Have you ever found yourself stuck in a rut? I have numerous times throughout my life. One of them was while I was working to complete my master’s degree.
I had just graduated with my bachelor’s and knew I still had plenty left over from my G.I. Bill to pursue my master’s. So, I jumped right into the program at school and chipped away, class-by-class, until it was completed.
During the process, however, I was growing more and more disenfranchised with schooling. After all, I had just finished cramming a four year degree into the last 20 years of my life (off and on throughout my military career)!
The thought of another class began taking its toll on me and at times I toyed with the idea of quitting.
That age old question, “How do you eat an elephant”? Followed by the inevitable answer, “One bite at a time”, kept repeating in my heart and mind. That is when I decided to simply focus my thoughts on the task at hand, and not the entire goal of graduating.
Instead of staying in the rut of indecision and delaying my education, I decided to keep moving in pursuit of graduating by focusing on the next assignment. Breaking it down even further, I planned daily goals to ensure weekly assignments were met.
For example, if I had an essay due that week, I would set a daily goal of how many paragraphs to write. By the end of the week, the essay was completed and I could focus on the next week’s assignments.
If you are faced with a decision in life, like a career change or whether to finish your degree or not, just keep moving! You can do this by asking yourself what you need to accomplish today in order to chip away at your goal. The key is to keep moving forward in your pursuits, professionally and in life!
Leadership Bricks 