The Slow Snowball of Success

We all dream of different things. One of my closest friends aspires to be a successful artist. Another close friend once wanted to be a professional makeup artist. I, as you know, aspire to be a published author. I've known people who have dreamt of becoming singers, police officers, video game designers, even stay-at-home parents. And, to be quite honest, I know quite a few people who "have no idea what they want to do when they grow up". But each dream is unique to each person. Even the ones who say they don't have one to begin with.

We think that there's some secret formula to success, but really it's a simple mathematical equation: The amount of effort put into the goal times the amount of time spent achieving said goal. If this sounds familiar, it is. Science. Newton's second law of motion: "The greater the force, the greater the acceleration in the direction of that force." (Force, by the way, is mass times acceleration) So, the more time and effort we spend on trying to achieve a goal (in this example, a career), the more likely we are to succeed at doing so. To break this down comprehensively, there's far more inertia in a speeding train than there is crawling snail.

Now, as with the science of motion and the in-exact science of life, there are unseen barriers and circumstances that stand in our way - and can derail us completely. This would be summed up in Newton's first ("A body in motion will remain in motion at constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.") and third ("For every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction.") laws of motion. What goes done must eventually come up. What is going must eventually stop or alter course. In the example of careers, a promotion is a slight change in course; whereas a new job is a much greater change in course. Sometimes, many times actually, a complete alteration of the previous career path.

To use myself as an example, I have had many different sales and customer service jobs, but my current position has little customer interaction and zero sales. It's strictly an analytical position. Yet, writing, which is the career path I wish to do as a full time career eventually, is a complete opposite of both of those types of jobs. In fact, the one common denominator (the most important common denominator) is that they all effect the greater populace in one way or another. Influencing people, you could argue, is my biggest skill set. I have traveled down many different paths, but they all lead to the same road.

So, the question I leave you with is not "what is your dream?" but "what are you doing to achieve it?". What steps are you taking to reach it and what are you procrastinating on that is hindering you in your goal? Are you a locomotive or are you a tumbleweed? Because, let's be honest, the biggest boulder in the journey to your dreams is you.