I came across this thought sometime ago:

"When you state what you want, you then either have to start making it happen or start making excuses not to make it happen." I've been thinking about this and it is kind of true. What are your thoughts on it?

Yes I absolutely agree with this thought; maybe the only remaining alternative is to simply forget what you have stated (but you have to somehow make the other people forget about it too...)

Another thought about goal-oriented individuals:

It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it.

W. Somerset Maugham

I really think it is better than to put up with the second best.

yes true, that's why it's better to be more conservative in what you're stating than trying to make up an excuse after that.

But then this question comes - sure you wanna get the best and so one but how do you do it? It's not a matter of how you execute the actual task of achieving what you want but what mindset do you create so that you can keep going.

It seems to me that a lot of people fail to achieve their goals because they are not persistent enough. They often have a back-up alternatives to jump on in case their main choice doesn't work out for whatever reason. So, a lot of people take on a task thinking - well if it doesn't work out I can always do something else. When I worked in sales there were people on my team who would say - you know, sales is what I really wanna do, it's good money and all that but if it doesn't work out I can always go back to my old job. Having back-up alternatives is not bad but it stops you from going all out to achieve your goal.

Here's an example. When the Spaniards reached Mexico, they started communicating with the locals and figured out this land was loaded with gold. Now, in order to get to the gold, they had to conquer the land and the locals didn't seem to be the most accommodating people. So, most of the crew of Cortez (their leader) were thinking - if we can't beat them, we can always run back to the ships and sail away. Cortez knew that so he burned down the ships. Now, the Spaniards knew that they have only 2 options - either win and take over, or die. Now, dying is not much of an option, so really, they had only 1 choice. If you can create similar situations in your life it may be more likely to achieve your goals.