Yesterday my husband said something profound (he does that a lot.) He said,

“Without a personal vision, any habit will do.”

Stop and think about that for a minute. What did he mean? I believe he meant that if I don’t know where I’m going, it doesn’t really matter what I do! It doesn’t matter if I spend a lot of time in front of the TV; it doesn’t really matter if I spend a lot of time scrolling through Facebook; it doesn’t really matter how I spend my time because I don’t have anywhere to go. I can just stay where I am and be fine, and any habit will be fine, right?

In the story of Alice in Wonderland, when Alice comes to a fork in the road, she asked the Chesire Cat:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
‘I don’t much care where -‘ said Alice.
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

With a personal vision, we have direction. Without a vision, we are stuck.

So how many of us are feeling stuck? How many of us are just feeling like we would love to be successful, yet we don’t really know how?

In The Strangest Secret, author Earl Nightingale says that the successful person isn’t always who we might look to as being successful. Success, he says, can be defined as a progressive realization of a worthy ideal.  So a successful person is somebody who has made a decision to do something–anything they want– and then is doing a good job of working toward that. A successful person is a wife and mom who knows that she wants to be a wife and mom and is doing a good job of it. A gas station attendant, if that’s what he wants to do and he’s doing a good job of it, is successful. A business man or woman, an athlete, a musician…anyone who is putting forth good effort to do what they have decided to do…that person is successful.

So, what is it that you want? Where is it that you are you going? What do you want to do? Years ago was in a place where I didn’t know the answer to that question. I had forgotten what I enjoyed. I had forgotten what my purpose was. I got stuck in the habit of just going through the motions, and it wasn’t moving me anywhere. I thought I needed to find my great big purpose, that I needed to do that big, successful thing that I was meant to do, and it was really frustrating because I couldn’t figure out what that was. Finally, my husband said to me, “You know what I think right now your purpose is? I think it’s to learn how to be happy with your life and who you are right now.”

Wow! Right? Like I said, he says a lot of profound things. So… I started small. I thought of getting my nails done.  It sounded kind of ridiculous, kind of selfish, maybe, and a little bit frivolous, but I was at a point that I didn’t know what else to do, so I listened to my husband and went in for a manicure.

You know what happened? Yes, I enjoyed looking at my nails; I enjoyed being able to do the dishes and have them stay nice; AND I also found that I loved being able to talk to someone!  I love conversation and connection, and for so long I had put myself in a place where I didn’t really do that. So, by taking the step to “just be happy” and get my nails done, I found a new spark, a new desire that led me further and further, step by step, toward a greater purpose. It was something so simple that felt so good. And now I set an intention every day to be happy — that is my worthy ideal, and it has taken me further than I realized was possible!

Now…back to my husband’s quote– “Any habit will do” if you don’t have a personal vision. However…if you want a personal vision, and you’re not sure what that is; if you want to know what your purpose is, and you just aren’t sure what that looks like, I would like to borrow a phrase from Joseph in the Amazing Technicolor Dreamboat, Any Dream Will Do.”  If there is something inside of you that you want to do, DO IT!  It doesn’t have to be the big thing in order to matter; it doesn’t have to have that big end result in order to make you be successful. Your success is that thing you want to do right now. Just pick something! Just like my simple dream of getting my nails done, any dream will do to help you get out of the rut of your habits and to get you moving toward something that’ will make you feel good inside. I believe that if you allow yourself to do the things that you want to do instead of trying to listen to what other people might want from you, you’ll find your purpose because it’s coming from inside of you.

So think of something that makes you happy and do that thing!
Any dream will do to help you take that first step toward the next step, and toward the next step, toward your final destiny, that final great big purpose. I really have a passion for the next step and for doing that thing that feels good on the inside of you. So let yourself dare to do that and watch what happens.