Do You See The Footsteps In Front Of Mount Everest?
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By Marcus Hochstadt | Filed in Business, Strategies
Do you have big dreams? Do you know of people who have?
I know people with big dreams. Each and every single one of those dreams involves making a significant change in the way these people are currently living their lives.
Have you ever asked yourself why so many people spend all that time dreaming, but so few actually manage to live the life of their dreams?
The way I see it, the world is split into two camps: the world of people who actually get things done and the world of people with wishful thinking. So, what really makes the difference?
The answer to that question is twofold… It depends on peoples’ level of commitment to their goals and the way they go about achieving them.
Your Level Of Commitment
Big, ambitious goals demand a lot of energy, passion, commitment, determination, and persistence.
Why do you think Michelangelo took four years out of his life to carve the famous statue of David? Why do you think NASA keeps sending astronauts into space? Why is the tallest building in 2020, the planned Al Burj on Dubai’s waterfront, going to be over 1,000 meters high?
All these big projects were and will be achieved because they have one very important thing in common. The people behind them cared enough about them to make them happen. Tackling the question of what the source of true commitment is, then, becomes quite simple.
Commitment always starts with identifying a dream that is truly worth having, one that makes you stay up at night.
What do you really care for?
What is it that you really want, from the bottom of your heart?
How much does your dream mean to you?
Does it mean enough to you to commit yourself to it?
It’s something you need to become clear about before you embark upon achieving your goal. I cannot stress that enough.
How Do You Go About Achieving Your Goals?
Turning to the issue of how to go about achieving ambitious goals…
I often come across extremely driven, determined people who just don’t seem to be making any progress. Most of the time, it’s because they fail to find the correct balance in setting their short and long-term goals.
In other words, they set short-term goals that are too big, and long-term goals that are too small.
Setting big, even huge, long-term goals is nothing to be afraid of. You can make your ultimate goal as big as you like, as long as you stay conscious of the fact that anything worth having does take time, passion and determination.
You cannot earn a degree, master a musical instrument, or have a thriving Internet business in a couple minutes. Just like Rome wasn’t built in a day. Instant Gratification is a virus that needs to be stopped.
On the other hand, setting short-term goals that are too big can be detrimental to the achievement of your final goal. Motivation is vital for getting things done. So, when you fail in one of the shorter term goals, you risk losing your nerve and abandoning your dream completely!
Here’s a wonderful technique to avoid that from happening…
Cut the big picture into small, very small and doable pieces. Transform your journey towards the final goal into a series of tiny, mini-steps. Make sure each of these steps is so small that it makes you think they’re too easy—they might not even look like actual steps!
Write down every single one of them in a list. Tackle each step, one at a time, and check it off on the list once you’re finished with it. Ticking things off is a very powerful technique to motivate yourself. You are giving yourself a personal reward of sorts every time you complete a task. This will keep you going until your dream finally materializes.
Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?
Well, one could say Simplicity was the father of Archievement. ;-)
Bottom Line
The right strategy is to think big, but execute small. After all, the only way to get from here to where you want to be is by taking all the little steps in between.
Give yourself permission to motivate you.
—Marcus Hochstadt
Tags: achievement, think big
8 Responses to “Do You See The Footsteps In Front Of Mount Everest?”
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It takes a lot of patience, a lot. Sometimes focusing on one detail at a time helps with the mass of a project, only stopping to take a look at the big picture every once and a while to get your bearings. Eventually the detail you are currently working on will be the last and you will forget how long it took.
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Exactly, Stephan. Especially those tiny little steps are those who bring us further towards our goals and the fulfillment of our wildest dreams.
For instance, instead of taking BIG steps like “I’ll comment on five blogs today”; rather “I’ll search for a blog where I’d like to post a comment to”. That would be one step. The next would be something like, “I’ll search for a post where I’d be happy to comment on”. Once that’s done we could proceed with something like, “Now I’ll find an idea that fits to this post”. Then, “Now I’ll write my comment”. Then, “Spell checking”. Then, “Press Submit button”. Etc, etc…
With this technique I get my projects done faster than ever before.
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This is a wonderful post Marcus.
Many of the great things we seek to accomplish can not only be broken down into small steps, they can also be broken down into consistent daily actions. “Consistent” is the hard part, not the daily actions themselves.
That’s where your idea of thinking big long-term and small short-term can come in handy.
Larry Brauner
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Thanks for stepping by, Larry. And you’re so right. Consistency and discipline can be tough tasks at times.
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Marcus! I don’t know where to start?That article was a 10 and hit me right after I had been arguing with my wife.So the content and effect it had on me and where I’m right now was RIGHT ON.Thanks
Hey I really like the topics you have and will be reading them ALL.
To be really honest it would be nice to be able to meet people like YOU in the REAL world.Perhaps one day……..we’ll be BIG TIME and meet at a lame ass convention somewhere.In the meantime you have a new fan/student
I’m bookmarked and look forward to MORE:)PS to all the people that just stop by and don’t even say thanks or whatever and leave your corny WORTHLESS links your Lucky Marcus is a gentlemen cause I would of deleted that stuff,nah I may not but that’s RUDE.
PEACE TO ALL.Thanks again Marcus I’ll be keeping my EYE on U :) -
I am traveling around the world. I get all sorts of people who say “what your doing is amazing. I wish I could do that.” I always reply “so do it”. Yet, people never do. They are trapped by the life they created paying for their cars, houses and too afraid to leave their job.
They don’t have goals, they have wishes.
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Hey John, glad to be of help. If you ever come to Brazil, feel free to visit me in Natal and we gonna have a lunch together.
And Gary, I know where you’re coming from. I get those kind of reactions as well from time to time when talking about my Internet business. Some of them, though, become VERY interested when the see I really DO live near the beach, and I really do NOT use an alarm clock in the morning, and I really CAN live almost anywhere else.
We gonna show them the door to freedom and Internet business success, Gary, one human at a time. :-)
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