Thinking about all the steps you might need to take in the journey to achieve your biggest goals can be intimidating — even paralyzing to the point where you never start.
Perhaps you already know this from experience.
In addition potentially preventing you from ever starting, the other issue with this framing is that you really can’t be certain about what directions a journey will take you in the long run.
More helpful is to focus on what you can anticipate and control by simply asking: what’s the next best step?
This question removes your focus from trying to do the impossible task of mapping an unpredictable journey.
It simplifies what it means to make progress by boiling it down to one action after the next.
It also supercharges your motivation by reframing the journey from seeming like 1 big achievement that happens sometime in the distant future into a bunch of small achievements that occur every time you take another step towards your goals.
When it comes to thinking about the kind of life that you want to create or the kinds of things you want to do, by all means dream big. It’s your life after all — you cannot expect others to do this for you.
When it comes to thinking about how you will make progress towards those dreams, ask yourself what the next best step is, do it, celebrate your progress, repeat.
By narrowing your focus in this way, you may be surprised by how much more manageable, enjoyable & fulfilling your experience of work, of the journey — of your life — can be.
Also would caveat that it's a bunch of small failures too.