It is a question that Bryan Tracy asks on his audio program, "The Psychology of Success." Here is the complete question: "What one great thing would you accomplish if you knew you could not fail? It's not an easy question and requires thought, for someone like I am. Maybe others, even many, have a quick and ready answer but I wanted to think mine out. I began working from goals many years ago, in 1987 in fact. I had set some goals before, and accomplished a number of them.
For example, when I was seventeen and in love and had a terribly crashed romance with my girlfriend, after I struggled with so many things, I quit school and enlisted in the United States Navy. I was barely seventeen having my birthday in February and enlisting in March. I went through Boot Camp in San Diego, then Radar "A" School in San Francisco and then boarded my ship, the USS Point Defiance (LSD-31) in December of 1961. After I left the navy, I had a goal of finishing high school, which I did, in 1967, five years after my graduating class of 1962. I was married, had a new son and a low paying, hard working job as a truck driver and cylinder gas delivery person. Then I got a job with Phillips Petroleum Company (after my diploma) and I worked there for 33 1/2 years. I started college when I was 29 and working for Phillips and as I went along in my career, I acquired college hours, got a better job, more hours, better job, etc. So I had goals but I never grasped the power of goals until I began to study under Zig Ziglar. What were my goals? Well, too many to list here but let me highlight a few. I set a goal to personally meet Zig, and did. In fact, I am listed in his book, "Over theTop" on page 106, as Stephen Payne from Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I set a goal to meet Stephen Covey, author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" and met him. Then it was to meet Tom Hopkins; did: Meet Bryan Tracy; did. I set a goal to learn Spanish. I later became a Spanish interpreter and translator, worked in two jobs as an interpreter, taught Spanish, then I learned French, Italian, German, Russian, Mandarin Chinese and now I am busily learning Polish and I can speak, read and write Polish. So, you can see why I had to think, "What one great thing?"
Years ago, I wrote out my personal mission statement, which is long, but the nutshell version is this: My mission is to learn, teach and give. I do that. I love learning and I've even been called The Learning Machine; I can't help teaching as it's in my nature and I give. I give books. I have given over 200 copies of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, around one hundred copies of Joyce Hifler's book, "The Cherokee Feast of Days," a number of "The Magic of Thinking Big" and many other books. Then I began to give the Marine's Bible to marines I could meet and find. I began to give the Soldier's Bible, and as of this week, we have given 640 of the Holman Military Bibles.
Could I reach 1,000? Yes, of course, as we are not so far from that. We will reach 700 Bibles by the end of 2013 and then next year, more, so 1,000 is hardly a challenge then. What one great thing? I decided to set my goal as 10,000 Bibles to give and then some of the things Bryan said came back to me. What one great thing would you accomplish if you KNEW you could not fail?
My goal is to give 100,000 Holman Christian Standard Bibles to the men and women of our armed services. That has now become my one great thing. As some athletes have said, you miss all of the shots you don't take; as Jelly Bean Jones said, "The girl you don't ask out ain't going with you anyway." So, I set a high goal, one so high I can not yet see it, but it's there now, carved in ink, and I'm on my way to it.
The photograph I chose? Yes, that is I, in the tandem jump from 10,000 feet with Andy Beck, my jump master and I had a wonderful time. I am 69 years of age now and made my first jump. I did it to deal with my fear of height and it has worked pretty well so far. It's part of my processes, to learn, to teach, and to give.
We did a free fall for 38 seconds and it didn't feel like we were moving. We hung in the air as we talked and I looked all around me, down, sideways, up, and I loved the feeling of sailing through the air, even downward. Once the parachute opened, Andy taught me how to drive and let me go left, right, even spin us, and then we were down, landing softly, and I feel different today, a week and days since I went out of the airplane. Jumping was a goal but not my one great thing. But I know now what my one great thing is, to give 100,000 Bibles, and I cannot fail.
Stephen Joe "Red Boots" Payne
