Looking for a Magic Bullet? Look Again

Aren’t we all looking for the magic bullet? The one thing that will make us thin, turn our house into a showplace and move our business to “the next level?”

The media is replete with tales of overnight success. Justin Bieber puts a homespun video on Youtube and becomes a bazillionaire. A couple of students found the company Rovio, release the Angry Birds and become millionaires overnight.  Lana Turner gets discovered at a drugstore counter.

But here’s the thing: behind every overnight success story are a thousand small things. Hundreds and hundreds of tiny steps taken every day toward a goal.

There is no magic bullet.

Every goal, every success, every achievement worth achieving is built one brick at a time. And meaningful success is made at the margins -- by doing that little bit extra. Have you ever considered that at 211 degrees water is just really hot but at 212 degrees water produces steam and that steam can power a train filled with people from one end of the country to the other?

Step one, of course, is identifying the goal. And that goal must be very, very, very important to you -- something you really really want -- because achieving big goals is hard. Like, really hard.

Once you’ve set your sights on what you want, then you must get to work. Consistency is key. Make a commitment to taking a few steps toward your goal every single day. Don’t wait until you have a significant block of time to “focus” (though such blocks are awesome) but make it your personal goal to take steps toward that goal every day. Accept that there is no magic bullet. No one single thing you could do if you just had enough time or could figure it out.

Build your dream house brick by brick.