How do you eat an elephant?

Making your goals so big and looking so far down the road that it’s impossible to visualize the path that will get you there, is an excellent barrier to flight.  It’s an opportunity for resistance to take over with “Not until I vacuum every horizontal (and some vertical) surfaces in my house,” and rationalization to chime in with “I’m a vegetarian actually.” 

And boy are they effective. I’d bet that the occupants of the most spotless houses, the most accomplished couch potatoes, and the most studious perusers of websites (porn and other) are artists.  I use the inexplicable need to iron something, anything, it doesn’t matter what, like an e-collar that jolts me back from the precipice that resistance and rationalization have pushed me toward.  Realizing that I’m prowling for the ironing board compels me to stop in my tracks, take stock of my slightly shaking hands, my sweaty palms, and reminds me that if I don’t sit at my desk and write, NOW, I can look forward to being the only 80-year old ironing maiden, in that home for wayward octogenarians.

So how do you eat an elephant?  One piece at a time, of course.

• Every day you carve out a little piece, as big or as small as your current life allows, and you follow through: do the work for even 5 minutes today, make the phone call, buy that book, write that letter, or talk to someone who will help you see all the little pieces, all the little steps that you’ll need to take.

Remember, with an elephant standing in your way, you can’t possibly see where you’re going. So start filleting.

Scott Dinsmore created a handy little workbook you can download free, here:  http://liveyourlegend.net/free-2012-goal-setting-guide/