We all flirt with change. We know that change is important either to ensure progress or because our lifestyles or choices are not balanced enough. We don't, however, cope well with big change. It can be frightening and, besides this, our minds and bodies actively work to maintain things largely as they are. Is this a problem? Not necessarily. To begin with, we may have sufficient resources already to reach the goal without massively extending or destabilising ourselves. There may be no way to know whether this is true without jumping in and discovering hidden resilience and resourcefulness. Don't assume the worst. How often do our worst fears ever actually come to pass? Not often. Almost always, we find a way and a new day dawns. If the deep end is too much then there is a plan B: small steps.
Big change doesn't necessarily require one big step. Most of the time, the big goal can be achieved with lots of small incremental changes. There are two things to keep in mind with this plan. Firstly, we lose contact with initial motivations and feelings quickly. The front page of our mental newspaper likes to move the story forward. Write your goal down as well as why it's important. Emotions associated with goals are powerful motivators so don't forget them.
The second challenge for large time scale plans is how disconnected the steps can become. The pathway veers off on a tangent when another interesting experience excites us in the moment. There is nothing wrong with this. Goals don't have to be mutually exclusive pathways or processes. One of the wonderful characteristics of humanity is the multiplicity or scope of who we are. What might help, however, is to prioritise. If something really is 'the most important thing' or 'essential' then the balance of our actions have to make sense for it. We can step off from time to time but our big goal only functions to the extent that it 'fits' each week.
So, what helps? Honesty, patience, and persistence.
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