Imagining something you might like to have or do is a dream. A dream written down and clearly visualized is a goal. A tangible, measurable step written down and committed to is an action. You will not achieve a dream if you don't systematically work through the actions that lead to the goals that lead to the dream.
It's easy to get passionate about setting goals. We all get excited about our dreams. Taking consistent action on them on a daily basis until they are done is another story. How do we stay motivated with the same passion and excitement to follow through on the everyday tasks required to achieve the goals? How do we overcome any obstacles that occur?
Whenever we conceive the goals we want to achieve, we each enter our own process to accomplish these goals. My process involves imagining my goal as a finished product, researching and planning by gathering information to be prepared to work on the goal, and taking action to achieve the goal while maintaining the passion and self-discipline to follow through to the end result.
I have noticed that I easily get distracted and stuck in the researching and planning phase. I'm always looking for more and more information, but rarely implement what I've already learned. I am acknowledging that there are profound barriers between reading and DOING. I know that the solution isn’t “more,” but actually using the knowledge I've gained. I need to get to the action phase sooner. FAILURE is OK! I'll be learning while doing.
After taking action there is always an obstacle or two that try deter you from reaching your goal. At this point it becomes difficult and the excitement fades. This is when the self-discipline needs to kick in. I use my ability to be resourceful and work on solving the obstacle. If I'm having trouble figuring out how to overcome the obstacle, I seek out help. Two people are better then one and three people are better then two.
Today is the day I begin taking action. I've been learning Rails for a couple months and am still researching and planning. All I've been doing is reading up on Rails, CSS, and XHTML as well as following a bunch of tutorials. I haven't even started my own application. I've worked on a store application which had a buyers side with a shopping cart and a sellers side to handle the products and sales. I worked on a digg like application where users could submit articles and vote on them and view the most popular ones. I've done many different blog applications. And many more tutorials. Today I start hacking on my applications and less on tutorials. Maybe even find someone else's and contribute to it.
My dream is to create a website with all my web applications. My first goal is to create a blog for my website similar to the ones I read everyday. My actions will be to build the blog beyond what the tutorials teach.
