, define and set another 90-day goal and start over. Eventually you'll accomplish your long range dream.

BUT WHAT IF THAT DOESN'T WORK?
It could be you bit off too much work for your 90 day special. In this case, re-examine your timetable. It could be that you just cannot achieve all your dream in the time you set forth. In that case, take smaller bites and extend the ultimate deadline accordingly.

"This means I may never have my (boat, car, home, mansion, vacation)!" you say. Not true! Following this outline will get you what you dream of, and it will happen in the original timeframe. All you need is some help at the beginning to get started.

SPEAK YOUR DREAM
Here's where we separate the doers from the don'ters (I think that's a new word). The doers will tell people about their dreams. Doers will speak their dream to friends, coworkers, relatives, and others. You not only have to dream, you have to speak your dream, think your dream, and act your dream if you want it to happen. It has to be your reason for everything.

THE DREAM STEALERS
Along the way to achieving your dreams you will run across the dream stealers, those who know you and those who don't. Their mantra will be, "You can't do that!" If you want your dream, you will not listen to their well-meaning comments, homilies, and suggestions. You wouldn't take your brother-in-law's advice on your golf swing over Tiger Woods', would you? Then why would you want to take advice from your friends, relatives, and coworkers about building and achieving your dream when they don't have one of their own . . . and never will?

Stick to your guns--it will be worth it!