Survival May Be the First Step Toward Your Goals

I talk a lot about goals and knowing your ultimate objective. Some people push back that they can’t think about big goals right now with all that is happening. They are focused on survival. That’s all they can focus on.

Survival is the first step to success.

Imagine a ship captain sailing from London to New York. During the ordinary part of the journey, he focused on many things: the exact course, finding the best currents to achieve the best speed, crew efficiency and discipline, and more. All of these are in service of getting to New York as quickly as possible.

Then a storm comes up. High waves. Unpredictable winds. At any moment the ship may threaten to capsize or break up.

When the storm first begins, the captain is still trying to maintain the course to New York while fighting the storm. The storm gets worse. The captain no longer cares where New York is. The only focus is keeping the ship afloat in the storm.

The captain has not forgotten his goal. He knows that eventually the ship will sail into New York. Additional steps have been added before that goal can be achieved. His focus must be on fighting the storm from minute to minute.

At that point, working for survival is working towards his goals.