Thought and Action are the two inseparable essentials of one's development.
The following refers to me as much as it refers to anyone in the world, including you!
I have been thinking recently about many ideas, both business and social, etc. Dreaming too. I lot of it. And what do I see in retrospect? Little has changed in my situation for the past 7 years. At 20 I had the same goals as I do now - having a stable business, being more or less financially independent... maybe by the time I reached 25. But I find myself at 27 in the mental position of 20 and not quite the future I dreamed of. Are you feeling like that, no matter what your goals are?
After doing some thinking and analyzing myself I came up to the simple conclusion that what it takes is not only thinking but action too. Duh!!! Everyone knows this. But it takes living and thinking for a few years to fully realize and obtain the full meaning of this simple truth. Its like knowing about it and knowing it.
Someone once said "People are defined by their actions." I would alter this that people are constantly redefined by their actions. If you only sit and think, and do nothing you may develop the greatest ideas in this world. But if you do nothing after that, it's like you never existed and may have spared your time doing something else but thinking.
Anyway, I have been doing a lot of thinking. And dreaming. And the image of me being successful does make me feel nice. Thinking and dreaming are essential as they help us formulate our goals and figure out exactly what we want from life. However that only brings us half way through. In order to complete what we want to achieve we have to get our hands dirty. Action. Do it. Instead, a lot of us tend to continue thinking and over-thinking. By actually doing things that bring us toward our goals we start making your thoughts real and material. We have been given the gift of transforming our material world by action guided by thought.
No one can get us where we want but us, so it is important to stop the self-delusion that our dreams one day will magically become real. I am so tired of hearing people say if I had so much money I would .... or One day if I win the lottery I would .... or I want this and that. What are you doing about it? This will not happen, unless you do the specific actions to make the ideas in your head real.
Do not over-think scenarios that may never happen in a 1000 years to discourage yourself. This is equal to looking for an excuse not to do action. It is an excuse brought by our enemy laziness. It sounds blunt but we are all lazy more or less. Laziness is the worst disease in this world and we all have it. Swallow that ego and acknowledge it - to yourself, not to anyone else. To one extreme people can die because of laziness, but more commonly they never become who they have the potential to be because of it. Laziness is cured by action, and only action. Nike has said it very simple - Just do it. And I would add now.
We all think that magic is a concept from the fairy tales. I disagree. We have been granted the power to transform the energy of thought into material energy and end results by action. You are a magician and the strength of your power of action may even surprise you. Why not start doing your magic now?
P.S. In relation to achieving goals I should comment a little bit in the future about achieving end results vs. way of life.