The other day I got a fortune cookie that had a particularly good statement: "Do not let what you can't do stop you from doing what you can do".
Have you ever done that? Have you ever considered a huge task ahead of you and thought to yourself "That's going to be too hard. I can't do that."?
That usually happens because we look at the goal we want to reach and then consider the distance to it too far to work with. But you'd be amazed at how many goals you can reach by just starting the journey.
For instance, if your goal was to create a beautiful painting but you didn't know how to paint, you can't look at the Sistine Chapel and say, "I'm going to do that to my bathroom ceiling tomorrow." But at the same time, you can't say, "I'm never going to be that good," and quit without ever trying.
You can't paint the Mona Lisa tonight, but you can buy a set of paints, brushes, and canvases, and begin to paint simple things. Maybe you take the time to really get good at painting a bowl of fruit, then later you move on to a tree, and eventually, you try to actually paint a picture of people. It may take you months or even years to get good enough to paint something you feel worthy of hanging on your wall, but that's part of the process.
The journey can be as rewarding as the destination if you take the time to truly enjoy it.
Last week I talked about how I write books. But the truth is I started with poetry, and then moved to short stories before I actually tried writing a full-length novel. It's not always an overnight process, but that's no reason to give up.
Don't focus on what you can't do. Focus instead on what you can do that will take you closer to your goal.
What can you do today that will enable you to do what you can't do (but want to) right now? Get out there and do it!
Comments