Eureka! Your Wish is Granted!

We all want it … that one big eureka moment. When our dream, our goal, our life happens.

A wanna-be actor dreams of getting discovered at the mall.
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Non-runners think of the length of a mile and say never, instead of breaking it down into one step at a time.
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A missionary has goals of converting a village in a weekend.
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A mother dreams of her children turning into kind angels overnight.
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A music lover dreams of a record deal after playing one gig..
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An author wants an agent to read a blog post they’ve done and wham! they’d have a book deal.
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We want being healthy to happen quickly, instead of every day.
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An entrepreneur dreams of finding that business idea or model that will make him a millionaire overnight.
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We want eureka!

Warning … bursting your bubble ahead.

Most changes and accomplishments happen in small doses. They happen because someone was persistent in doing something daily to take steps forward. It’s when someone works an extra hour again and again. Or makes the same good choice over and over again. It’s when someone practices for 10,000* hours.

Sometimes you might have a eureka moment in learning something … like you will reading this post (ha!) and then you can apply that to your goal, but actually making your dream happen is almost always one step at time.

It’s tempting to look at the people that have achieved something that you want to do and think it just happened for them or they had lucky breaks. I’d be willing to bet most times … that ‘overnight’ success took at least 10 to 15 years.

Step by step — day by day.

You hear just enough eureka stories … Susan Boyle, Ted Williams or the Old Spice Guy, to allow you to think eureka is the way. Truth is … the odds are significantly higher that your world will change one step at a time rather then in a eureka moment.

And the great thing is … you have control of the one step at time method. The eureka moment is very rare and out of your control. Or is that what you prefer … blaming others for things not happening rather than taking responsibility for your own world?

Have you found this to be true? Have you had any eureka moments? What about slow and steady changes?

Some of these thought are based on a speech I heard by Jon Acuff.
*Based on a concept in Malcolm Gladwell‘s book “Outliers”
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  • http://www.moonboatcafe.com Cassandra Frear

    Great Post!

    Malcolm Gladwell is a fascinating author. I’ve read several of his books. “Blink” was my absolute favorite — I thought the ideas in it were profound.

    Outliers is a paradox. He talks about the concept you describe above but then goes on to say that so much of success is just being lucky — being in the right place at the right time. His study of how birth dates affect success for schoolchildren all the way into adulthood is just one example of this. I found myself getting angry as I read it!

    But I think you are so right in your post. Our greatest gift is our power to choose. How often we forfeit it! One small step at the time is the way most of us have to accomplish change. Although my husband has argued one big change can actually be easier to perform than several small changes. Maybe it depends partly on personality type!

    • http://janetober.com Janet Ober

      Thanks!
      Good point about Outliers … but ‘luck’ is kinda like a eureka moment – we don’t have control over it. But we do have control over being prepared so that when luck/opportunity comes our way, we are ready for it.

      As Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD)

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