How I Climb Everest!

Everest is the tallest mountain because it reaches the highest point in the sky. If Everest could speak, it wouldn’t have said, “Well, I want to be the biggest mountain, but first I need to focus on being the biggest pebble, then the biggest mound, then the biggest, hill, and THEN the biggest mountain.” He would have just said, “I want to be the biggest mountain!”

I’ve noticed that sometimes people get bogged down in the mini-goals they’ve set in order to reach their big goals. I’m guilty of this myself. The truth is, those mini-goals shouldn’t be called goals at all. They are bench marks, mile markers, milestones, whatever you want to call them. The main distinction needed is that you don’t HAVE to achieve them. You don’t want to be so focused on your mini-goals and hitting them that you miss giant opportunities that could push you towards your main goal, because you don’t want to get off this imaginary path you’ve designed for yourself.

Life isn’t always a path. It’s like a sailboat in water. Instead of resisting the wind and sitting dead in the water, so you make a straight line to your goal, try using the wind to your advantage! You may zig-zag a little, but you’ll be moving and often you’ll get to your destination sooner and with more experience. Just don’t let the wind blow you completely off course. Keep your big goal in sight and always keep moving towards it in one way or another.

Wow, I think I just gave myself a big lesson in writing this.

The Self-Corruption of Inaction

“I just don’t know what to do.” “Sure, I have a list of things I’d like to accomplish, but I don’t feel like doing those right now.” “I don’t know where to start.” “It’s like I want to do nothing and everything at the same time.…I think I’ll watch a little bit of TV while I decide[…3 hours later, still watching TV]”

I’ve been there! I think it’s a fair assessment to say that most of us have, at one point or another. It’s that place where your desires are so great and you are motivated to do what you love, but you’re afraid to screw it up! You don’t know where to start, so you don’t start at all. Sometimes, all you really need is to get out of your own way!

Whether you want to start your own company, lose weight, try a new hobby, travel the world, whatever it may be! No one is stopping you from getting a business license, doing the work you love, going to the gym, eating fewer calories than you burn, taking a hula class, buying a flight to Paris, or in my case, making music and sharing it with the world. So, why isn’t the world filled with tons of people just doing what they want?!

There are internal roadblocks that stop us. Pretty much every roadblock boils down to Fear. Fear that we can’t afford it, Fear that we won’t succeed. Fear that people won’t like us or the service or product we offer. Fear we won’t find the love of our lives and get married and have babies. Fear that we can’t make our dreams come true. Did you notice that all these things are fears of what we can’t or won’t do?

We’re not afraid that we will make a living doing what we love, that we’ll get married and live happily ever after, that people will love us, or all our dreams will come true. Why would that scare us?! That sounds amazing! So why are we stopped?

Taking action will only get you closer to AMAZING! You make a choice every time you choose to act or not. Every time, I write a song, book a show, or market my music, I am taking action. I’m making the decision to do something. It may not always be the best way, but it’s a way. It’s action. It’s something. I’m moving forward, even if I’m zig-zagging. 

All these thoughts hit me yesterday and filled my journal pages as I talked myself though this all. Now, I've boiled it down to one sentence…