(Low Hanging) Fruit First
When setting goals many people struggle with setting the right goals. In my post Goldilocks Goals I explain how goals that are too hot will cause you to burn out quickly and goals that are too cold do not ignite enough passion to keep you interested. The key is setting the right goals, the Goldilocks Goals, that are sustainable and properly motivating to keep you moving forward. Now think about the smaller goals on the way to your target. For some reason our brain despises the low hanging fruit, the apples near the bottom or on the ground. Because they’re too easy. Surely anything that easy to get isn’t worth much. How else did it get down there? Having to reach, stretch and pull ourselves up is synonymous with worth and great achievement. Let’s say you want to fill a whole big basket full of apples to take home and cook with. Once you’ve accomplished filling your basket to bring home and back that sweet, sweet pie, can you really tell which you got from the top and which you came from the bottom? This disdain for easy targets when our goal is in fact a collection of all of these smaller tasks and goals is perilous. It means we’re always putting ourselves in the situation of anything we do needing to have some grandiose outcome in order to be worthwhile. Nothing could be further from the truth. When picking tasks up to your goal, the low hanging fruit is not there to be ignored. It’s there for you to practice on. How else will you be ready when it’s time to do it again but the stakes, and you, are much higher? This is how the foundation is built, the base on which your house is built. Relish those opportunities when not a lot is at stake, that how you can hone your craft. Don’t diss those small little projects your boss gives you, practice nailing them so you’re better prepared for the next level up, and so forth.
Perhaps you have your own journey to follow. Perhaps you want to design shoes? Upscale sneakers for the on-the-go woman. Start with upcycling a set of comfy Converse, or what I call Chuck Taylor’s, with your particular style. Make a pair for your neighbor and her best friend. Add your personal touch. Let your design skills emerge and blossom. Be true to what sets you apart. Your signature style is what will attract even more people. Make a bunch for a local cheerleading squad. Start taking orders. Create new designs inspired by different people (make a wedding pair!) Offer them online and work to get featured in magazines. Ask a shoe blogger to do a review. Create them yourself until you can hire some manufacturing. Build little by little. You get the picture. Eventually you’d like an internationally best-selling women’s sneaker line for women on the go who want to be stylish and comfortable. Keep going like that and in 4 years you could be designing shoes for the vice President of the United States.
When setting goals find that sweet spot between goals that are too hot and goals that are too cold. Once you find them, on the way there relish the opportunity to pick up that low hanging fruit pour yourself into it which is there precisely so you can practice and learn.
