Robert Heinlein, a classic sci-fi writer from the ’50s and ’60s wrote a book called Stranger in a Strange Land, where the protagonist, Valentine Michael Smith comes to Earth in early adulthood after being raised by Martians. I have to say, that I have not read it, but my father is a crazy, mad Heinlein fan and has been telling me about it.
And it got me thinking about something closer to home.
How often do our dream, our goals, feel like strangers in our own minds? These thoughts of wanting to change the world, to do something incredible, to stretch the fabric of human existence into a realm not travelled, or, in the parlance of the great Gene Roddenberry who gave us Star Trek; “To boldly go where no-one has gone before.”
If you have the bug, it’s hard to shake. It eats at you at night with a question. “What could I be doing now to further your goals?”
It’s tenacious and voracious.
And the very moment the thought comes for some grand new project, we are beset by the problems, the reasons and the logical explanations of why we can’t do it.
It’s important to know that the moment you set a new goal, something you have not achieved before, self-doubt will kick in. The strength of the self-doubt will be in direct proportion to the level of the goal.
The bigger the goal, the bigger the self-doubt.
And yet, there are some people, who fare much better with self-doubt. How do they do it?
By winning the small fights.
The more small fights they win, the more belief is engendered directly into the unconscious mind that they follow through.
The small fights could be as simple as:
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Putting the rubbish out when they said they would
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Going to the gym even if they don’t feel like it
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Writing that chapter, because it’s due today
