It's getting easier and easier to navigate the highways and byways through the magic of GPS -- the Global Positioning System. The service is in your car, your phone, your tablet, your watch. You are running out of excuses for not getting to where you want to go.

Wouldn't it be great if such a tool existed for finding your way through life's challenges? If you're like most ambitious people, you're always trying to get more done. The secret is paying attention to what you want to achieve. You can devise your own GPS formula by changing the words just a bit.

G is for goals. Make a list of what you want to accomplish so everything is clear and detailed in your mind. Make sure your goals are specific, including deadlines for completion and your measurements for success. Don't overload yourself. Concentrate on just one or two objectives at a time.

Goals give you more than a reason to get up in the morning; they are an incentive to keep you going all day. Goals tend to tap the deeper resources and draw the best out of life.

Most important, goals need to be realistic -- beyond your grasp but within your reach in the foreseeable future. Achieving goals produces significant accomplishments.

I remember a particular Peanuts cartoon in which Charlie Brown is having a bad day. He has struck out for the third straight time in a baseball game.

Back in the dugout, he buries his face in his hands and tells Lucy how he will never achieve his dreams of becoming a big-league ballplayer.

Lucy tells him that he's thinking too far ahead and needs to set more immediate goals. When Charlie Brown asks for an example, she tells him to see if he can walk out to the pitcher's mound without falling down.

P is for plans. Work out a general plan for achieving each goal over the long term. For instance, if you want a high-level position in your organization, your plan might include earning one or two intermediate promotions, getting additional training or volunteering for specific important committees. Each phase in your plan is a goal in itself. Approach each interim goal methodically, and follow a consistent process for completing each one.

People don't plan to fail; they fail to plan.

Try a process that I often use: working backward from the goal. If you want to arrive at Point X within a certain timeframe, you need to think about what you have to achieve to get there. That leads to your "S."

S is for segments. Break your plan down into separate segments that are small enough to tackle one after another, and large enough to stretch your skills at least a little. Think in terms of what you can accomplish in a single day, where you want to be at the end of the first month and so forth. This gives you a sense of direction and also helps you monitor progress.

Your personal GPS is not an app or option. It is basically standard equipment that doesn't cost extra. But you'll pay dearly if you don't activate it.

You can achieve your goals. But there's one catch. You have to commit to actually taking those steps and sticking to your plan. Staying motivated can be challenging, but keep your eye on the prize. Visualize your new business card, your corner office, your dream vacation ... whatever marks the achievement of your goal.

Otherwise, you'll just be another Marvin. Marvin dreamed of winning the lottery. Every time there was a drawing, he prayed loud and long that he would win. One day, as Marvin was beseeching the Almighty, the clouds parted and a voice boomed out from the heavens. "Marvin, Marvin," the voice said.

"Is that you?" gasped Marvin.

"It is I," intoned the voice.

"Are you here to answer my prayer? Will you let me win the lottery?"

"I will," said the voice, "but you have to meet me halfway. Marvin, buy a ticket!"

Buy your ticket. Set your goals. Follow your plans. Make your steps. Then take them out and look at them often. That's the only way you will achieve them.

Mackay's Moral: Life is full of detours, but you can always get back on track if you use your GPS.

The only survivor of a shipwreck woke up on the beach of an uninhabited island. Every day he circled the island, looking for ships on the horizon, and searched the sky for planes, hoping for a rescue. But none ever came.

So he scrounged around for materials to build a small hut to protect himself from the elements. His daily schedule included scavenging and hunting for food. He kept a small fire going so he could cook whatever he found.

After his walk around the island one day, he returned to find his hut in flames. A gust of wind had blown some embers from his fire, which had ignited the hut. Black smoke billowed through the air. Try as he might, he couldn't douse the fire. He collapsed, exhausted and dejected. He had lost all hope.

But the next day he awoke to find a ship anchored off the island. He would be rescued at last!

When he reached the ship, he asked the captain, "What made you stop here? I have been looking for a ship for months and saw none."

The captain replied, "We saw the smoke from the fire you built. It led us right to you."

What had seemed hopeless was what saved him.

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible. In short, hope changes everything.

My dear friend Lou Holtz always said you need four things in your life: No. 1, everyone needs something to do. No. 2, everyone needs someone to love. No. 3, everyone needs someone to believe in. And No. 4, everyone needs something in his or her life to hope for.

What do you want to do? You have to have hope, ambition and dreams.

