Most of the Dream Big articles are lumped together, to make it easier for you to look at them. There’s a one-pager on networking and gives some networking organizations to look into. Another article is short profiles of women who followed their dreams–a “how’d they do that” kind of thing. I did a quick internet search, and some of those women’s jobs/companies seem to no longer exist. Not exactly what I want to see, but I understand that not all businesses work out.
Martha Beck has an article on what she calls WIGs–Wildly Improbable Goals, which is interesting, but I don’t know if it helps me in this situation. The WIG is one of those goals that pops into your head that seems kind of random and unobtainable, but once you key into it and decide to make it happen, you can–that, or be open to random things happening that fulfill your goals.
It’s an interesting article, and making a living from writing certainly is a WIG for me, but I don’t like to think it’s so improbable. It’s hard to explain. The article does say it takes lots of hard work, which is the mentality boat I’m in now. It also says that sometimes miracles happen. This I’m totally open to as well.
The final one-pager is an article I really identified with called “Setting Your Sights Lower” by Stacy Grenrock-Woods. She writes an interesting piece about yes, you may have distant goals, but the steps to get there can be really basic and easy to accomplish. Focusing on the small steps–”the smallest, least distracting steps”–will help you get to the bigger goal.
How will all of this work for the LO Dilemma? Well, I think I need to keep plugging away here like I am doing. Reading all of the Oprahs can be classified as a WIG, I think (mainly because I think it’s wildly improbable that I’ll finish them all). Taking them one article at a time is setting my sights lower. I do need to get word out that I’m actually doing this project, to bring some readership and maybe some other opportunities my way. How to do that without stressing out? I think maybe writing up a press release would help (though I think that can be a distressing big step), and then I’d have something in hand that I can show to others to help spread the word.
As Grenrock-Woods puts it, she tries not to get overwhelmed (a whole stay-in-the-present type of approach to her work). “I’m not an international star, Pulitzer Prize winner, or noted humanitarian, and may never be–but I sure am having fun trying,” she writes. Although I’d totally love to win big literary prizes (and honestly, I do have them down as long-range goals so that I’m striving toward something…it may never happen, but it keeps me on the path of trying to be excellent–and dream big), this “shoot lower” mindset is helpful because it reminds me to take things a little bit at a time.
