Nickolove Lovemore asked:


The Indiana Jones films are not only great adventure films. You can learn much about goal achievement from watching these films too. Steven Spielberg said:

“I hate that people think it’s wrong to say you’re inspired by Jaws or by Raiders of The Lost Ark. You’re allowed to be.”

One could add Indiana Jones to that list. Admittedly, Spielberg is biased. Still, here are three lessons in goal achievement inspired by Indiana Jones.

1. Indiana follows his passion

Those who have achieved great success all believe vehemently in the importance of following your passion and doing what you love. It is only by doing this that you will continue to have the motivation to persevere in spite of enormous odds.

Indiana certainly epitomises this. He is passionate about archaeology and this is what drives him. And, while it may just be a movie, he battles enormous odds to attain his goals.

It is only by following your passion that you will have the energy and drive to keep going even though the journey towards your goal may be an arduous one and at times you may become weak – physically, mentally and emotionally.

“The key that unlocks energy is desire. It’s also the key to a long and interesting life. If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited.”

Earl Nightingale

2. Indiana confronts his fears

One of the endearing qualities about Indiana is that he is very human. He too has his fears, for instance, he hates snakes. Yet, he does not let his fears stand in the way of achieving his goals.

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

Ambrose Redmoon

When you set yourself challenging goals, at some point you will come up against something that you fear. The trouble is what you fear may not be tangible. It may be a limiting or negative belief such as the fear of failure or the fear of success.

However, such limiting or negative beliefs can stop you dead in your tracks if you do not develop techniques and strategies to clear yourself of them. The good thing is that the more you practice these clearing techniques the easier it will become to overcome your fears.

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

3. Indiana has very clear values

Indiana’s values make it easy for him for him to make decisions and take action. Great goal achievers are great decision-makers and they take action. Too often people do not achieve the level of success they desire because they spend too much time deciding what to do and too little time actually doing anything.

True, some things require careful deliberation. However, in many cases, especially when it comes to the day-to-day activities that will help you to make progress towards your goal, you have to learn how to quickly weigh up a situation and make the best decision there and then on how to move forwards. There can be no progress without decision-making.

Having clear values and clearly defined goals will go a long way in helping you to make those timely decisions. It’s almost like making a decision in advance. If something is not in harmony with your values then you can simply reject that particular idea.

Imagine having an army at your disposal that is ready and waiting to help you manifest your goals. The thing is the army can only act once you make a decision. When you make a decision the army is galvanised into action. When you don’t make a decision the army is immobile and if you are indecisive then your private army moves in a chaotic manner accomplishing little or nothing. So you have to keep you army moving in an efficient and cohesive manner by continuing to make decisions.

“Your only purpose in life is to make choices. Once the choice is made, the whole universe moves to bring into fruition that which you chose.”

Jack Deal asked:


When I was a teenager, I thought that adventure was going to places like Fez, Chiapas or Vancouver Island. Well, I went to those places and had adventure but over the years I learned that going thousands of miles from home to a completely alien culture and language is not the only route to adventure.

Before I was 20 I was a veteran world traveler that pushed the limits of adventure and was ready for more. But it occurred to me even back then there was a fly in this ointment. It had to do with anecdotal evidence or what I observed in the ‘real’ world. Adventure wasn’t as simple as buying a ticket and going somewhere.

Many people I met would go to exotic places and not be effected at all. Part of this was their means of travel and accommodations and another part their mindset. It goes something like this: ‘by golly we are going to see and do but let’s not let down our hair lest we interact in ways that are not culturally comfortable for us.’ Summary: we gonna travel but we ain’t gonna experience.

Consequently I met world travelers that were no more world wise than my neighbor across the street that never leaves the county.

But, hey, don’t be surprised if you find out you started a tad late. 20 years after I took those youthful trips I took another trip. The wife and son spent the summer down at the farm in Veracruz but I had to stay in California to work. During that span I took off ten days to drive up to Canada. It was the first trip I had taken by myself in 20 years.

But it wasn’t the same. I never hitchhiked. I had a car and not a motorcycle. I had a credit card and not just some tightly budgeted cash. I stayed in a hotel and did not once sleep on the ground or beach or someone’s kitchen floor. I even came back before my 10 days was up. On every other trip I had ever taken I was always late getting back home. The reality was I just wasn’t the same person I was 20 years before.

If you are young, do your adventuring as soon as you can. Don’t listen to those that say all you should be doing is studying and working. There will be plenty of time for that but adventure is a fragile thing and not something you can postpone forever. Over time it can be lost.

In fact if you are lucky like I was you will meet people that will tell you how much they regret not adventuring more when they were young. Now, many middle aged men my age have become obsessed with trying to find adventure before they die. They went from college to corporation and finally in their late fifties and early sixties can adventure and do what they want. Good luck. If they had done their adventuring when they were younger they wouldn’t be so ornery and stubborn and angry and frustrated. Tough attitude to start out with on an adventure…

But I also met folks that were having fantastic adventures while never leaving their communities. So much for adventure being only found in exotic places. I met many different types of people for whom each day was an adventure. If their day was anything but adventurous, they made it adventurous. They could have boring jobs and live in boring communities and have boring families but they were always so excited about life and adventure that they could hardly stand it.

What they do is create and customize their own adventure and become engaged by it. For them every minute is sheer joy at celebrating being alive. They are too busy being grateful to complain. They are too busy being humbled to be presumptuous. They understand that the greatest gift a human can extend is friendship and the here and now is nature’s greatest gift. What me worry?

I came to understand being engaged one hot Moroccan night in Rabat as I lay awake drenched in sweat on my hotel bed. I had been to the interior and gotten a most nasty case of amoebic dysentery; diarrhea, fevers, shakes and all.

I did not worry that I was a teenager with little money and very sick in a strange country so very far from home. In fact I did not worry at all. I knew I would be fine. I would survive this ordeal and anything else in the future.

And I did. I continued a life of one adventure after another. I had arrived. I was engaged.