“Sorry, I didn’t have time to make it shorter.” This was the last sentence in Goethe’s 40-page letter to his best friend.

“Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince).

“We are Pope!” – the most famous summary by Bild newspaper on April 20, 2005, regarding the election of Cardinal Ratzinger.

“Ich bin ein Berliner.” – John F. Kennedy on June 26, 1963, in front of Schöneberg Town Hall in West Berlin.

If you want to achieve your goal, learn to get to the point.

“You can think about everything – everything – except the white elephant!”
In that moment, the image of the white elephant is in your mind; it’s too late to correct it.

“Please think about the pink elephant.”

That is the difference between avoiding and achieving.
Where do you want your goal to take you? Do you want to move away from something or towards something? Avoiding or achieving – both generate energy for change. However, only one path is directed towards a goal.

Practice your language if you want to achieve your goal.

“I am not working on a stone; I am building a cathedral!” A powerful goal has one thing above all: it has meaning.

What meaning do you see in your goal? What meaning could this goal have for those you want to convince?

The deeper meaning lies where our inner needs reside. Our values.

What connection does your goal have to your values or to the values of those you wish to persuade?