Step 1, Know Where You Are. If you are thinking of retitle this to "Know Where Your Money is Going", I would say, the former is BETTER! Yes, you have a very good definition of the Step 1: 1) Where your money is coming in and its quantity 2) Where your money is going out and its balance 3) How much you owe that continuosly requires outflow. And you talked about motivation from the numbers on various bills. Paying bills is a headache if you are doing something that you cannot leverage upon to increase income. Knowing Where you are includes not only the "flow of money: which is specified in the above posts. It includes everything about yourself and the environment. How about your current knowledge level? How about your skills and humanity network? How about your reputation in the eyes of the money suppliers(banks, venture capitalists)? How about your market? How about your passion? ... The lists go on and on. The more a person understand hiself, the better of him knowing where he is now, and therefore charting for his journey with better information. The only way to know yourself is DISCOVER IT, through TRYING and FAILING. There is nothing to be afraid of FAILING. We all failed in something, which makes us understand more of ourself. When you fail, there is 2 outcomes: 1) Avoid the failure in the future 2) Improve yourself in that arena so you wont fail again. I learnt this from a trainer: If you are not successful yet, it is due to only one single reason: "Your speed of failure is not fast enough". That said, do not overlook the POWER OF FAILURE. It lets you discover perspectives that you can never imagine. It leads to wonders. Knowing where you are is THE FIRST STEP in every planning. To know more of who you are, explore the world. It has all possibilities! Following --->http://www.soulcast.com/post/show/2263/Step-#1---Know-Where-You-Are# Gymosphere ||{1}|| ||{1}||