To Succeed — Just Follow This Seven-Steps Plan
Stuck trying to figure out what’s next now? Just keep moving…till the end!
You are just SEVEN steps away from your end goal.
So am I.
So is everyone.
And I really mean it! Regardless of our current circumstances, career paths, financial status, or past accomplishments, we are all seven steps away.
But here’s the kicker: We can never see more than one step ahead.
This is a little mental trick I came up with recently as a way to help a friend of mine. He’s stuck in his career and life, working a job and living day-to-day like a zombie, he hates and tired but unsure of what to do next. “How do I know what direction to move in and when?” he asked me. Should it be vlogging, blogging, music, creative photography, or art pieces? which is his first and most love? Or modern tech and digital tools, which he’s interested in? Or content production, which he’s developed a knack for?
He’s been asking me this for months since last year. After our long conversation and life lessons sharing back and forth, his movement still stagnant. And because he can’t decide which step to take, he’s instead taken no step at all. He’s stayed in the same place and stage with less confidence and no clarity. And so, in effect, he’s chosen to continue being miserable in his current life, acting happy but blur with his dead-end job.
We’ve all suffered some version of this, haven’t we? We become paralyzed by opportunity. We fantasize about making a real change but fear that our fantasy won’t match reality and didn't meet our expectations. We fear of objection and disapproved by surroundings. It’s a torturous kind of paradox, really. We become trapped by our own escape plan with the endless excuses we created to cover our procrastination.
As I grasped for a way to help my friend, I reflected upon how zig-zagging my own path was. I moved between jobs that seemed unrelated to each other. There’s no way I could have planned it all out — literally nobody, myself included, would have once predicted that I’d be running a global knowledge marketplace called GL Initiative. And yet, the process and experiences of building the platform while connecting with other professionals and industry experts are undeniable and enriching: I’m so happy, excited and fulfilled…and yet, at the same time, I still have much more I want to accomplish and contribute to the society and community.
That’s when it hit me. Nobody can see the pathway ahead of them. We’re all blinded with the current chaos. But the people who succeed are the ones who choose, willing to walk and lead in the dark anyway, regardless of doubts, uncertainties, adversities that might be encountered along the path.
And till then, I managed to develop my theory of the seven steps.
It goes like this. Whatever you’re doing right now, let’s call it Step 1. And you’re so desperate to know where Step 7 is because that’s your end goal. You think that Step 7 is ultimate happiness and success— the end of the path, the big payoff, the place of glory to blossom! But…where is it? when I will be there? You can’t see it. Is it over there, to your left? A little to your right? A bit inside out? Should there upward or downward? You don’t know. I won't know too. And so you might feel frozen at Step 1, fearful that your next move could be the wrong one — that it could move you away from Step 7.
But look closer: You actually can see something ahead. You can see one step ahead. That’s all you get; you can see Step 2. And is Step 2 amazing and perfect and satisfying? Nah. Maybe it’s an entry-level or counter offer job, or a better-but-not-perfect job, or a minimum viable product you could put out into the world, or the launch of a business or build a company you don’t know will succeed, or whatever.
It doesn’t matter. It’s just Step 2 — it’s not supposed to be perfect.
So you take Step 2. And you learn from Step 2. You discover more about yourself and your path and what you want and what you love.
And then, lol and behold, you can see one step ahead again!
Now you see Step 3! You couldn’t have seen Step 3 back at Step 1, but you see it now because you’d moved to Step 2.
So you take the next step. And you repeat. And if you keep going, you’ll eventually reach Step 7 and discover that Step 7 isn’t actually the ultimate goal anyway — because there is no ultimate goal. The goal will be never-ending and it will keep changing and evolving throughout the time and process. That’s life. Simple. That’s why Jeff Bezos didn’t declare victory when Amazon became the world’s biggest company, or why Oprah wasn’t content hosting a hit daytime talk show.
As we progress, new achievements seem possible. New goals take shape. New vibes shifted.
Step 7, it turns out, or sometimes becoming a crossing point with other goals, is eventually just the beginning of another new paradigm. — by GL
This is how we move. This is how we succeed. This is how we vibrate higher to attract more good things and people come. We do it one step at a time — learning and growing along the way, sure of nothing except the power of progress. Don’t know what direction to go in?
Keep trying and going with FEARLESS is your new mantra!
Just pick one. Do it. Step in. Move. Right now. You’ll learn so much, including which step to take next. Choose and decide now, no more hang on. You claimed back and owned the true power within yourself.
See you at Step 7. Which is to say: See you at Step 1. AHA!!!
