Your dreams aren’t going to magically appear within your comfort
zone. Instead, if you want to achieve your dreams, you’re going to
leave your comfort zone behind. You’re going to traverse the vast
wilderness, the vast unknown, full of scary things.
You may feel lost, and you may feel like quitting. You’ll hear your
heart pounding loudly in your ears. You’ll feel the wetness of tears
on your cheeks. You’ll feel your resolve weakening.
At this point, the majority of everyone who’s ever had the courage
to leave their comfort zones behind, give up. They break down.
They surrender to their failures. They succumb to the obstacles.
They turn around to where they came from. They hide again in
their comfort zones, never to resurface ever again.
The smart thing to do
The unknown abyss beyond your comfort zone is extremely
tough. If you’re not mentally, emotionally, and physically ready,
you’re not going to get very far before you pack up and head
home.
So, how do you get from point A (that’s your comfort zone) to
point B (your dreams)?
Well, the smart thing to do would be to prepare for your journey.
You can’t just wing it and expect to succeed.
It’s like going on a month-long holiday abroad without planning
ahead. You only buy the tickets to your destination, but you don’t
know where you’re going to be staying. You don’t know anything
about the place. You don’t know the culture, the people, you
basically know nothing apart from the name of the place!
Things can quickly go downhill the moment you arrive. You could
get lost, you could get robbed, you could get hurt. And you don’t
want that to happen to you.
Just like your vacation, your dreams need serious planning if you
want to succeed. Otherwise, you wouldn’t know which way is up
and which way is down.
Setting SMART goals
Smart goals aren’t the same as your regular, run-of-the-mill goals.
You don’t just say your goal is to become a successful
businessman someday. That’s just some generic goal. It’s what
most people would say. Chances are those people aren’t any
closer to achieving their generic goals, too.
So, what do you do? You start out by actually taking the time to
define your goals. Smart goals don’t take 5 seconds to create.
Smart goals require you to go deep within yourself, to uncover
what you really want.
To begin with, your smart goal should meet the S.M.A.R.T.
criteria. It means the following: Specific, Measurable, Achievable,
Realistic and Time-sensitive.