How to actually achieve a goal (a case study)

Why shouldn’t it be you? Why isn’t it you?

Dan was looking for guitar lessons.

A successful professional with his own company and three school-age children, he joked in our first phone conversation about having a midlife crisis and said that he wanted to do something to stimulate his mind. He had no musical experience whatsoever, besides a lot of listening and attending shows.

Armed with impeccable, decade-spanning musical taste, Dan showed up at his first lesson and learned a few guitar chords, all the while cracking me up with his self-deprecating humor. He swore he'd never sing or perform. 

Though Dan had a lifestyle just as busy as anyone (running a demanding business, helping to care for a child with special needs, and keeping an eye on his aging parents two hours away), he carved out practice time regularly and showed up at lessons week after week, year-round. By constantly seeking, absorbing, and implementing feedback on how to improve, he made steady progress. He developed a solid sense of rhythm and amassed a catalog of songs he could play smoothly and easily.

Eventually, Dan began to sing. At first, his voice was breathy and off-key, but continued practice allowed him to develop a confident and soulful sound.

With the singing coming along, performing was inevitable. At age fifty-six, he played his first live set before an appreciative crowd at a restaurant in his hometown, backed by a band made up of friends and colleagues.

At the start, Dan would never have believed that he'd someday be leading a band as the singer and rhythm guitarist. But some items on the bucket list are as persistent as small children begging for candy at the grocery store. They nudge us and nag at us until we do something about them.

And Dan did. A decade after that first phone call, Dan is performing regularly. When he travels, he makes friends with other musicians by jamming with them. Inevitably, people tell him that he’s so talented and that they could never do what he does. They can’t see that everything Dan has accomplished is the result of the consistent work he’s put in over the years. Whenever he falls off the wagon, he always gets back on again.

Dan is not just a guitar student -- he's a guitarist. But that happened long before his first public performance. It was an identity shift that he chose along the way. He made it to a level that most people only dream of because he stuck with it. He achieved his goal through patient, relentless commitment.

When I reflect on how far Dan has come, it inspires me to revisit my own goals and dreams...and my own excuses for not reaching them. Where do I want to be a decade from now? Where will I be glad to have invested my time and effort? What can I do today, however small, to make progress? No matter how far I have to go, I can get closer through applying consistent effort over time. Eventually, I will get where I’m going.

What about you? What are your goals and dreams? What can you do to move forward? Sometimes, it starts with an act as simple as a phone call. Can you take that action today?