Aspiration: The Key to Never Settling

"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!"

I must have heard Casey Kasem say those words over 500 times as a teenager listening to his American Top 40 radio show. I enjoyed knowing what songs had climbed and fallen on the charts the following week, the long distance dedications, the interesting facts behind a song or group Casey would share, but it was those words that had the greatest impact on me. Growing up in northern Minnesota, there weren't many people providing such sound advice.

Very early in life, I learned the importance of aspiration. I have seen the dramatic positive outcomes for those who continually pushed themselves and never accepted where they were as where they would stay. Conversely, I have seen a lot of people get stuck settling. Maybe not happy where they were but too scared to step out of their comfort zone and see what else they may be able to accomplish.

Last week, I talked about the power of an attitude of gratitude. Here is how I know gratitude and aspiration can and, quite honestly, must work together. You must be grateful for everything you have and achieved AS you pursue what you want. Aspiration without gratitude leads to obsession and that's not healthy.

When I heard Casey Kasem repeat those words week after week as I was growing up on a farm, living in a trailer house with what would seem from the outside to be very little to be grateful for, aspiration took root. I "saw" myself going to college and living in a big city. I "saw" myself making a good living, having a great family, and traveling a lot. The key to aspiration is once a goal is achieved, another bigger, better goal must be set. Always be pushing yourself. It's when we settle where we are that causes us to miss out on living up to our full potential.

On this aspiration road, are there bumps? Of course there are. However, the greatest asset aspiration affords you is a "big picture view" of what you want to accomplish. When you have this view, it will minimize and trivialize the setbacks and temporary failures.

This week, do a little soul-searching to see if maybe you've settled in some areas of your life. Once identified, start the process of aspiration again. You must "see" before you believe and believe before you achieve. And remember what Michelangelo said:

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

Don't aim to low and hit! Better to aim too high and miss! But the real key to success through an attitude of aspiration is to never stop setting, and pursuing, higher and higher targets.

"I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward." Philippians 3:13 & 14 (AMP)