We’ve all heard the goal setting seminars and we all understand in some way or other the importance of setting goals. Very seldom do we set goals and make deliberate plans for our lives. Why is this? We make plans in our daily work, we plan holidays but we don’t plan for our entire lives.
I believe everyone, at some level has something they want to achieve, some dream they want to see realized, whether these dreams sit in the deep recesses of our heart and minds or whether they are bubbling on the surface. We all dream of a better life, a fulfilled life, a significant life. Why then don’t we pursue these things, these dreams, this better life?
Often times these hopes and dreams require for us to be more than we are now. They require for us to be better than we are now. The issue is that we look at ourselves, our current state and we use that as the deciding factor and the final say in whether we can attain that which we desire. So we stop the planning and cease the dreaming and we look around at our lives and say to ourselves that our lives are not that bad and that it’s too late to try these things. We get stuck on the “how” of our plans and dreams because we cannot conceive of ourselves being able to attain these goals in the current state of our lives, in the “now” of our lives.
Looking at things this way, it almost seems illogical to expect yourself to achieve your plans and goals for the future in your current state. It’s illogical to stop your plans and dreams because you don’t have the tools now. If you possessed all the skills, know how and resources now you would have almost certainly achieved the things you are wanting to achieve. Of course you cannot let your “now” effect the “how” of achieving your goals and dreams.
Yes, you have to acquire new skills and work hard toward your goal or dream in order to realise them but don’t let your current set of circumstances prevent you from starting to work toward what you want to achieve. Zig Ziglar once said that “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well” so if you want something badly enough and for you it’s worth doing, then do it. Just start and after you’ve done it enough times and you master it, you’ll look back and smile at how far you’ve come. It’s like learning to play an instrument. You hear someone playing and you think “I’d love to be able play” and because you love it and you think it’s worthwhile to do give it a go. It’s hard in the beginning because when you’re to playing, it sounds more like a noise than it does music but you push on and you continue to do it poorly. Then before you know it you’re playing music that brings a smile to your face and that can bring joy to others.
Our plans and goals are the same. In the beginning we will struggle and do it poorly (You can ask any successful entrepreneur about how their first presentations went and they will smile and chuckle because they know how poorly they did them) but over time if you persist you will eventually start to do it well and when you do things well they bring more joy into your life and into the lives of those around you.
So no matter where you are in life, if you want to do something or be someone greater than what you are now “do what you can, where you are, with what you have” and just start.
Don’t let your NOW effect your HOW.
