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Lessons from the Journey: Progress Inspires a Greater Vision

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From my own 193-country journey to the stories of many other people who were kindly willing to share, The Happiness of Pursuit attempts to extract and convey the lessons of modern-day quests. This series explores some of these lessons.

Lesson: As you make progress toward a small goal, the bigger vision expands.

Many people featured in the book started with a small goal that grew in scope as it became more feasible. As they gained confidence, their goals expanded as well.

This was certainly the case for me, too. I didn’t begin the quest to visit every country without having gone anywhere. I first began traveling, and I loved traveling for its own sake. After I’d been to a lot of places, I started to think… “What would it be like to visit 100 countries?

As I approached 100, the goal grew in scope—I decided to attempt all of them!

Without the original, lesser goal, I don’t think I would have taken on the task of “going everywhere.” The progress I made gave me confidence that I could attempt a real challenge.

If you can’t picture a tremendous accomplishment at first, start with an achievable one. Also, when you work toward a tremendous accomplishment, watch out! The next one may be even bigger.

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Other lessons:

The Happiness of Pursuit is available from Amazon.com or your favorite local bookseller. You can also join me on tour in your choice of more than 40 cities.

Image: Judy

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