Reachable Goals 101: Are You Overwhelmed?

Heads Up!

• The Web is BIG
• Ideas are BIGGER
• Learning even a few new things each day is a Big Job

To research online is to wander into a smorgasbord of material that you will never learn completely. Letting yourself wander ahead is human nature, and it's fun.

However, don't let the combination of adventuring and massive amounts of information distract you from creating reachable goals in the here and now. The object is not mastery. Instead, consider evolutionary, step-by-step goals.

I highly recommend making a word processor file for your master goal list. Be specific. For example, "Find a good online tutorial about optimizing gifs," or, "Start a list of FAQ for my website." Stow the other fifty pages of goals in a folder named "whole-lotta-goals" or somesuch. Start five new files, and write a the name of one specific goal at the top of each file. Date, print, then post these five pages on the wall near your workspace.

Printing the five pages makes them into five finite projects. Whenever you feel overwhelmed, look up at those five pages and ask yourself if you are also dreaming of or dreading what's waiting in the rest of your world.

But I Want To Do It All!

Of course you do!

My natural instinct is to start with the whole enchilada and attempt to achieve nirvana by putting in very long hours. This has more to do with inspiration than achievement.

Inspiration assumes a person can leap huge amounts of material in a single bound, if they could only get a really good headwind and try hard enough. I love that feeling. However, eventually exhaustion hits and I am reminded that inspiration lives in a universe apart from common sense realities like the passage of time and the need for sleep and movement not involving keyboard or mouse.

Successful People Have Reachable Goals

Really, they do! Big ideas, reachable goals.

When I come to my senses I try to think like Henry Ford. He believed that nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

I put the big picture goal in front of myself and slice it up into little goals. The little goals have to be reachable, and I have to be willing to give myself credit for reaching them, even if some may come a half-step at a time. That gives me peace while keeping my eye on the prize.

Set aside an hour or two every day when nobody else is around. Do all you can within that time, one step at a time. Learning is an ongoing evolution. Commit and enjoy. Do not worry about if you are going to do it all or get it “right.”

Today's Really Big Link: Astronomy Picture of the Day