by Kara Johnstad   Are You Looking to Get Ahead? How Big is Our Dream? Getting Ahead in life can seem impossible, but it is within our grasp. How might we take those whisperings of our inner voice and bring them out into the world? How big is our dream? Would we like to write a book, create an album, give a concert as a solo artist? There are many ways to express our essence, or inner calling: from being a restaurant owner to a graphic designer, from being a healer to a top performer. Perhaps the question is, how can we stay on purpose with so many things pulling at us? So often, we set out to follow our calling, only to be side-tracked by our daily life. We end up placing our mind maps and grand ideas in our “important papers” file in the desk drawer.   Slicing Down the Big Idea into Smaller Pieces We might think of our big idea like a pie or delicious cake. Start by dividing the project into small slices-12 slices, or milestones-that we can accomplish as part of a yearly project. From these 12 slices, we then break it down into about 20 steps a month. We can see how much more manageable this is. When we define our path to success, it becomes less overwhelming.   The Key in Getting Ahead is Taking Baby Steps Every song, article, or book is written line by line, page by page, hour by hour, and step by step. Consider this from Dr. Jean Houston, a scholar, philosopher and researcher in Human Capacities: “I really don’t like to write. I think writing is one of the most difficult tasks of all. You’re facing the blank computer, you’re facing the blank page…, and you’re hoping...

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