“Do the Next Right Thing for You.”
Andrew Zimmern was the keynote speaker at a conference I attended and when he said this, I lost track of the rest of his speech.
The next right thing for me. I pondered this statement like it just opened my whole world. I’m an Aries. This means I like to do lots of stuff. I love trying new things, experiencing different scenes, visiting new places, learning about other cultures. At the same time, I like consistency, order, and organization. Somewhere along the line, having multiple jobs, moving a lot, and not settling down became a hindrance for gaining respect.
But there it was ~ the next right thing for me. As if I had just been given permission to be me and do what I wanted to do next.
I have a friend who says to me, “I love that you go after your dreams.” I have and I still am. So there.
As the experience of new things happens, so does desire for more dreams. We don’t have to have just one dream and make it happen. We can have many. I love to write. I’m not the best at it. I hope I’m improving as I go. But I love to write, so I write. There’s one dream.
I was the writer for the Alaska page on Bellaonline.com. In my research for an article about the Iditarod, I found a new love. A sport to follow. A team I could route for. Then I wanted to go to the Iditarod. It happens in March. In Alaska. Hmmm. So, I volunteered. Had to pay my way, but I did it with some help from friends and family. I spent 17 days in Anchorage volunteering. I got to meet my team! Another dream realized.
I’ve spent probably the last 20 years hard thinking I wanted to live in Colorado. It happens in 3 months from now. Yet another dream I will follow.
How did I do it? How did I get to living my dreams? Focus. Constant focus on the result. Not the figuring out how to do it. Not until the last moment did I enter the “how phase.”
To follow your dreams, you must focus on the result. You must look at the picture in your mind of how it will be. You must see it all the time. The more you focus, the clearer it will come into view. Don’t worry about the how is my best advice. The how will screw you up and cause pause every time.
Focus on the end result to live your dreams. Do the next right thing for you.
Originally published at medium.com