In this article I’m looking at another quote image, and I definitely won’t be making it up as I go along…
This image did make me smile. The cartoon nature of the crude impression of looking at the Northern Lights is most deliberate, and it does make a great point about goal achievement.
It’s not hard to go online and see some spectacular images of the aurora borealis, or the Northern Lights, but it *can* be hard to to see them in person. Made up of solar flares hitting the earth’s atmosphere, they are predictable only up to a certain extent, and the variables of natural phenomena do tend to come into play.
Some places on the planet are better than others to see the display, so unless you live in one of these places, you’ll probably need to make a trip if you’re ever likely to see it in person.
Iceland is just such a country, and many people go there on trips specifically to see the northern lights. The country is in the right place geographically, it’s flat, and sparsely populated, with only 350,000 people in the whole country. It’s also geared up for tourists, and that all combines to mean it’s fairly easy to get to an unlit flat area, and ready to enjoy the spectacular natural light show.
So, an easy goal to achieve, right? What am I talking about with difficulties and need to improvise..?
Well, hold on! Hold your horses right there!
Although Iceland is indeed geared up nicely, there are no guarantees, and this is the goal achievement point.
You can’t just rock up in Iceland at any time. There is only a window of a few months when it’ll be dark enough at night to get a good view. Maybe only 4 or 5 months. During that period, you will still need certain things to be in place. For a start you will need a cloudless night! That may sound obvious, but it rains a lot in Iceland. Rain means cloud, and cloud means no chance of seeing the lights, as all the action will be above the clouds.
Even on a cloudless night, if there’s a full moon, or even half moon, this again dramatically reduces your chances of seeing anything.
Plus, you some good flaring from the sun. It’s not something that happens permanently, so if there aren’t sun flares at the right time, again this will mean no lights. So, you need to pick a time with a new moon, clear sky, and good flares. You then have to time your flight and hotel bookings to tie in accordingly!
That’s a lot of planning, and a lot of action taking required for this particular goal, and it *still* might not be enough! It could just be that after all that planning and action taking, you find yourself out in the middle of the country in the middle of the night, cold and surrounded by…clouds!
Those glorious pictures you can see online of the northern lights are most likely taken by very fancy camera equipment, with long exposures of maybe several hours for one shot, taken by people who live there and can therefore take advantage of good conditions when they happen, rather than tourists who have to plan in advance.
So, the goal achievement point is good one. Lots of planning and research, finding out what worked for others, the best way to get to the goal. Then taking action, which *might* lead to a successful result, but might not!
If you are unsuccessful, in this case with seeing the lights, you can either moan, complain at nature and feel sorry for yourself, or you can accept it and improvise as you go along, which going back to this case is to make an amusing image about it!
Not every goal in life is guaranteed just because we take action. It simply doesn’t work like that. Too many people let the possibility of failure stop them from trying in the first place, and of course by doing that they guarantee the very failure they were worried about!
If we embrace the difficulties, the unknowns, the challenges, the possibility of having to improvise, then we set ourselves up for the successes, the glorious adventures, the wonderful achievements that are open to us.
So, look to your goals in the key areas of life. Has the fear of the journey stopped you from even starting? In health, wealth, career, relationships, lifestyle, have you been trying to get everything set up too perfectly? Look back to the image of the northern lights – plan, yes, take action, yes, but if you get there and it’s cloudy – improvise!
Try it, it can change your life. It can transform it!
Ok, do let me know what you think, I love the feedback!
‘Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. Don’t forget to watch my free video series covering my 8 Step Goal Achievement formula. Turning any fantasy into reality *will* use the steps covered!
