Yeah, you heard me life ... life has a tendancy to distract you from your goals. You've got all these wonderful ideas of what you want to achieve in life, all these goals, yet you find yourself getting caught up in the house work, in your job, in the shopping, in going out with your friends, in your kids, in ...

You know what I mean, don't you?

Life throws challenges at you to see if you are serious about your goals and attempts to distract your from achieving them.

Why would life do that, you may ask. It doesn't sound very fair.

Honestly, I have no idea, but I know it does. I think it's part of a testing process, to see if you are serious about your goals and really wanting to achieve them. They do say that if you get something too easily, you'll not appreciate it, which I feel is right. When you've had to struggle and work for a goal, you really value it when you get there.

Whatever the reason, the reality is that life does distract you from your goals and distract you rather well.

So what can you do to avoid these distractions?

You could try living in a cave in a loincloth, but how long before getting cold or missing your creature comforts distracts you I don't know.

A more practical method is the baby step method. It's about taking one step at a time, taking one small action at a time that brings you closer to your goals.

I have a friend who wants to be financially free. Some years ago he had a brain tumour removed, woke up from the operation and realised that working himself to death for someone else was not what life was about. So he decided he was going to become financially free and enjoy life.

I've spent a lot of time interviewing this friend because his attitude to life is infectious to say the least.

Anyway, his tactic is to make sure that every single day he does a minimum of one thing that brings him closer to his goal of financial freedom.

It doesn't matter if it's a big thing or a small thing, so long as every single day he does just one thing.

Interestingly, he's been doing this for about three or four years now and is getting close to being able to quit his day job and have enough income from other sources to support himself.

Sure he may have been able to achieve it quicker by doing more each day, but he may well have overwhelmed himself and not done anything.

His simple strategy has allowed him to replace his day job income in 3 or 4 years and makes sure he's happy and enjoys life.

Now life is going to distract you from your goals, but just vow to do one thing every single day that brings you closer to your goals ... in a year you will be 365 steps closer, in ten years 3650 steps closer ... and I wonder how many steps it will actually take for you to reach your goal?