Reach Your Goals in Steps

Last summer, I watched the Olympics a lot. I rejoiced with all the athletes as they accomplished their goals they had worked so hard to reach. I also felt for those who fell short. One story in particular peaked my interest because of what it taught me. I wrote about it in the ThoughtsAlive forum, and I'm glad I did so that I have a record of it. My sister, Alisa, referred to it recently and added an additional thought. Here's the story I posted:

I watched Laura Wilkinson in platform diving last night. She's now 30 years old and was diving with girls half her age. Her background is that she surprisingly won the Gold Medal in Sydney in 2000 and in Athens, she came in 5th. She was planning to retire, but won the 10-meter title at the world championships in 2005 and decided to stick around and do one more Olympics. She had some pretty good preliminary rounds but by the finals, she wasn't looking so good. She had a bandage on her arm and it was hard for her to stick her entries. Her first dive was decent, but her 2nd and 3rd dives were pretty bad--lots of splash (that's how I can tell). By the end of her 4th dive, she was in 11th place and definitely out of medal contention. Her 5th and final dive was beautiful. As she was getting out of the water, the announcer said that she had envisioned her final dive to be just like that and to win the Gold Medal with it. That got me thinking. I wondered if she had envisioned her 2nd and 3rd dives, because those were the ones that kept her from getting a medal (the first two divers were extremely good, so I honestly think she was fighting to get a bronze). She wound up coming in 9th... every dive was important, not just the final one.

This is the thought my sister, Alisa, brought up:

Stephen R. Covey put it this way: "...there is no shortcut. If I am at day two (to use the analogy of the six days of creation) and desire to move to day six, I must go through days three, four, and five. If I pretend to be at day six in order to impress others, eventually I will be found out... I must move through each of the intervening steps. If I try to push too hard or to go too fast in order to shortcut the process, I may... drop back to day one." (The Spiritual Roots of Human Relations, p.14-15)

So many times, we tend to think, "When is this (goal) going to happen?" Break it down into bite-size pieces and when you accomplish the first step, move on to the next. Because we all start at different places, this may be fast or slow, depending on where you are and where you need to go.

Say you live in California and you want to drive to New York. You have a friend who lives in North Carolina who is going to meet you there. You're further away, but you keep driving and just get there. Your friend decides to take the scenic route and check out the sights along the way. Even though you're further away, you can still get there first, because you kept your focus and got there without distractions. So, nobody can give you a definite time frame for your goal--it's up to you!! Isn't that empowering? YOU have control.

Make it a great day!!