This past week I was working with a friend of mine who has a tendency to get a little excited about success.  In fact, he not only gets excited… he get too excited… too early.  It causes him to skip steps and make some really poor judgment calls.  Now, don’t get me wrong.

I LOVE excitement and the energy that comes from a new project.  But, if it’s all energy and no action (or wrong action) it’ll get you nowhere fast!

My suggestion to him was to focus on…

The Forest or The Seed

Many times we find ourselves visualizing success.  We see ourselves crossing the finish line of a marathon, starting our own company or writing the perfect book.  We visualize.  We set goals.  We motivate ourselves.   We feel genuinely excited!  We build the perfect “forest” of possibility and potential.

And then we do nothing… or do the wrong things because we don’t think it through.

If you are spending your day thinking about all the great things you’ll be, do and have… you’re spending time in a forest that will only exist in your mind.  Meanwhile, the SEED stays firmly in your hand because you never took the time to plant it.

The seed is action… its work.  The seed isn’t all fun.  It’s boring at times.  Sometimes it’s downright hard!  The seed is where it all starts though.

To have a forest you must plant the seed… then…

You must water, fertilize and prune.  All of that work gives you the ability to collect more seeds which you’ll have to plant, water and fertilize.  To top it all off your running around raking up fallen leaves, pulling nasty weeds and protecting those little seedlings from insects and disease.

Every forest starts with a single seed.

This week – focus on your thoughts and actions.  Are you in an imaginary forest (thinking about how great the future is) or are you working on the very real seed you have in front of you (and taking action right now)?

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I’ve been thinking a lot about obligation, and why obligation is a good thing.  Maybe it’s because of the holidays… when most of us are thinking about getting others that “perfect gift.”  Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m working on an update to the free speed reading and study skills seminar that I offer.  Maybe it’s just feeling personally stretched between what feels like a million different priorities and projects.  Either way, these thoughts about obligation keep coming up.

When I was kid, I was very focused… very driven.  I was also a geek with a fairly small world!  I had would go to school and had plenty of friends, but when I got home I would program (at least back then it was programming… now it’s coding).  I would “work” on my programs for hours… the obsession of solving the puzzle… figuring out how to get the computer to do exactly what I wanted it to do.  Working to break that code… was everything.  All through middle school and high school I knew I would study computer science.

Until I actually went to college.

Something changed for me that year.  The world rapidly expanded.  Possibilities were everywhere.  Anything could (and often did) happen.  There was no longer a set path in front of me.  I could take any path… or create my own.  I chose to create my own.

I got a job in radio advertising sales… bought a house… started an entertainment guide… bought a nightclub… all before I was 25.  Good times!

Throughout the years though, my own sense of commitment and desire for obligation has been scattered and diffused.  I’m extremely glad I have the experiences I have.  I learned to be fearless.  I learned I can accomplish anything.  I learned that I’m able to handle anything that comes along.  I learned that darkness will always bring light.

In the past I saw obligation as a chain… weighing me down… restricting my movement.  Now I’m beginning to see obligation, that decision to commit, as a force for focus.  Obligation is a way of channeling my own desire and energy into very specific, targeted actions.  These actions may be recording a video for the seminar, writing a blog post or updating a Facebook status.  It’s that narrow, long-term viewpoint that get things done.

I’m curious… have you had any experiences with trying to do to much?  Maybe just being in a spot where you feared to commit to one direction because it would eliminate the others?  Has obligation been help or hindrance?