“Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.” – David Joseph Schwartz
Last week’s post was about attitude. I’ve been reminded of the power of attitude & belief again over the past week, albeit from a slightly different angle. I was visiting with a somewhat successful business owner about planning & the future. At one point in the conversation I challenged the owner about whether or not the goals they were setting for themselves were really challenging. His response was roughly, “We don’t want to try and accomplish anything bigger than that – we might fail.”
At least he was honest. Most people do the same thing but rationalize that they’re making great decisions. How many of us settle for less than we could have because we don’t want to risk failure? Too many people: a) think small, or b) think big and then immediately think of all the reasons it won’t work, and then c) wonder why the results are mediocre.
I think fear of failure is obviously one reason people think this way. I think lack of self-confidence is another. I think being overwhelmed by complexity and change is a third. So what to do?
Try this: start by thinking about what you really want – and don’t qualify it. In other words, think about what you want without using words like “realistic” or “budget” or “time”. What do you really want? Too many people never really take time to think about what they’re actually wanting out of their businesses or their lives.
Once you know what you want, think about the things that have to happen in order to make that “want” a reality. Write them down. Put them in the order they need to happen, if there is one. Don’t start thinking about how you might do them, or how hard it might be, or how much time they’ll take. Just get them down on paper.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably looking at that list and feeling overwhelmed. And if you were going to try and do it all at once, you’d be right to feel that way. But you’re not going to do it all at once. Break it down into pieces. Start with step one and when that’s finished, move on to step two, and so on. You don’t have to do 100 things right now; right now you just have to do one.
Don’t miss out on the life or business you want just because you never tried to have it. Remember, you can have whatever you want in your life – you just maybe can’t have all of it today. It takes time, but it’s out there. Go get it. Don’t settle for small – think BIG.
