A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

You’ve got dreams. Maybe you dream of quitting your day job to focus on your writing or art. Or you dream of taking an amazing trip to help you fill your well.

Maybe you even have goals. You have scheduled that trip. Decided to write that book you’ve been dreaming of. Pulled out the paints, pastels, or clay. (You can read this post to learn the difference between dreams and goals.)

Perhaps you took the advice in this post and created S.M.A.R.T. goals for yourself by making them specific, measurable, actionable/achievable, realistic/relevant, and time-bound.

You’ve put your energy into creating that goal, you’ve done your best to quiet the inner critic . . .

So why isn’t your dream manifesting for you?

Achieving a goal is a process, and it requires you to take steps to make it happen. One of those steps might be “ask the Universe to deliver”, another way of saying that you are invoking what many call the law of attraction. But that cannot be the only step you take.

To get anyplace, you must move.

The English version of the Tao Te Ching usually quotes Lao-Tse as saying “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” The original text used the Chinese measurement of li, which is approximately 360 miles, so the actual journey contemplated is long indeed. Also, the Chinese text more accurately translates to mean that “the journey of a thousand miles begins underneath your feet.”

Wherever you are, you are already on the path toward your goal. Even if you haven't moved yet.

I don’t know about you, but I find this reassuring. It gives me comfort to know that even if you haven’t yet put things into motion, you are already on that path. Wherever it is you are standing (or sitting), the start of the path is already under your feet.

You are already on the path that will take you toward your goal.

Further progress toward that goal only requires one step. A single step.

Maybe you cannot figure out the entire pathway to your goal. Maybe you don’t have the resources or energy to make the full trek.

All it means is you do not know the entire pathway yet, and you don’t have all the resources or energy you will need for the journey right now.

If you want to eventually quit your day job to be a full-time creator, you may not yet know all the things that will need to occur or to fall into place in order for that to happen. But unless your day-job isn’t entirely necessary to your household income and success, it is likely that quitting cold in order to start out writing or making art isn’t something you can do right away.

Most people who embark on a creative career have a paying job to contend with along the way. Writing or art-making is therefore a side-hustle, up until the time that you can figure out how to replace your day job.

But if that is your goal, you can take a single step. Even if it is a very small one.

If nothing else, map out time to practice your craft. Then follow through and do it.

What is your goal? What small step will you take today to make it real?

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