Last week I wrote about the Aha Moments in life. I wanted to follow up this week with, “what’s next?” Great to have the aha moments but what do I do with them? The exhilaration of discovering something new is so cool. The realization of a purpose is truly a blessing BUT there is the next morning when you wake up and say, “what now?” This short note will not answer that completely but may give you a direction. The short answer is that there is no short answer.
Let me give you a brief example: Tina and I love to vacation at the beach.
When we set out on vacation, there is nothing more I want than to be at the beach, but first we must reserve the house, pay for it, wait for the proper time to go, pack, then get in the car, fill up the tank and set the GPS for our destination. Then the 10-to-14-hour drive to the destination comes followed usually by a good night’s sleep to awaken where we wanted to be all along.
I love to wake up on vacation and hear the waves crashing on the beach. At last, the fruits of my labor realized. You see my friends, there is no magical way to get there. There is no worm hole to take us from wanting to be at the beach to just showing up at the beach. In this example the aha moment was seeing the beach house on line and knowing that is where I wanted to be. The next steps were in the planning, the paying, the packing and the driving.
I don’t know what your aha moment is, but I do know that you need to take steps to make sure your dream comes to fruition. Tina calls this Trusting the Process. If you have a vision, then you must take the steps to achieve the vision. There is always a process. There is always some sacrifice that must be made to get to your destination. I know that sacrifice is a dirty word to some but what I have found is that what looks like sacrifice on the front end is usually a blessing in retrospect. For Tina lately the process has been taking a mastery course to improve her way of creating art. This woman I have seen become a good artist had to humble herself and seek out people who could take her to the next level so she could better reach others. Progress through the process.
For me, it is perfecting my craft. I take short classes to learn ways to better communicate my musings through text. I bounce my unfinished manuscripts off people further down the line than I am and accept their instruction. I write, rewrite and rewrite again to assure that what I am trying to get across is readable to others. I will some day take a writing course to reach even a higher level of communication. Progress through the process.
What is your vision? Can you define the end point? If so, what are the steps to get you there? Talk to others who have done something similar. Be humble and ask for help. Move forward and keep the vision in front of you. If you have an accountability person share with them your vision. If you don’t have that person in your life. Write the vision out and keep it in front of you. Move toward it.
Ted