26 Weeks to Freedom: Creating an Internet Business

Bob Mann on the beautiful Greek island of Corfu, Sept. 2007. Photo by www.EuropeJourneys.com

If you’re a person who, like me, is trying to make some major changes in your life, you may have noticed that it’s a lot easier to focus on all the things you haven’t yet done rather than what you have accomplished so far! I especially notice this after I’ve taken a particular action that, for whatever reason, I had anticipated with a lot of fear and thought I wouldn’t be able to get through without something terrible happening.  Then, once it’s over and I have successfully broken through the “fear barrier” and proven that I could do it, I barely pay any attention to my triumph—choosing instead to start focusing immediately on the next fearful thing waiting to be dealt with!

Obviously there is something wrong with that picture.  If I’m ignoring these “little” victories over fear and dismissing them in hindsight as “no big deal,” I am really shortchanging myself and keeping myself perpetually seeing the “glass” as half-empty rather than half-full.  Which then serves to further convince me that I am not capable of making significant changes (you know, those big, dramatic ones that really count—unlike that “insignificant” stuff I’ve been doing:-) 

I think any new “proactive” victory over fear—no matter how big or small it may seem—should be paid attention to and celebrated!  Wouldn’t it be great if we all kept a daily journal of every positive step we’ve taken to advance in the direction of our goals?  Even if I never show it to anyone else (because they might think it’s silly or stupid, right?), just my paying attention to every “major” or “minor” proactive thing I’ve done would help energize and accelerate my journey on the road to those changes I’m trying to make.

And, along this same line, it’s important not to underestimate the positive impact that a simple action of yours (that has nothing to do with achieving goals) might have on another person.  It could be something as ”ordinary” as making a phone call to an elderly friend or relative—which may not seem like a big deal to you, but may have tremendous significance for them.   Or it could be that little “insignificant” courtesy you show somebody else in a public place—for all you know, they could be feeling terrible for one reason or another, and your simple act of kindness becomes the one bright spot in their entire day.  Or maybe it’s that “small” financial contribution you make to a worthy charity—which probably doesn’t seem so small to its grateful recipients.   It’s easy to dismiss all of these as being relatively unimportant in the larger scheme of things, but we shouldn’t—because they do matter!

So one of my goals is to start paying more attention to the positive, proactive “little things” I do every day—whether they serve as ”building blocks” for the goals I want to achieve, or whether they are “random acts of kindness”  that just make the world a tiny bit better place to live. Either way, the more of these I choose to do (and then give myself credit for overcoming fear,  low self-esteem, apathy, or whatever in order to do them), the more everybody wins–now and in the future!