(guest post from Becky Flansburg)
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
“Which road do I take? “she asked the smug feline.
“Where do you want to go?” was his response.
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat. “It doesn’t matter.”
– Lewis Carroll
“Define your goals” could be considered one of today’s motivational gurus’s more “over-used” directives. I can picture a few of them in my head, pumping their fist to the sky and squawking.
“Define your vision! Take action! Reach your goals!”
What’s annoying is that THEY ARE RIGHT.
It’s not misleading or untrue to tell people they need to identify a direction. A ship can’t leave the harbor unless it knows it’s the destination, right? People are no different. It’s just easier to yap about it than do it.
Let’s say you want to buy and fix old houses (house flipping). Talking is one thing; doing is quite another. When you start taking action towards your end game, that is when stuff starts getting real.
So if you genuinely want to make this goal a reality, quit talking about it, form a plan, and work the plan. Work it like any other project you have ever had. Your plan can be as simple as buying a new carpentry tool a month or as complex as taking a real estate course so you understand the lingo and the industry.
The bottom line is, move forward. Even if it’s a millimeter a day…at least it’s forward towards your goal.
Sometimes You Just Need to be Brave Enough to Take the First Step.
A lifelong dream of mine was to write and publish a children’s book. Even though I’d been working in the children’s book publishing and marketing arena for five years, I had zero inspiration on what to write.
That is, until one day, it just came to me like a flood. My topic, character, concept, and story poured out of me like a burst dam. I could visualize the book in my head but I knew I needed help. I quickly phoned a non-author friend, we teamed up, and our little picture book was “born” in the fall of 2018, thanks to Audrey Press.
If I had stopped at just wistfully wishing, I would not be a published author. If I had not asked for help from my co-author (she was integral in making the story authentic) or from my beloved friend and client, Valarie Budayr (owner of Audrey Press), I would still be daydreaming about my “someday.”
A wise woman made a comment to me once years ago (I think it was my bestie) about years ago when I was whining lamenting how my life was less than I desired.
Her advice; “Next year, you will be 41. You can be 41 and be moving towards a dream. Or 41 and still living the same unsatisfying life. The bottom line is, either way, you’ll be 41. You make the choice which scenario you want.”
Us human folk don’t have “reset” buttons. You can’t hit 40 and think, “oh crap, I forgot to do something when I was 38,” and go back and do it.
NOPE.
It doesn’t work like that. Make a plan, and activate your plan.
Maybe it’s writing a book.
Maybe it’s finding a new illustrator.
Maybe it’s just carving out a few hours a day to write.
Unless you start, those goals will sit on a shelf and be dusty and forgotten.
And it’s Never Too Late
If you are 20, 30, 40, or 90, and you have an internal voice saying “more, more!”…it’s time to get busy.
You got this.
Becky is the Chief of Creative Operations and Head Elf at AudreyPress.com and CEO of RebeccaFlansburg.com. She is a veteran blogger, freelance writer, virtual assistant and former project manager for the non-profit children’s literacy event, Multicultural Children’s Book Day. Connect with Becky on social media: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook!
