Do you have long-term projects with short-term expectations? If you do, that is a sure path to frustration and failure.

Lifestyle goals such as exercise and healthy diet have to become habits in order to be effective. Career change also takes time and planning, and it doesn’t happen overnight.

Your world has shifted. There’s voice mail, e-mail, pagers, and faxes that have made a “waiting” period unacceptable and almost obsolete. With information immediately available, we expect relationships and goal achievement to be done the same. As you read this you know that it is unreasonable to expect that, don’t you? We’ve been led by advertisers to believe that we deserve immediate gratification, and that it is readily and effortlessly available!

When you want to train a puppy, you know that it’s going to take time and consistent reinforcement. You’re ready for that, because you want your puppy to behave in an acceptable way. Why then, are you so patient with the puppy and so hard on yourself?

When you plant seeds in the garden, you tend them, water them, hope for sunlight and nurture them. Are you nurturing yourself?

The best way to move gently and effectively towards your goals is to take a reasonable approach. Break your long-term project goal into sub-goals. Break it into doable, short-term chunks. Today prepare the soil; tomorrow plant the seeds.