We all have things that we want to accomplish in life. But, our dreams and goals will simply die of loneliness unless we make one important decision. Are you ready to learn more about this important choice to make your dreams come true?
Amuse Bouche
Before we get to today’s post, I offer you this light “amuse-bouche” to entertain your mind before we get down to business. Like any other amuse-bouche, you may hate my “dad joke,” but it is worth every penny that you paid for it, right?
Two men were discussing their day when one of them said, “I saw a nice flock of cows today.”
The other man quickly chimed in with, “herd of cows.”
The first man retorted, “Of course I have! They have four legs and go moo.”
Goal Success by Choice
Do you have dreams that you are trying to make come true? Do you have a goal that you are trying to crush? Success doesn’t happen by chance. Success is a series of choices that can make you unstoppable. Goal Success by Choice helps you make these choices to move you closer to your goals.
Are you ready to help build a world where no goal dies of loneliness?
This important choice can jumpstart your dreams
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.
Michael Jordan
I have mentioned this before, but I am a big fan of author Brene Brown. She is a prolific vulnerability and self-improvement researcher and writer. Her writing and talks really resonate with me, and I just can’t get enough. One of her stories that most resonates with me is from the Man in the Arena speech by Theodore Roosevelt.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Brene then sums this up by saying, “If you are not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback.”
There is an important lesson here about a must-have choice for goal success.
This lesson is what my Operation Melt vision is all about.
Dying of Loneliness
My Operation Melt vision is to build a world where goals don’t die of loneliness.
But what does this mean?
Do you have a dream that you have never pursued?
Do you have a goal in your mind that you have never told anybody?
Have you ever said to yourself, “I would love to accomplish this, but it would never work for me?”
If so, there is a goal inside you dying of loneliness. This goal isn’t dying because you tried and failed. It also isn’t dying because you did your research and learned that it isn’t possible right now. It is dying because you put it into some corner of your brain and starved it of attention.
Goals die of loneliness when you don’t try!
Trying is a choice.
You have a choice to make your dreams come true. Or, you can choose to let your goal die of loneliness by not trying.
The Choice to Make Your Dreams Come True
So, how do you make the choice to make your dreams come true?
It sounds simplistic, but the best way to make a decision to try is to make a decision to try!
That’s it. No big process. No 5 steps to change your life. Just make a decision to try.
I know some of you love bulleted lists of steps, so try this one on for size…
- Say out loud that “I want to do xxx.”
- Create a bold statement or Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) to support it
- Post this BHAG somewhere where you will see it each day
- Tell a trusted friend what you have committed to do.
- Turn your BHAG into one or more SMART goals (reminder that I talked about this process through the first few weeks of 2022, click here to review those steps). Pro tip: the more you focus on your WHY and your VISION, the more likely you will get there.
- Make the time to focus on your goals (see 6 steps to never saying “I’m too busy” again). This likely means that you need to focus on a single BHAG at a time.
- Learn everything you can about your BHAG – read, talk to people, engage a coach, etc.
Spoiler alert: the next choice you will need to make is the daily choice to keep going!
It’s Simple, But It Works!
As I said, I know this sounds simple, but it works. I have proven it in my own life. I have conquered many of my own BHAGs that I had no idea how I would achieve. But, I made a commitment and then worked daily to turn them into solid SMART goals and actions that got me to the finish line.
- “I will be graduating with a computer science degree!” This is a BHAG that I said to a professor at Ohio Dominican University while on a class visit in my junior year of high school. I made this claim despite knowing that my family in poverty couldn’t pay for college and that I didn’t have the best grades to earn big-dollar scholarships. But, just three-and-a-half years later, I had my degree in hand.
- “I will make my salary goal by the time I am thirty!” I said this to my best friend, now my wife, when I started my first job out of college. This goal would require tripling my salary in just eight years. Growing up in poverty, I had no idea how to do this. But, I accepted a job offer making this target salary before I was twenty-nine.
- “I will lose over a hundred pounds in under a year.” I said this after learning that I weighed 325 pounds. That’s when I decided enough was enough. Then, one Tuesday morning, just nine months later, the scale said 224.8 pounds (see I Did It! 100 Pounds Crushed!).
- “I will finish a half marathon.” I said this after cheering on some friends in the Cap City Half Marathon despite having just started running and never having done something this athletic in my life. Just six months later, I crossed the finish line at the Columbus Marathon’s half marathon (see Week 71: 325 Pounds to Half Marathon).
- “I will publish a book.” I had just crossed the one hundred pounds lost milestone and had been writing my Operation Melt blog for several months. That’s when I committed to writing a book about my journey to help others succeed. I had no idea what I was doing. But, three months later, I had the first draft of my manuscript. A few months after that, my first book, Operation Melt: How I Used Life-Changing Project Management to Lose Over 100 Pounds in Under a Year, launched (see Week 92: Big Week!).
I share these examples not to brag (though I am mighty proud of my accomplishments) but to show you the power of making the decision to try. When I decided to commit to each of the BHAGs above, I didn’t know how I would get to the finish line. But, I had confidence in myself to figure it out, and I did.
Plus, with each BHAG that you achieve, you add another example in your “confidence resume” to prove to yourself that you are fully qualified to do it again!
But, no BHAG ever comes to life without first deciding to try!
Remember that the winners in life are chosen from the playing field and not the sidelines. That means that we each have to get out of our comfort zones, take the plunge and be willing to fail.
If you don’t at least try, you won’t ever know if you will win or if your goal will just die of loneliness. If you do try, you have made an important choice to make your dreams come true!
So What?
We all have things that we want to accomplish in life. Sometimes those are things we have never even said out loud. Whatever our dreams and goals are, they will simply die of loneliness unless we choose to do something about them. If you make a choice to try, you are making a choice to make your dreams come true.
Do you have a goal inside you, and you just aren’t sure how to get past that decision to try? Let me help.
Click Here to learn more about my Operation Melt coaching services.
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