Do you have goals that you talk about constantly – if not to others then to yourself in your head? Yet you never muster up the courage to bring them to life, and the only touch of reality these goals have ever seen is the paper you wrote them on.

I know all about these kinds of goals.

Last year around this time at my local library I started doing seminars about life’s lessons that I had learned. Wanting to be a speaker, I had been thinking about doing these seminars for a year and a half. Yes, a year and a half! before I actually booked a room, marked my calendar, and invited … OTHER PEOPLE!

So what happened that finally pushed me over the edge?

A few months before, on a tender summer night, I was listening to an online speech about achieving dreams. It was a random choice selected from my overflowing inbox and I don’t even remember who it was. My concentration was challenged by a busy day behind me, and the only active dream I had on that tender night was to meet with my pillow rather sooner than later.

As I shifted in and out of focus, the speaker suddenly said something that hit my brain like a nail.

I don’t have an exact quote, but this is what I heard [read it in a really exasperated and impatient tone of voice] :

“So you have been dreaming and talking about your dream for how long? Are you actually going to DO something about it, or just talk?”

Even though I slept well on that very night, with every passing day, this question began haunting me more and more, until I couldn’t be the “all-talk-and-no-action” person anymore. So I booked a room, marked my calendar, and invited other people. Now that other people were involved, I had to do it.

I wish I could tell you that it was really easy. It wasn’t. I didn’t sleep for several nights, developed mild and temporary gastro-intestinal issues, and was worried sick because first: what if other people didn’t come? and second: what if other people did come?

I wish I could tell you that I was a rock-star right out of the gate. I wasn’t. My Mom gave me feedback, “I guess it was good enough for the first time.” Thanks, Mom.  Yet done is better than perfect.

When it was all over, however, I felt like a rock-star and the next seminar a month later was way easier.

Karen Lamb has this famous quote, “A year from now you wish you had started today.”

I know you have a goal written on a paper in your drawer. I know that the first step can be the hardest because the road ahead seems so long compared to that first step.  So let me ask you, “What is it that YOU wish you had started a year ago?”

[And now in a really exasperated and impatient tone of voice]:

“Are you actually going to DO something about it, or just talk?”

P.S. Would love to hear from you – let me know in the comments if this “hit the nail” for you, and sign up for the future posts!

P.P.S. The next seminar on “How To Give Feedback” will be on Saturday, Oct 20th @11:15 am at the North Valley Library on 2nd St in Albuquerque! These seminars are free!