It’s important to know our next steps but it’s not always easy. There is so many people and so many things competing for our time that it is very difficult to sometimes see the next step and know what we should do. I am of course talking about our dreams, and not the day to day grind that requires our attention and execution too. Those steps are a little more pronounced, they are a little more obvious, they are usually outside our control.
But we very much control our dreams. Maybe not so much the realization of them, but we do control each and every step we take in order to push to where we want to be and who we want to become.
It’s not always easy to see what is next. Nothing important comes with a manual which is why many of us look for signs. Signs in the sky, signs in our horoscopes and the wisest of us take our cues from the fortune cooke.
It’s never easy but there are ways that can help us rather than distract or derail our effort.
The first of course is to keep taking steps. An object that is moving is always capable of so much more than one that is still. This is why athletes are always told to keep moving their feet. To be in constant motion because that motion can be transferred. The energy that is necessary to suddenly move from one place to another is easier if we’re already moving, than it is to get ourselves up to speed from a stubborn position of standing still.
Besides taking steps each and every day towards a future we deeply desire to see, we have to be very meticulous in writing things down. I’m not convinced that the invention of hand held devices has helped us in this regard. The apps we created to be more efficient and driven work well, but if you’re like me, there is something real about a pencil meeting the surface of a piece of paper. There is something tangible and organic in that encounter. Zeros and ones, and all those bits and bites that go from here to there don’t produce the same effect on me.
Sometimes I think that I’m just getting old, but perhaps I’m not, because after all I am writing this on a computer because it is far more efficient, but I always keep track of what needs to happen next, in a day planner, not an app, or anything virtual.
I think next steps need to be deliberate and writing them down in a calendar creates the opportunity to do so. Mind you, once those steps are determined, I often put them into my electronic calendar as it is far more capable of reminding me of upcoming commitments, than my notebook, sitting in a bag somewhere. But that notebook/day-planner is like a secret war room. It is there where I get to think and see the world the way I want to see it.
Maybe we need both, or maybe, just maybe we should care more about where we want to go instead of how we need to get there.
Plan your next move. Execute your next move. Do whatever it takes, with whatever it takes to do it and don’t forget to pick yourself up when you fail, and to repeat. Repeat everything and never be satisfied until you behold your dreams.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Estee Janssens.
https://unsplash.com/@esteejanssens
