"Aim for the stars; that way the lowest thing you can hit is the moon."
We all have been given a gift of dreaming. Sometimes dreaming helps us to escape reality and create a vision of the future that we want. Every worthwhile goal always starts with the big dream. However, there is a huge difference between dreaming big and having big goals. Dreams are wonderful, but they are only a product of our imagination.
Until we take action and turn our dream into the goal, it will remain a beautiful castle build in the air. Goals, on the other hand, are achievable because they are always followed by an action.
One can't be effective without another. If you have a great vision, but fail to take action, it will remain just a dream. If you act without having a clear vision in mind, you are just wasting your time and effort. Only a combination of great Vision and thought out action will make a positive difference in your life.
I've always admired people, who were not afraid to turn their most daring dreams into reality, even if their goals seemed unrealistic to others. Those are people we read about in newspapers and motivational books. We look up to them, respect and admire them for their determination and willpower, but very rare we think that we are capable of doing same things.
It happens, because most of us underestimate the word "realistic". High goal doesn't automatically equal unachievable.
>> Why is it important to set BIG goals?
We all possess such qualities as self-discipline, determination, self-confidence, and creativity, but some people use them more than others.
If you go to the gym, but only lift weights that are easy and don't require any effort, your muscles will inevitably atrophy and you'll grow weaker. Similar, if you always underestimate your abilities, you are doomed to live your life way below your standards and never discover what you're truly capable of. Just as you need to strain your muscles to make them stronger, you have to challenge yourself by setting goals that is slightly out of your reach.
Only when you go beyond your current capacities, you can find out what you are capable of.
>> How to put an elephant in refrigerator?
A few days ago my niece has asked me a great riddle, "Do you know how to put an elephant in the refrigerator?"
I was struggling to come up with the answer for a couple of minutes, before she cried: "You should open the fridge, put the elephant inside and close the door!!"
That's it! It was so obvious! Why didn't I think about it myself?! Probably because I am a grown up and that's what grown ups do. When trying to find solution to a problem, we usually choose the longest, most complicated and time consuming way to do it. We work so hard, concentrating our mind on little details, estimating what can go wrong in the process, trying to predict problems that can arise in the process that we completely miss the "BIG PICTURE".
Your big goal is an elephant that you have to squeeze into a little door of reality.
How do you go about it?
You are absolutely correct! First you find an elephant (figure out what is it that you want to achieve) and then you open the door (transform your dream into a goal)!
>> Choose the elephant!
There are a lot of elephants in the jungles of your dreams. You need to know what your elephant looks like. Otherwise you might end up with a rhino or a crocodile.
That is why it is critical to decide exactly what you want to achieve. No one is going to give you an answer to this question. You must find an answer within.
When choosing your big goal you need to consider how it makes you feel. Does it give you inspiration? A little thrill? An excitement? In other words, does it feel right?
>> Open the door!
When you know what you want to achieve you can start working on figuring out HOW to do it.
First you need to come up with an action plan. But be flexible to change it. You don't have to have everything figured out to the little details. Just know where you're going and break your goal into smaller objectives, so you can monitor your progress.
Your plan is your route that shows you how to get to the destination point - your goal. But if there are some obstacles on your way, you can always choose another road that will lead you to exact same place. If you see only one road to your goal and refuse to make any adjustments in your plans, you'll most likely overlook other opportunities and have to deal with a lot more problems.
>> Don't be afraid to fail
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
~ Robert F. Kennedy
In our society word "failure" is opposed to the word "success". There's even such term as "fear of failure". In reality failure and success lie on the same side of the coin.
Our success greatly depends on the amount of attempts we make. If we increase the number of attempts we automatically increase the number of times we fail. But the more we fail, the more we learn, the better we become at what we are doing and the higher chances we have to succeed.
Don't be afraid to fail. Even if you set a big goal and fail, you'll learn something new and acquire valuable experience. If you succeed, you'll get all the benefits of your goal (popularity, respect of others, satisfaction, higher self-esteem, financial abundance, happy relationships and so on.) However, if you don't try, you'll acquire neither.
So why not go for a really big goal, if you have nothing to lose?
- Arina
