Somehow I’ve had this idea, this expectation, that if I just keep plugging away and working toward what I want, one day, boom! I’ll magically be there. I look ahead to what I want and see it as one giant step from where I am. And I look at other people who are embodying what I want and think that they just suddenly arrived there one day as well.
Okay, I don’t think it consciously, but subconsciously it is definitely there!
But as I look back at my life and how far I’ve come in the last five years, I realize that it never happens all at once… And no one gets there all at once…
It’s a process that happens one step at a time, one decision at a time, one moment at a time. There’s a reason we call it a journey. It’s not teleportation, it’s a process, chunked down into smaller processes – one step at a time.
There is no, “Energize!” command that beams me up from where I am right now to where I want to be. There is no instant life makeover.
It happens one moment at a time.
Each step I take today either moves me in that direction, or it doesn’t.
It’s that simple.
So I can sit around waiting to be “beamed up”, or I can take action and move forward toward what I want. I can take hold of my future and create it the way I choose, one moment at a time.
I can take what I’ve learned and put it into action. I can persist and push through when the going gets tough. It doesn’t matter how big the steps how, what matters is that I take them and move forward.
And five years from now when I’m sitting and looking back on today, what do I want to have changed? Where do I want to be looking back from?
Now what about you? Where do YOU want to be looking back from in five years, and are the steps you are taking right now moving you in that direction?
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Jess, I definitely have a five-year plan and I’m taking the steps necessary to make it reality.
And you’re right, it is a series of many small accomplishments achieved by steady work. But there are the occasional big breakthroughs…
I am fond of the big breakthroughs… Anything to get me there faster!
I’m not so good at doing the 5 year plan thing – definitely something I need to work on… Perhaps it’s time to read Brian Tracy’s “Goals” again…
Great to see you here again, John!
Hey Jess,
Love the way that you are looking at this. Small steps are not just shorter steps, they are what the larger steps are made of. Actually, this shows that perhaps the ‘steps’ idea does not quite work for goal setting, etc. Very nice!
Five years from now I intend to be doing something completely different from what I do today. Hopefully, it will be what I think about when I am not working.
Have a great day!
Hmm, I like that: “They are what the larger steps are made of.” Well put!
I can’t have a five year plan, it is just completely impossible! If you’d have told me 5 years ago that I’d be here, where I am now I’d have laughed (or decided to run away and hide!) I’m too much of a ‘go with the flow’ girl for 5 year plans. That said, I do have dreams and ambitions. It’s just that I like to remain flexible enough to move in whatever direction I’m led.
But here’s the irony: I’m a complete control freak and hate surprises. Go figure
LOL – I totally hear you on that! I have goals and dreams, and need to get better at writing them down, etc, but I can’t plan it all out like that either. I take it one step at a time. I can’t even seem to plan out a WEEK like that! Perhaps I could do more if I did, but then again, maybe this is just the way we’re wired and what works best for folks like us.
I met the goals that I set for myself in my 20s, and there was never a TA! DA! I’m here! moment. You’re right about small steps and enjoying the journey.
Great post!
Yeah, I haven’t had that TA DA! moment either.
Thanks for dropping by, Kim!