When it comes to achieving our goals or completing projects, more often than not, we miss the mark when it comes to cost and schedule. It ends up taking longer time and costing more money. We tend to underestimate the length of time it will actually take to accomplish a task or the amount of money required at the end of the day. As a matter of fact, one of Murphy’s laws refers to this:
Any given program costs more and takes longer.
The common reaction is that the goal was not realistic. We feel that the bar was set too high. The usual remedy is to lower the bar. Consequently, we develop the habit of aiming low and settling for less than the best that we are capable of. We become ‘realistic’.
There is nothing like an unrealistic goal. Every goal is realizable if you are willing to pay the price. The only thing that is unrealistic is the time frame, cost, or commitment to action compared to the enormity of the goal. It may take longer, cost more and demand more from you than you are ready to give when you first started out. There is nothing wrong with the goal. The challenge is with the commitment to make it happen, be it time, energy, resources, and focus.
If you cannot achieve the goal at the published date, you can set a new date and keep moving towards your target. If it costs more, you can commit more funds. If it demands more from you, you can rise to the occasion. If you are ready to give it all it takes, you will make it to the finish line. Many people fall by the wayside when they do not get the result they expected at the time they anticipated. Most people give up and fall by the wayside.
Many give up on their businesses and give in to the statistics when the money does not show up on time, or quit exercising and dieting when the scale does not head south as expected. You see a lot of abandoned websites floating around in cyberspace, the owners have long given up on their original dreams. Delayed results test your character and level of commitment to the goal. Starting is not the main issue, although very few do start. Crossing the finish line is what separates the men from the boys. If your commitment is not total, you are prone to falling back.
If you start out your journey with the commitment to pay the full price no matter what it comes to, aware that it will cost more, take longer, and demand more from you, you will be ready when things do not happen at the time you expected them to. It takes courage and commitment to keep going when the results are not apparent. If you keep on keeping on, soon you will hit the break of dawn. You will not join the majority who give up three feet from the finish line.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
– Marianne Williamson
Do not play small. Do not sell yourself short. Dream big, aim high, reach beyond the skies, and build castles in the air. When you are done, roll up your sleeves and get to work to build foundations under them. If you are willing to pay full price no matter what it takes or how long it takes, you are as realistic as reality can be. If you are willing to wait forever for your dream to come true, then you don’t have long to wait.
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