From an early age we dream about what we want to be and do. In those years, we just dream and wish.
“A dream is a wish your heart makes.” – Walt Disney
We have no idea how to get there. If we are lucky, we might have parents that get us started in the right way, on the right foot.
For many of us, however, we don’t and the dreams just fade away . . .
In school, we are taught that if we want to get ahead, we have to set goals, both long-term and short-term.
But do we set goals for ourselves?
If we do make goals, then we learn that we have to break those goals down into reasonable bite size steps, and some steps may have sub-steps, and sub-steps may have sub-sub-steps and so on.
And by doing all those sub-steps we should get to our goal. Right?
Just because you set goals and plan how to get to reach your goals (which is all good, by the way), what it really comes down to is doing your steps, each and every day.
I remember when I went to the big city after finishing high school at 17, and started working to put myself through school, I decided on a big goal which was to have a sports car by 21.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was working on the process to reach that goal. In fact, I never really thought about it until I finally bought the car and paid cash for my British convertible TR6 when I turned 21!
What I do know is that this idea works!!
Another goal I had was to visit Italy one day, and then I just kinda forgot about it. Well, lo and behold, one day my husband comes home from work and says we are moving to Italy for 3 years!
It sounds unbelievable, but it was about me putting out there, learning the Italian culture, hosting Italian dinner parties and I guess in some way, I was working the process. (p.s. this is such a exciting story… and definitely for another blog:)
“Focus on doing your steps – the goal will come.”- Deborah MacDonald
But what happens is we get back into dream mode, and lose focus on the steps that it will take (and the work too!) to get to our goal.
Then we begin to think that the goal is unreachable. And we quit.
Don’t get me wrong. We still need a goal and it should motivate us everyday to do the steps. But it can take away from doing the basic steps, because we think it is unreachable.
So the bottomline is “Set the goal, identify the steps and focus on doing them. Forget about the goal.”
“Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps.” – Saul Bellow, Pulitzer Prize & Nobel Prize Winner
By focusing on the steps and doing them one by one, guess what? You will succeed in achieving your goal.