Big goals and don’t know how to get there?

Sometimes our goals are crystal clear. We want to start our own business, get that promotion at work or stick to our envisioned lifestyle to feel healthy and energized. Or we want to now finally take that part-time course we have been eyeing, transition to a new field or move countries. Whatever it is, the goal may be clear, but we may either get too overwhelmed or too distracted in how to get there.

During an adventurous mountain hike in the Canary Islands last week, I was reminded of two powerful lessons when it comes to achieving your goals: Keep Moving and Trust the Process. Here’s the story of why these are so crucial.

I love nature. I love connecting to nature. And what better way than to go into the mountains on a casual Sunday afternoon? As we started hiking, the path became steep quite quickly. My boyfriend looked up towards the steep edge of the plateau towards which we were heading and said “I can’t really see the path going up there, can you?”. I could not see it either but my response was “I am sure we will get there if we just keep moving”. Of course, after a couple of hours we made it to the point we intended, and continued upwards because it was just so beautiful.

Usually, the most challenging bit of a hike is the ascent. Well, my friends, I was wrong this time. We had looked on maps.me for routes and found this alternative one that made sure we did not have to walk the same bit twice. Choice made; we would descent there. As we went left, it turned out it was not really a path (anymore). But we love adventures, so we did not think anything of it. I mean, what could really go wrong?

The path got steeper and steeper, and after some time it got pretty challenging. We were going as slow as snails; using our hands and feet to climb down. The weather had turned too. It started raining quite heavily and the wind started blowing harshly. As we peered down the mountain, we could see the original “easy” path well below. Our goal was clear; that’s where we needed to go.

After a couple of more steps, I could not find any way to go down. It was as if we had to almost mountaineer down the cliff. I turned around and looked at my boyfriend with slight panic in my eyes: “I can’t see the path anymore!!”. He looked me in the eye with this calmness and responded “Remember that we could also not see it before? Just take the next step, and a path will emerge”.

This hit me. I would not describe my boyfriend as spiritual of any kind, but this sounded like a wise man speaking the truth. All we had to do was two things: Keep Moving and Trust the Process. I started to relax. And because I relaxed, my perspective changed. I suddenly noticed that there were small stacks of stones that previous people left behind as indicators where to go down. These “clues” became my anchor. 

Along the way, we overcame some more hurdles. One of the boulders my boyfriend stood on suddenly gave way and crashed on the rocks below in about ten pieces. He managed to jump off just before. We just looked at each other with an understanding of how lucky we were that I was not standing just below him; otherwise it had been me being crashed by that boulder.

We kept moving and trusted that we would make it. As we reached closer and closer, more and more rainbows started to pop up. We started joking that these were our “Good Omens” showing us the way. For those of you who read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho would know what I mean (and if you have not, go read it).

As we reached the normal path, a huge double rainbow showed itself. We made it.

Our goal was clear and very simple; we needed to go down. The way to get there seemed impossible. By just taking baby steps and trusting that we would get there whatever came on our path, we made it work.

Think about your own goal. How can you just take the tiniest step today to move towards that dream? How can you start making choices that align with your goal versus moving further away from it?

Remember: people that reach their goals and dreams just make choices, one after the other. Because that is what life is: choices made one after the other. To be successful in reaching your goals, just Keep Moving and Trust the Process.