| Hey folks, It's that time of year again, the time when everyone is setting their goals. Typically, smaller, simpler goals are what many people go for every New Year. You know the ones I’m talking about. Run three times a week Join the gym and use it Meditate for fifteen minutes every morning Call your parents every week Apply to new jobs every month These are worthy goals. Important goals. They form the backbone of a healthy, sustainable lifestyle—the staples of self-improvement. But I think part of being a goal-getter is also stretching for that one big goal you’ve always thought about. That one goal you pine after, the one that visits you in your sleep, that won’t go away, that feels a little bit unrealistic. My goal for the longest time was “I want to change the way a million people eat” (for the better). I reached it, but what did it take? How did I start? That first step for me was sitting down, starting a health and fitness blog called Mark’s Daily Apple, and writing the first post. This was a simple step, one that, if broken down into its constituent parts, wasn’t all that difficult. I realized that I’d spent my entire life studying and living these subjects, so writing about them wasn’t “hard.” Another thing to consider is that your goal and the steps toward it should be open-ended. Rather than lead to a dead-end, the steps should lead to many potentialities and possibilities. My goal started abstract but it evolved into a tangible, direct progression: change the physical ingredients of mayonnaise, salad dressing, and other common pantry items so that people would actually be eating differently. But really, what's the most important thing of all? Act. Being a goal-getter means taking the first step and continuing to move forward. Action leads to growth, and before you know it, that one goal can turn into something much larger. Trust me, I know. | 