From one side of the river to the other

What do you want most right now that’s within your realm of control?

A new career?
Inner peace?
More money?
A baby?
A divorce?
Joining a gym?
Fitting into a certain pair of pants?
Moving to another country?
Adopting a pet goat?
Writing a book?
Eating plant-based?

Pick something you want right now that you aren’t currently experiencing. We’ll come back to it in a moment.

Now, picture a beautiful, wide river with lots of trees on either side. The sun is shining, the river is crystal clear, and there’s nothing but nature all around you. Oh, that’s nice, I could hang out here for a while!

Okay, picture yourself on one side of the river just as you are right now.
Now, picture yourself having or experiencing the thing you wanted from earlier, and place that future version of yourself on the other side of the river.
Now, visualize stepping stones going across the river from current you to future you. It’s a wide river so there are many of them.
Sometimes the stones are easy to see, sometimes they’re hidden.
Some are small, others are large.
Some stones are wet and slippery, others are dry and solid.
But there is a path from where you are right now to where you want to go—from your current self to your future self who’s experiencing what you want most.

Those stones you must travel to reach your destination will be full of obstacles, setbacks, wins, hard lessons, mistakes, progress, beauty, embarrassment, difficult choices, failures, aha moments, and damn hard work. And it’s all part of your journey because it leads you to the you on the other side of the river.

That journey changes us in ways we don’t always anticipate.

Oh yes, you will be a different version of yourself when you reach your goal.
There is no other way. If you didn’t have to change, you would already have the thing you want.
We change because of those stones and what they require of us in order to take the next step. By the time you reach your goal, you will have transformed into the person who has the capacity to reach such a goal.

Two important things about this:

One 
Once you start navigating those stones, don’t be surprised if there are setbacks on your journey or if sometimes it feels like you aren’t getting anywhere, or even worse, going backwards. You aren’t. It’s all part of the process of becoming that new version of yourself. We can’t possibly know all the shifts and turns that need to happen in order to reach our goals. We just have to be open, keep moving forward, and trust the process.

Two
We can’t change who we are without the people around us noticing. Some will be inspired by us, others will be mad at us. Some people won’t understand, others will be supportive. Some will be intimidated and full of judgment, and others will be kind and curious. Don’t spend too much energy trying to please the people around you. Do whatever you need to do on your path and notice who sticks by you—those are your people.

Working on our goals is some of the best work we can do, precisely because it changes us. You can’t cross over those stones and remain the same. It’s not possible. So if it feels scary and weird sometimes, that’s normal. Keep going.

You got this. Step by step, stone by stone.

Molly