My wish, dream and hope, aside from being a professional golfer, was to own my own factory. I didn't know what I would manufacture, but I always hoped to be able to walk the factory floor and have my employees look up to me.

But I didn't wait for it to fall in my lap. I acted on that hope and made my dreams come true.

Just because something isn't happening for you right now doesn't mean it will never happen. Hope is the little voice you hear whisper "maybe" when it seems the entire world is shouting "no."

Believing in the future helps us to have hope. "Hope is greater than history," said American businessman and diplomat Dwight Morrow more than a century ago. Don't let the idea that history repeats itself discourage you. You can shape your own history if you have hope.

Consider these words from naturalist Jane Goodall: "I carry a few symbols with me because sometimes you get a bit depressed, and these symbols remind me of the hope that there is in the world. ... I carry symbols that represent four reasons for hope: the human brain, with the technology that we are now working to try to live in greater harmony with the environment; the resilience of nature -- give nature a chance and it's amazing how places that we've destroyed can bloom again; the tremendous energy, commitment, excitement and dedication of young people once they know what the problems are, and we empower them to act to do something about it. And finally, the indomitable human spirit, those people who tackle impossible tasks and won't give in, those people who overcome tremendous physical disabilities and lead lives that are shining inspiration to those around them."

Mackay's Moral: Hope is what allows us to remember yesterday's disappointments and still look forward to tomorrow.

Within the past few years, some of the best-known names in American industry have disappeared down the gaping maws of other companies. Other seemingly unassailable fortresses have been disassembled, and the parts sold off separately. And there's nothing unusual about that.

If huge enterprises, some so valuable their assets exceed those of many of the world's nations, can be bought and sold, cut up into little pieces or put together into bigger pieces, then there's no deal that you and I can contemplate that can't be put together. A deal can always be made when the parties each see something in it for their own benefit.

Nine out of 10 lawsuits are settled before judgment is rendered in the courtroom because even the bitterest of adversaries will sit down at the same table when they can be shown there is a greater advantage in negotiating than in fighting.

Whatever it is you are trying to buy or sell can be bought or sold if you can get the other side of the table to see how the deal works to their advantage.

No matter what industry you're in, or how far you go in your career, the ability to effectively negotiate can make the difference between success and mediocrity. Whether it's a multimillion-dollar contract or a job offer, keep this advice in mind:

-- Know what you want. Don't go to the table without a clear, realistic idea of what you want to achieve. It will help you negotiate with confidence.

-- Ask for what you want. Let the other person make the first offer, then respond and set the tone for the discussion. That way you'll know how far you need to go to get what you need.

-- Understand what the other side wants. A successful negotiation should satisfy both sides. Instead of trying to crush your competition, find out what he or she hopes to get, and try to work together toward a solution that works for you both.

-- Don't concede unilaterally. Usually one side or the other has to give something up. If you do that, be sure to get a comparable concession from the other person. Giving away something for nothing will be interpreted as a weakness to be exploited.

-- Don't rush. Time can be your friend if you are willing to wait for the right deal. If the other side senses a deadline, they may be motivated to hold out until the last minute, or try to force you into accepting unreasonable terms. Be patient and let the time pressure work against the other side.

-- Be ready to walk away. This can take a certain amount of courage, but it's necessary to avoid being backed into an agreement you don't want. If possible, keep an ally in reserve -- someone with the power to approve or reject the deal. This can give you an out if you need to turn down a deal, or motivate the other side to make the best offer possible.

Mark McCormack, author of "What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School," said: "I find it helpful to try to figure out in advance where the other person would like to end up -- at what point he will do the deal and still feel like he's coming away with something.

"This is different from 'how far will he go?' A lot of times you can push someone to the wall and you still reach an agreement, but his resentment will come back to haunt you in a million ways."

And that's an important point to remember. People or companies that you make deals with on a regular, or even infrequent, basis have long memories. If you don't fight fair or you embarrass them or make them feel like they have been disrespected or used, then forget about doing business with them again.

Consider this negotiating strategy used by two iconic business titans. J.P. Morgan wanted to buy a large Minnesota ore tract from John D. Rockefeller. So Rockefeller sent his son, John D. Jr., to see what Morgan had in mind.

Morgan opened, "Well, what's your price?"

To which John D. Jr. replied, "Mr. Morgan, I think there must be some mistake. I did not come here to sell; I understood you wanted to buy."

Mackay's Moral: Negotiation is not just about winning, it's about win-win.