Many people find themselves stuck in front of the TV for many hours a week. Statistics about television usage are depressing and that is one of the reasons that I stay away from the TV during the week as much as I can. The news drives me crazy. Good sitcoms are rare. Dramas are often over done. My opinion is that TV is a black hole and it sucks the life and creativity out of you. All the said, where did I find myself this morning? Yes, that’s right.

So what do you do when you are like this? What puts you into a mental state where you just need to shut down? For me, the biggest cause is…well, ME! I start thinking about what I am doing and what I am working to achieve and I sometimes start to think that it won’t happen. I have trouble sleeping. I get grumpy. I stop enjoying life. When this happens…I get scared! I get scared of the unknown. I am doing things that I have never done before. I get scared of failure! What happens if I don’t pull it off? I get scared of what other people with think of me! I want to inspire people, not disappoint them.

It’s when I get scared that I change my mindset. There have been many times in my life where I was faced with the unknown, possible failure or with the prospect of letting someone down and I simply laughed it off. Chalk it up to part naivety, part stubbornness, part ego and part vision.

It’s this vision that I have set before me that allows me to pull out of my lethargy and move forward. To do the things that I need to do to get things done. It is this vision that get me excited again. Without a vision, how would I get encouraged? How would I get motivated?

It’s this vision, that makes me take action when I don’t even know what to do. When I pulled myself away from the TV, I didn’t know what I was going to write today. I just started writing. My actions led to my excitement. Action is what inspired me.

If you want to get excited about your life, figure out your vision and take action.

When someone tells you that you are not being realistic, isn’t it usually that that person simply isn’t willing to put in the work that is needed to make it happen? Often, when we tell people about our dreams, they are scared of the idea and also scared that we might failed. Everyone close to us wants us to succeed and they are afraid that a failure to achieve our goals would really hurt us.

That being said, you need to know if you are scared to achieve your goals. Are you willing to do what it takes to achieve your goals? Many times, we state a goal, but do not know what it would really take to achieve it. Sometimes, it could be very easy to achieve and other times it might be difficult. The difference isn’t in the difficulty, however. The difference is in whether you know from the start what you will need to do. That is why it is important to be Specific, Measurable, and Actionable, because these steps will help you realize the depth of work required.

By understanding what is required to achieve your goals, you will be able to determine what is reasonable, or realistic, for you. What is realistic to one person may not be for someone else. Therefore, you have to answer that questions for yourself. If you really cannot answer that question, there are probably two things you need to work on. One, you need to do a better job of breaking down your goals so that the steps are in fact reasonable. If all the steps are realistic, then the overall goal must be as well.

The second thing you need to do is learn more about what it is you are looking to achieve. Maybe you need to ask for input from someone who has done what you want to do. If you don’t already have these things as steps in achieving your goal, maybe you should add them in.

Sometimes you can do all of this and still have your head in the clouds. Sometimes those other people are right. Doesn’t that sound horrible? It can be a devastating realization that what you want truly isn’t realistic by anyone’s terms.

Many times, people write down their goals and if they just thought about them, they might see how absurd they are. For example, if you are completely broke and today you decided to write down a goal of having a million dollars in the bank, that would be great. However, if you said you wanted to achieve it by tomorrow, that would be UNrealistic. Sorry, but there is no way around it. Overnight success stories usually omit the months or years of work it took to get to the point where an “overnight” success was even possible.

So just remember, a realistic goal has to be realistic to you. If you are having trouble seeing how it can be realistic, work at breaking it down some more and making each of those chunks realistic. Start with one small step.

You can review the rest of the steps so far by following any of the links below.

SPECIFIC

MEASUREABLE

ACTIONABLE

REALISTIC – that’s this post.

TIME SENSITIVE – hold on, we’re getting there.

To achieve your potential, no matter what the level, you first need to at least be the best person you can be RIGHT NOW! I was reading my little book again, Joyfully Living the Gospel Day by Day, and there was one little thing that caught my attention and prompted this post. It said this, “It is characteristic that you want to know more, but you do not live up to what you already know.”

I am one of those lifetime academics that have this written all over their forehead. I am a seminar junkie. I love the idea of learning something new and I have the “Shelf Help” books to prove it (and there are ton of us out there). But the problem isn’t that you haven’t achieved your potential because you haven’t learn something specific yet. The problem is that you haven’t applied the knowledge that you already have in your head.

Challenge yourself to do something outside of your comfort zone and you will amaze yourself at how much potential you already have bottled up inside.