While going big and embracing a special project, a great dream, nothing smaller than your ultimate vision or even your life goal, the reason you are on this planet right now...
Do you expect things to always go smoothly and everything to come easily to you?
I bet you don't.
Or at least this is what I hope for you. Expecting everything to be perfect from day one and carrying this kind of entitlement looks a lot like the perfect recipe for disaster, heartbreak, and frustration, to me.
[What do water, the Creedence Clearwater
Revival, and your dreams have in common?
Revival, and your dreams have in common?
More than you think, apparently.
Image credit: ISO Republic]
While talking about love and relationships and commitments, a friend of mine lately said something that made total sense and, strangely enough, made me think about one of the biggest hits of Creedence Clearwater Revival:
Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm,
I know
It's been comin' for some time
When it's over, so they say,
It'll rain a sunny day,
I know
Shinin' down like water
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
(Pendulum, 1970)
He said that, in a committed relationship, you stay in the relationship even when it is no fun in the short-term, even when things are not as you want them to be yet, even if the drought is drying everything out.
Because you know that it is only a matter of time before it will rain again. It will always rain again, at some point. Until then, you have to stay ready and to keep working for the relationship.
Isn't the same with the commitments you make to yourself, in the end?
["Remember that all success is based on long-term commitment,
faith, discipline, attitude and a few stepping stones along the way"
is one of my favorite Jim Rohn's quotes]
If you are going for something big, it is going to suck, sooner or later. Usually, way sooner than later.
And it is up to you to stay and to keep working for it even if, short-term, it sucks.
It sucks and it will suck and then, over time, it will suck less and looks more like you want it to. If you are not going to quit, of course.
I set my own priorities, I run my life. If your dreams are important to you, don’t disrespect them by cramming them into arbitrary new year’s resolutions or birthday deadlines.
Sabrina Hersi Issa
I am not saying that you should always keep going at any cost, no matter what, whatever you are doing. But we are not talking about whatever you are doing, right now. We are talking about something big and very meaningful to you.
[Would it be possible to write a post like this
without quoting Confucius' "The man who moves a mountain
begins by carrying away small stones"!?
Yes, I thought so as well]
Even in days where you have the impression that everything you went through so far was for nothing and that it was just wasted time and you will never reach your life goal, you can tell yourself that whatever you went through so far brought you exactly where you are now and that's the worth of it.
It will rain again and, for today, you will just do the smallest, tiniest, easiest thing you can do for going forward with your life goal. The smallest thing. One at the time:
Small things have big consequences. [...]
We are the accumulated momentum of all our choices.
Aubrey Marcus, Own the Day, Own Your Life
If going big would be fine and dandy and pursuing a life goal would be as easy as pie, everyone would be able to do it and to keep going. Guess what: It is not. It takes guts, lots of work, frustration and patience. And on bad days, you just have to keep going and to ask yourself: "What's the smallest thing I can do today for my goal, before it will rain again?".
This one is for Matthias P. & Bernd.
Tags: Commitment, Life goals, Mindset, Quotes, Motivation, Staying strong
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