Dreams. Goals. Vision for your future self. Retirement plans, aspirations, “one day” plans.
Big, Big, BIG!
We all have big thoughts and ambitions for our lives, probably want to do something grand or meaningful, end our careers to go off and travel, have experiences and accumulate great wealth, or at least a nice nest egg.
These things are important to us. Because it gives us something to hope for, a direction to aim our life at.
The trouble is, so many of the big things we desire in our lives happen “down the road”. And while the dreams, goals and visions give us the direction to go and the path to take, there is this thing called “life” that can get in our way.
If we are too forward focused, we miss out on the beautiful life right now. Or, you overlook the little steps to take right now to get you where you desire.
“Be where your feet are.”
Scott O’Neil
“Small disciplines repeated with consistency everyday lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.”
John C. Maxwell
Dreams, goals, visions, plans, etc. are often over-romanticized and the daily, often mundane, steps are highly under-valued and over-looked.
The truth is, you need to have both heavily in your life. Over emphasizing one will not produce the results you so desire.
If you only have the “future vision”, you will miss out on the right now and overlook the simple, daily things enabling you to attain your future vision.
If you only have the “get through this day” mentality, you will lack hope, which will lead to feelings of being stuck and unfulfilled. Which then, will inevitably lead to complacency and accepting less than.
These two need to work in harmony with one another.
We must have our eyes fixed on what’s to come, what we desire and creating our future.
We must also allow that future view to impact the small decisions we make on a daily basis.
Goals and desires are meant to be broken down into little steps we can, should and need to take to realize those goals and desires for our future. We need hope, but that hope must translate into actionable steps in our daily life. Hope must inform our “mundane”, seemingly unimportant decisions.
Start with the end in mind, then work backwards to allow the end to determine and define the decisions you make today.
“Is this decision moving me closer to my goal, my dream, the future I desire, or further away? These are the only two options: closer to or further away.
My main purpose in this: we need to realize the little things we do every day have the impact to affect our future. And it will affect it, positively or negatively.
Reading one chapter may seem like a drop in the bucket, but it will make you that much better.
Choosing to save and extra $50 a month may be a small portion of your budget, and could easily be spent on something “right now”, but $50 now will mean thousands more 20 years from now.
Going to the gym is easy to skip “just this once”, but making the sacrifice now allows you the opportunity to achieve the desired result, and quicker.
Everything we do has compound interest and builds off of one another. It’s not just a chapter, it’s not just a healthy meal choice, it’s not just a small amount of money. It’s not small, in the context of multiple years. It’s massive!
Take the step. Make the little decision. Get that much better today. These little decisions matter, because this is where the rubber meets the road! This is where you attain your future.
Do you ever wonder how, or why, someone becomes an overnight success? Luck is usually what is attributed to it, but the fact is luck has so little to do with the “overnight success”.
Overnight success happens after years of faithfulness, diligence, sacrifice and hard work. Taking the next step, remaining constant and consistent. Those things that often go unseen.
We’ve all heard the quote that “practice makes perfect.” But in reality, practice makes permanent.
What you do today affects your tomorrow. Even more so, what you do today affects 20 years from now, exponentially more!
Give yourself something to hope for, to guide you. And let it inform and motivate your daily decisions. Life is too precious and fleeting to allow it to aimlessly drift by, and get to the end and wonder where it went.
Don’t miss out on life! Hope for tomorrow and be present in today. The surest way to have regrets is to not do the things aligning with your goals, and then doing the things distracting you from them.
Be purposeful. Every decision is significant. Strive to get better today. It’s no small thing, it’s not minuscule. It’s mighty!
Maybe the biggest thing you can do is the little things.
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