It’s good to have a vision in life. About life. But then the vision must trickle down to goals. The goals must be further divided into to subgoals, and the subgoals into steps. More importantly, small, measurable steps.
These steps must be then adhered to. Sounds simple?
In fact, it’s the steps that are most difficult part.
Lofty vision and goals are the simplest of all, for who can’t build castles in the air? The steps are where we all go astray. It’s where we get lost and have intermittent bouts of frustrating realizations – that we’re pretty much where we were eons ago.
You require two qualities to hand hold you through the steps, and these attributes are what make this phase so arduous: Willpower and Discipline!
If you inculcate those qualities somehow, and sustain for a period of time… one step at a time, you get closer and closer to your goal(s).
So what’s the difference between vision, goals, willpower and discipline?
You have a vision for your life – an overarching desire of how your life should be. You break that into goals – the things that help define your vision. The goals can be broken into subgoals, and the subgoals can be further reduced to steps.
So Vision => Goals A B C => Sub Goals (A.1, A.2) => Measurable steps (A.1.i, A.1.ii…) – precisely action and time defined.
The fuel for goal realization:
- Willpower: Conquering yourself, stepping out of the comfort zone, pushing through, and laying bare the duplicity and comfort of false excuses. Willpower helps you overcome your own state of inertia. It’s what makes you take the first step.
- Discipline: the quality required to sustain the next step. And the next, And on and on. Over and over again.
The timelines of Steps need to be strictly defined and followed. Else the goals fall. The vision crumbles. And you become just another day-dreaming sucker like the most of us!