Let’s face it. It’s easy to let life get in the way of the things we want to do. We may want to go on a vacation, we may have an idea for a play, we may want to lose those extra pounds, we may want to start a business, we may want to make healthier choices for our lifestyles.

But we don’t follow through. Instead, we let day after day go by without making steps toward who we want to be.

Sometimes, thinking about the forever-ness of a goal can be daunting.  What if I never get to eat a pastry again? What if I find out the premise of my screenplay sucks? What if removing alcohol from my diet makes me realize I’m better off without it?

The truth is, making a commitment to self-improvement is scary.

I think that’s why the concept of making short-term goals is so appealing. In a sense, you are biting off just a small chunk of the giant Life Bagel you’ve been too afraid to endeavor to finish (apologies for this metaphor for those of you trying to lose weight).

This month (via No Excuses November), you are testing your own limitations in a safe and non-committal way.

As they say in What About Bob: “Baby steps.”

It’s also easy to lose sight of the value of a short-term goal. Just because you are only committing to do (or not do) something for a month doesn’t diminish its value to you in the long-term. The most important thing you are doing this month is proving to yourself that you are stronger than you think– if even for 30 days.

It is entirely possible that on December 1, we’ll all go back to our excuse-heavy lifestyles. It’s also entirely possible that we’ll go back even sooner than that. But from the stories I’ve heard from you and the progress I’ve seen, I am confident that if we work hard, NoExNo doesn’t just have to be a blip on our radars.

You don’t need me to stop yourselves from making excuses (as much as I’d like to take all the credit). All you need is to STOP making excuses and START taking action.

Yes, it will be hard. Sometimes, it will suck. Most of the time, you will be happy you did it. I said MOST of the time!

I challenge you to think of ways to extend your short-term goals into long-term ones. I’m not sure what that looks like yet, but I suppose we have 30 days to decide that.

Baby steps.