“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant” – Robert Louis Stevenson

When taking small steps towards your dreams or goals, it’s easy to underestimate the effect these small tasks are having towards making them come true. Yet in taking small steps you are sowing seeds that can blossom at any time given the right circumstances.


You know what your dream or goal looks like, you know what it is you want but like anything you have to ask yourself what are you doing now that will help make that happen in your future?

Let's say, for example that you want a garden full of blooming, colourful flowers. Well it's unlikely that they will just suddenly appear, there are actions that need to be completed beforehand to allow them to grow. This action will have to be taken by you in order to for you to have the garden you wish for and by working backwards from the desired end result to where you are today you can figure out what needs to take place now that will enable that to happen.

Furthermore, as each step you take leads you closer to your dream, things will occur along the way that will be proof that you are on your way to achieving it. With the

example of the dream garden, shoots will begin to appear in the earth, and later buds will appear before blossoming into the glorious garden that's dreamed of. And so it is with any dream or goal, these sorts of small indicators along the way show you that you're on the right path and they shouldn't be ignored. Instead celebrate them as signs of progress and give yourself praise and encouragement to keep going.

Remember there is no one set way to achieve anything, you always have options but as long as you keep going and keep taking action, it almost doesn’t matter what steps you take.  So long as you keep planting the seeds you will keep travelling down the path towards your desired outcome. So keep a look out for signs that appear from steps you have already taken as each and every step, no matter how small, will be setting the wheels in motion to help bring whatever you want closer to fruition.

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”– Lao Tzu

So you’re in your car, you’ve entered your destination into your satellite navigation system and it’s told you “All set, lets go”. You’re in the driver’s seat with your seat belt on, you are ready to go. You’ve never been to this destination before but you know its somewhere you really want to be so you’re excited to get there. Meantime, while you’re sat there, your neighbour appears, they wave hello at you, get into their car and drive away. You however are still sitting in your car. Why? Because you haven’t taken the necessary action to get moving to where you want to go, you haven’t turned on your engine, you haven’t put the car in gear and haven’t started to drive.

This is what it’s like when you do all the dreaming, all the thinking, all the visualising but then carry on just as you were, not doing anything differently but expecting things in your life to change. If you want to reach the destination of your dreams, you have to take action. It really doesn’t matter what action you take, you don’t have to know how your dreams are going to come true you just have to do something – anything - that takes you one tiny step closer towards them.

Just as when you follow your sat nav to your desired destination, you don’t have to know

which routes to take to get you there. In fact, if it’s somewhere you haven’t been before you may not realise how close you are to arriving until you actually get there and it’s the same with reaching your dreams. You don’t have to know how near or far away you are, you just have to trust that with every step you take it is getting you closer to what you want.

As long as you know where it is you want to get to, what it is you want in your life, start thinking about what small step you can take today, and every day, that is in the general direction of your desired end result. Every day do something, it only need take a couple of minutes to do but take some sort of action and then know that with every single step, you have started your journey to your dream destination of life.

“Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking tartar sauce with you.” - Zig Ziglar

In a nutshell, this quote perfectly sums up how being confident is about having the conviction that whatever you are setting out to achieve or to be is inevitably going to happen. It’s in having this level of trust in yourself that the desired outcome is non-negotiable and you disarm any doubts from getting in your way.

Think about someone you know who you consider to be very confident. How do they carry themselves and how do they talk? Now think about how you hold yourself, do you stand tall, breathe deeply and talk with a strong, clear voice? Just by making these small changes in your physiological states can quickly start to change the way you feel.

Adopt an air of expectation in all that you do and focus on the best possible outcome. For example, imagine you are due to do a presentation but you’re nervous just thinking about it. You keep dwelling on how nervous you are and think about what could go wrong which in turn impacts on your performance and you end up not delivering the presentation as well as you could have. As a result, you think you’re no good at doing presentations and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for you.

So change your thought process. Imagine yourself confidently giving presentations instead, adopt the behaviours of someone you consider to be brilliant at presenting and visualise your presentation as going perfectly. Think of how it feels when the audience praise and congratulate you for it afterwards and fill yourself with a feeling of certainty that your presentation is going to be brilliant. Keep rehearsing this in your mind with that confident assurance of it going better than you expected then see how much difference it makes.

Going out after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking tartar sauce with you is all about having that feeling of certainty within yourself which you can apply to anything you do. Just as when you order and pay for something online, you have an unquestionable expectation that it is going to arrive. Apply the same undeniable trust in the outcome you want and with that indomitable thought, assume that there is no question that what you want will arrive.

“The only two words you should ever say to a mirror are “Hello, Beautiful.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich

Really? You’re expected to look into a mirror and say “hello beautiful”?
A lot of people find that just looking into a mirror at themselves at all is scary enough without attempting to say something positive in the process. Yet, as uncomfortable as it may be to face yourself in the mirror and say nice things about yourself, it is also the most effective way of showing you where you have resistance.
Louise Hay, the very successful American motivational author and founder of Hay House, is a huge advocate of mirror work. She was known to carry a small mirror with her everywhere she went and would talk to herself while looking into it. She would say things to herself similar to what a parent would say to a child if they wanted to show love, encouragement and praise and she would teach people to do it as a highly effective tool to use when wanting to develop self-confidence, self-esteem and to bring more happiness into their lives.

The trick is to just keep saying positive affirmations to yourself while looking in the mirror. No matter how awkward it may feel, if you keep doing it you will become more aware of any thoughts that you need to change that don’t serve you. The more you keep at it the less self-critical you become and the more approving you become of yourself. When you think more positively about yourself, you want to take better care of yourself and in so doing, you feel good and become happier.

It costs nothing to try and maybe, rather than feeling foolish as you talk to yourself out loud in the mirror, say something that makes you smile, choose a few positive statements and repeat them each time you see yourself. When you start your day look at yourself and say something nice. I met someone who would start their day smiling at themselves saying “hello cutie, what magic are you going to bring to the world today” and always stepped out into the world with an uplifted frame of mind.
So go on, give it a try and next time you see your reflection anywhere glance back at yourself and say “Hello Beautiful”, because you are.