Overnight success is a myth that is pushing many potential talents out of the game too soon.
Rome was not built in a day, yet we want success overnight. Like a child with an eye on a toy. With the proliferation of social media, we can admire successful people at a mere scroll up every day. We see everyone winning but us.
If I open my Linked-in account, my notifications say congratulation X and Y on this or that milestone, on a daily basis. I tend to forget I have a decent network on Linked-in and the probability of one of them getting promoted or achieving something on any given day I open my profile is high. It used to overwhelm me. Now I rarely check my account and only if I have something interesting to post. I have my own goals to double down on and my own milestones as my beacon.
It is easy for me to say forget the others and focus on yourself. Afterall, we are all humans and comparing notes is in our nature. But the problem is we see the big dream in the distant future but cannot designed the steps to get there. Even if we do make a plan, we get discouraged by the first sign of failure.
Recently, I had a client who told me in one of our sessions that she had a vision of making a spectacular chocolate masterpiece as part of a gift giving ceremony. She tried it and it did not turn out anything like she wanted, and she got really frustrated.
I asked her if she knew about how long the process should take. She said she saw the picture on social media and just wanted to make it in an afternoon. So, we researched on how long it will actually take to create. 2 weeks was the answer. I asked her if she thought it was a realistic goal and if her frustration was justified. I could sense she was getting the point, but it was not hitting home yet. The next week, I got homemade churros sent to my place.
The lesson here is you start with what you know, what are your actual skills and you build from there.
It is commendable to have ambitious visions. I strongly support it. However lofty visions without an assessment of where you are at the moment and how you will support and supplement your own journey is a recipe for failure. This is…
