The Viable Alternative

As i was taking the train home yesterday, meditating on what type of life I would like to be living a year from now in terms of something I ACTIVELY plan on accomplishing, not just something I passively day dream about without taking any action, it dawned on me that my vision should be “unrealistic.”

Not unrealistic in the sense that I set a goal to be the President of the United States a year from now, or say that I will be standing on the moon in my spacesuit, but more like “realistically unrealistic.” Something that is achievable within a year if I applied myself and don’t give up, but is still a stretch of the imagination, causes a lot of doubt from my intellect, requires me to step out of my comfort zone and causes me to grow in many ways.

Me setting a goal to go on a four city tour in Europe last November when I had no money is one example. Another example was me putting it out there back in late 2010 to go to Miami for a month the following year in 2011 when I also had no visible means of accomplishing this at the time I set the goal.

I hit both those targets despite the fact that when I initially set them, they both seemed unrealistic. My taking action to accomplish both of these goals contributed to a tremendous amount of growth within me.

What makes life beautiful and exciting is when we realize that we can set these goals for ourselves that are unrealistic enough to scare and excite us, and also challenge us to step out of our comfort zone, but realistic enough that we know we WILL accomplish it by hook or by crook and we will not be denied.

This sets us up to experience the tremendous power of Faith when we witness ideas, opportunities and people come across our path in serendipitous ways that conspire to help us accomplish our vision. It’s also through the “demands” of this vision, how we’re able to discover our strengths, gifts, and what we’re truly capable as we grow into the people that are able to bring this vision into fruition.

Life’s not about being realistic. It’s about being realistically unrealistic on a step-by-step, consistent basis. This is how we’re able to witness incredible transformations over a certain period of time.

This is The Viable Alternative.

Hope this helps,

Ike Love