Disclaimer: This is a user submission. It is edited for grammar and clarity only. The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily affiliated with In Real Life Malaysia.
By Chee Wah
Have you always felt you would write something?
Have you thought of working up a sweat?
Are you still dreaming of travelling the world?
You are constantly driving yourself crazy harbouring thoughts of achieving something.
You know you love Italian food and you will one day walk the streets of Rome.
You talk about writing a book and one day you will get it published.
You reminisce about younger days, slimmer days and you keep saying that one day you will exercise.
That one day did not happen.
Why?
Because you were told to dream BIG.
\One of the many reasons is that you were told to think BIG. Achieve BIG goals. Go get a BIG car, a BIG house, a BIG income. Dream BIG.
You conditioned yourself with so many BIG ideas that if you ever do anything, it should be BIG.
For travelling, you must go to Europe, far and expensive – BIG.
For writing a book, it must be at least ten chapters, 300 pages – BIG.
For sales, you must distribute twenty name cards to twenty people every day – BIG.
For an effective exercise regime, the result must be to lose at least 10kg within three months – BIG.
You believe that whatever you want to achieve, it has to be BIG.
If not, why do it?
You put a value to your dream, a result that you think everyone will approve.
But what’s wrong with starting small?
Try these New Thoughts instead:
3 Ways to Jumpstart Your Dream
- Start small – take bite sizes, not BIG gulps.
[Beaches of Terengganu. Image courtesy of Felecia]
To feel the joy of travelling – how about going for a short, perhaps one day, trip to a nearby place? Go visit a friend in a kampung.
Take the local city bus and do a hop-on hop-off tour of the city you live in. Why must travelling be always overseas?
To start writing, how about writing one word every day? To start your exercise, how about taking 10 deep breaths and just swing your arms for 5 minutes every day?
Start a diet, eat one fruit. Practice silence, meditate for one minute. Run, start with one kilometer.
- Commit to a 30-day small plan.
Commit to a 30-day challenge.
Write one word every morning for 30 days, you will have a paragraph by the end of one month.
Sit in silence for one minute each day, you would have done a 30-minute retreat at the end of the month.
Run one km a day, you would have covered 30 km after one month.
- Tell your good friends about your small plans.
Talking about your small plan is as good as cheering about a BIG one.
Talk about it with your buddies. Tell them what you are doing.
By saying it, you will accumulate confidence and build into yourself a new belief – that all actions will lead you to a result.
For more stories like this, read: How to Overcome Your Fear by Changing The Way You Think — with Azran Osman-Rani and Stress, and How to Handle It – by Raja Jesrina Arshad, Co-Founder & CEO of Purely.
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