Many years ago I raced in triathlons. A triathlon race consists of three legs — swimming, biking, and running. The best known triathlon event is the Ironman Triathlon held in Hawaii every year.

When I was racing, I found it extremely easy to get to the gym every day to exercise. I had a goal in mind — to improve my time in the race. I also had a fear factor. I knew that if I weren't ready for the swim leg, for example, my lack of preparation would have dire consequences.

Now that I've stopped triathlon racing, I find it much more difficult to drag myself to the gym. I know that exercise is good for me. I know I'll probably live a longer and better life if I exercise regularly. However, without that goal of preparing for the next race, the day-to-day grind of exercising becomes much more difficult to endure.

Without goals, maintaining a regular investing program is a lot like maintaining a regular exercise program — easy to start, difficult to maintain.

When choosing an investment goal, don't worry so much whether the goal is noble or logical or even doable. Maybe you want to invest so don't have to be a burden to your children in your twighlight years. Maybe you invest so you have enough money to move to Italy and paint. Maybe you invest to show that girl who dumped you in high school that she made a big mistake. Maybe you invest because you have nothing else to do with your time.

In the end, it really doesn't matter why. Just that you have a why. The why provides an anchor to your investment program, the raison d' etre. You'll need this anchor to develop the discipline to invest regularly over a long period of time.

Investing is a marathon, not a sprint. On average, the everyday millionaire investors I surveyed for my upcoming book, Eight Steps to Seven Figures, have been investing for 29 years. That's a long time. If you don't have some goal in mind, some target, some finish line, you probably won't complete the race.

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