The Art of Being Big-->

In times like these people tend to let their ambitions fall by the wayside and settle for just enough or getting by. I believe that in any time this is a self limitation that should not be a part of anyone’s reality. We still must aim high and push hard for our goals. Yet, it’s easy to get distracted on your way to your goals by the daily problems of life. I’m going to offer some real world solutions on how to keep your dreams alive in the face of diversity. These rules have worked for me and may work for you.

1. Focus daily on the goals you have. Close your eyes and picture yourself as already succeeding with your goals. Make it feel real. Use your imagination. Spend some time in your future reality. Imagine the things you will do when you achieve your goals.


2. Discard the naysayers. Those who don’t encourage you on the way to accomplishing your goals are a distraction. Do your best to tune them out.


3. Do not use the word ‘try’ in regard to your goals. If you are trying you aren’t doing. Think about what other words you can use. Never use the word ‘try’ or ‘trying’.


4. Break your goal in to steps and paths. Remember that there are many paths to the same goal and you will have to be open minded about which paths you choose. Pick what I call a ‘path’, which is a set of small achievable tasks that lead you to your goal. Sometimes a path will become less tangible and you will have the chance to cross over to another path to reach your goal. People get caught up in their mind sometimes that there is this one path and only this one path to reach their goal but that is usually not true. Open your mind to different paths.


5. When you have picked a path break it down to tasks. Work on these tasks every day. Make them small enough to achieve so you can feel the wind of progress under your feet. Success leads to further success.


6. Tell positive people in your life about your tasks, your path and your goals. This makes it more real. As I said in #2 be careful of naysayers though.


7. Don’t get overwhelmed by the flurry of tasks that lead to your goal. If you try to do too much at once you will get overwhelmed. It’s difficult but try to only plan 5-10 tasks ahead on your path. Think of it like this… if you know the path is 100 miles long you will feel overwhelmed and are likely to give up. If you only see a few hundred yards in front of you then your momentum will keep you motivated.


8. Ignore statistics. Many times if you look at the statisitics about others trying to achieve your goal or what is ‘normal’ about people trying to achieve the same goal and you don’t fit that mold you will get discouraged. In my goals I sometimes did look at the statistics anyway just to understand how great it would be for me to overcome those statistics. However, I’m not that easily discouraged. So, statistics just motivate me to prove them wrong.


9. Your goal is not a dream, a distant possibility or an ‘if’. It’s a reality that just hasn’t come to pass. Treat it as such and mention it as such to others. Use ‘when’ not ‘if’. Use ‘goal’ not ‘dream’. Use patience. Keep your resolve. You are achieving your goal in incremental steps.