Some people let their fear destroy their dreams.  Others learn how to use it as the very tool needed to craft the life of their dreams.

Fear.

It's amazing.  If you can rise above it and look at it objectively, you can see that beneath the instinct to "run and hide," there lies an arrow pointing directly in the direction that you need to go.

We cannot draw out with absolute precision the map between where we are and where we need to be in order to arrive at this goal or that.  But we can consult our compass - our fear.  Because the very step that you're afraid to take is precisely the step that you must take next.

Start changing your relationship with fear.  Improve it.  Mature it.  Grow up.  Because as long as you're committed to learning and growing, you'll always have fear.  So you might as well stop running from it and learn to run with it, through it, and past it.  Have fun with it and eventually it won't feel like fear anymore.

Been a while since I watched Cinderella Man, but I was listening to a CD in which someone recounted the story.  It was the Great Depression and James Braddock could not get enough work to support his family.  At one point his kids were sent away because there was no food left.  Determined to change his circumstances he decided to get in the boxing ring against the number one contendor in the world.  When asked why he would fight someone who had viciously killed two other boxers in the ring and could quite possible kill him too, Braddock replied, "I'm doing it for bread and milk."

What represents "bread and milk" for you?  What desire/dream/goal burns you enough to get you in that ring with your weaknesses, fears, and doubts?  You can't overcome what you don't face.  Braddock won that match.  He should have lost.  It would have made more sense if he had lost.  But when the dream is big enough, the facts don't count.  Is your dream big enough?

Are your goals just floating around in your head?  Are they hiding in a notebook that you haven't looked at in years?

Designated a small journal (or whatever works for you) to keep your list of goals so that you can read it regularly, cross off goals upon completion and add more as you go along.

What do you do when you just don't feel like doing what you're supposed to do?  Let's face it - you're going to have those days no matter how clear you get on your goals and what you want out of life.  It's so easy to slack off and lose momentum.

Not every day is going to be perfect and I hope you're not shooting for perfection anyway.  You're never going to get perfect, you can only and always get better.  You have to think progress not perfection!

So with that in mind, how can we make progress every single day?  Here's a tip that I got from an article by Robert Pagliarini that I've tried on a couple of areas in my life and it works.  Think "I can at least...".  This practice will save you on those days when you're feeling too tired, or stressed, or "blah" to do as much as you planned.

Here's an example:
Let's say you have a goal to save $5 every day because ultimately you want to have money specifically saved to invest in a mutual fund by the end of the year.  As easy as this sounds, you'll probably have days where that $5 disappeared on gas or emergency groceries or maybe you just blew it on candy.  Instead of feeling that you messed up for that day, do the next best thing instead.  In this case, you say, "Well, I can at least save $1 today."  And do that. 

This is about more than the "something is better than nothing" principle.  When you can't accept anything less than $5 a day and you miss it, you've not only sacrificed a day, you've sacrificed a precious bit of your momentum and you've made it that much easier to miss it again and again.  Before you know it, the year is gone and you've gotten nowhere because you've sabotaged your success with your need for perfection.  It's funny how obsessing over perfection so often leads to its exact opposite.  That $1 saves you.  It preserves your self-respect.  It's a symbol of your commitment to progress no matter what.

Now, before you say, "What's the big deal?  I can make up for missing a day by saving $10 tomorrow.  So it's ok if I don't do anything today."  The money in itself is not the point.  Your mindset is the point.  Really successful people know that their success is the result of the little things that they do every day.  They understand that this is how the magic of the compound effect works in their lives.  Success is not a result of what you do to make up for what you didn't do.

So, what's your back up plan?

Here's some ideas:
Goal: I exercise for 45 minutes a day
Back-up: I can at least exercise for 10 minutes today

Goal: Study Spanish for 1 hour every day
Back-up: I can at least study 10 words today

There is another awesome benefit about this principle.  When you think, "I can at least ..." and you do it, you'll find it easier to keep going and you'll find yourself on top of your game anyway.  For instance, if the thought of exercising for 45 minutes feels too daunting for you one day, but you get up to at least do 10 minutes, you're going to find after 10 minutes that you feel good enough to do the next 35!

Remember: Think progress not perfection.

Let's talk about MAPS! 

Do you have a map for your life?  And do you check it regularly?

It goes without saying - when you go traveling into unfamiliar territory and need to get from point A to point B, you must consult a map.  Without a map, you're lost, drifting, and missing out on all the stuff you want to see and do and experience!

The same thing applies to the journey that is your life!
Point A is where you are now.  Point B is your goal, where you want to get to.  The map of your life is the course you chart to take you from point A to point B.  However, before you can chart that course, you have to clearly define point B as much as you can at this present moment.  Most of us do have an idea of where we want to be in our lives, but sadly, it's usually a very vague idea.  Vague ideas don't make very good point B's.  Not at all.  They're like moving clouds - intangible and utterly impossible to pin down.  This is why so many people feel like they are not getting what they want out of their lives - because they never take the time to figure out exactly what it is they want in the first place!