By Sheryl Eldene, MA, MBA
I ran across a quote of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week which really caught my eye –
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
This is especially appropriate as we finish this month’s focus on setting intention. So many times, our choice of a goal gets dumbed-down because we can’t figure out how it’s going to happen, or, as Dr. King said, we can’t see all the steps between here and there. Part of the art of setting intention is just setting it and having trust in your own inner courage and power to move in that direction, knowing that there is a way, and your feet will find it – maybe even in spite of your mind which is wildly trying to think up HOW.
Years ago I used to write down everything I wanted in my life as a New Year’s day activity. Since I was flying private airplanes at the time, one of those things was to have a home that backed onto a private airstrip so I could just pull my plane out of the hanger next to my house and take off. Of course I couldn’t see the end of that staircase, but it went on my list anyway. Same with the swimming pool I thought would be lovely in my backyard, and the business I wanted to start. None of those dreams came with a how, they were just MY DREAM. Truth be told, a year or two later, I wasn’t interested in the pool (too much to clean, and too risky for my children’s safety) or in the home on an airstrip (too noisy and isolated from the city) and I’ve run my business successfully now for 18 years even though I put that on my “Dream” list 30 years ago.
WHAT intentions would you set if you didn’t have to come up with the HOW first?
