69: Your goals only reveal themselves once you start building toward them

Just like a relationship, you understand more about where it's going the farther you get into it. Everything is shiny and fun and optimistic until reality eventually sets in and unforeseen challenges reveal themselves. The true nature of the relationship then begins to reveal itself to you, and you better understand the long term implications of remaining in it, as well as the sacrifices and pivots you must make along the way. Only then do you know if it will actually fit into the life you want to lead.

Whether you're pursuing a goal or building a company, it works the same way. The blue sky optimism is necessary to motivate us to put effort into anything. But you will never understand its true potential until you begin building toward it. Create the plan, take the steps, achieve the milestones, and eventually the nature of the goal will reveal itself, along with the challenges you will face, the sacrifices and pivots you must make along the way. But if you commit yourself to evolving your plan as necessary, that's when you really start to build belief and make progress. Or this reveal may tell you the end goal is not as viable or worthwhile as you may once have thought, and thus save you an enormous amount of time and energy. At that point, take your learnings, and apply them to the next goal.

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