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Mmmm, that’s a delicious dream.

So big! So YOU!

Can’t you just taste the juicy future?

Once achieved, this dream will forever mark that milestone in your life when you went from “meh” to MIGHTY!

Oh no, but it’s so far away...and there’s so many steps...and boy...the effort it’ll demand…

You know what, never mind. It’ll never happen…

I won’t even get halfway before I give up on it like every other dream I’ve ever had.

Even if I somehow muster the oomph to spring forward, it’ll fade eventually.

Long before the finish line the momentum will grind to a standstill and I’ll turn away and walk into to the sunset…

...fizzled and fried…

...again.

Here’s the thing, you. Obsessing about the “big dream” is like staring at the sun. You look too long and you’ll get burnt, you’ll go blind, you’ll literally (and figuratively) lose your vision.

You’ll lose the light, the fire, the direction.

Like the sun, you must merely glimpse.

Once you get the full size and shape of the beast, look away. Avert yer gaze for gawd’sakes!!!

Put your head down and get to work. The dream will beam down ever still. You do not need to focus on the blazing glory of your amazing (intimidating) future for the task at hand to be well lit.

This is the trick. This is how the giants built their stilts.

But these giants you see, these monolithic, they are no different than you or I. They are no bigger, no better, no stronger, no smarter.

They are, however, focused.

Not focused in any superhuman or obsessive or omniscient sense though.

Au contraire!

They have intentionally obscured those aspects of their dream that ought not be focused upon yet. They have been decidedly ruthless, and deemed them “not yets”. The phase twos and threes, the next years, the mid and end-game scenarios–All wholly and utterly out of mind.

Upon commencement, they hold in their mind the first step. Nothing more.

And so should you, you big dreamer you.

Focus on the first step. Focus on this step’s first step, and take it.

Tomorrow, take the next step.

Each day. Every Day.

One step for step 1.

This is my 1% rule.

You know the size and shape of the beast.

You know the sun illuminates your work best with your back to the light, not staring at it.

You know where to place your foot.

Step up into the stirrup and rise atop them stilts.

Now...STRIDE DAMN YOU!

STRIDE!!!

...one step at a time...