This article was going to be about how most methods used on the Internet can help you achieve success if you follow a few guiding principles, but in the writing it became more generic and abstract. Rome became not just about making a million on the Internet but really any far off goal you have set your mind on. You can keep the original idea in your mind if you like when you are reading this but there are a few principles in here that applies to many things with life that I wish I had realized myself only a few years ago. They may seem simple, but that is the beauty of them, they are often forgotten in the complexities of life and we end up wandering narrowly focused on events and situations that distract us from what we really want to achieve.
So as you read, please do it slowly and compare to something you have in mind. Let me know if anything in the metaphor comes to mind, anything that I didn’t know off maybe or didn’t think of when writing this and I will improve it.
The first part of this is defining Rome
“Right as diverse pathes leden the folk the righte wey to Rome.†– Geoffrey Chaucer, 1391
Rome in mediaeval times was an historical centre point of the ancient world, the heart of the Roman Empire and apparently in their time they built 400,000 km of roads rapidly speeding up the delivery of products, people and information across many countries. Imagine the world today if the Roman Empire never fell? All interesting stuff but we are not talking about any of that, we are talking about you and that place in your mind that is now the centre point of your goals…
Rome is a wonderful place, Rome as in your long term goal, your dream, your aspiration or resolution. It is a place far away from where you are now, a place where you really want to be, and a place you have decided to travel to and one you know will take a lot of effort. Assuming you have this in mind may I congratulate you, you have decided that staying in one place is not for you. Life is a journey, full of wonderful things – as well as terrible disasters sadly – but it is for living. Staying in one situation prevents growth and experience and often we find if we do this, life comes around and forces you to move on.
There is one thing that is true though when you stay focused on Rome and begin travelling – All Roads Lead To Rome… when you keep the following principles in mind.
- You must want to reach Rome
- You might need some milestones
- You must walk the walk to Rome
- You must not play too much on the road
- You must keep a clear view of the road and measure your steps
- You can share the journey
So! You want to go to Rome Eh!
The first obstacle of reaching Rome is purely your own desire to reach it. You must realise that it is a long journey and that it may not be an easy one. Life throws in a few obstacles onto the road at time that can make you feel like tearing your hair out. Be prepared for these traffic jams in your progress, they’ll often appear as downright unfair, a sadistic form of Murphy’s Law or even the universe conspiring against you. If you can keep the mind-set that challenges, if they don’t actually kill you, only make you stronger then that is a wonderful philosophy to hold onto, however, I can assure you when they appear you certainly will not be considering that. These obstacles may mean you have to go back over a lot of your journey, they might mean you suddenly have a load of work to do to get past them or they might be devastating and take out any or even all of your motivation to reach your destination.
The point is they can appear and the only thing that will keep you going is your desire to reach Rome. As far as I can tell the only defence you have is in yourself. Having a clear idea of what Rome is and what it will feel like when you have reached it will be your armour against any stumbling blocks in your journey. You must really want to go to Rome!
Your own personal signs for a sense of direction
As Rome is personal to you, you might feel it is so far away that you lose track of the direction you are taking. Make as many milestones as are important to you, ideally ones that are meaningful, not just numbers, that show that you have achieved something. The clearer you have defined these milestones the better. If you need no motivation but the destination itself then fine, this may not affect you but usually on a long journey you can figure out benefits that you’ll gain along the way. Each of these benefits that may change your life in one way or another is a milestone. When you reach them it is a time of celebration and self-gratification, make the most of these milestones, you have earned them and they will motivate you along the journey. You may not see all the milestones at the beginning of the journey, they might become clearer along the way, so define them as you need them.
Put one step in front of another
One of the most basic principles that often gets forgotten in the resolution of reaching Rome is that you have to actually travel, you have to walk the walk, you have to do the work necessary to move forward. Teleportation is not possible here, you cannot suddenly appear in the centre of Rome by wishing about it, by pressing a magical button or buying a Roman package, if it were possible imagine the chaos that would suddenly appear in the world. It is going to take energy, work, time and resources. The more you put in the quicker you’ll move – it’s almost a scientific fact – so be prepared for the journey. Also make sure that each step follows a previous step, it is easy to trip up on wasted steps you might make on the way so make each one count.
Don’t play on the roads
Not that you’ll get run over by others rushing down any of these roads, though you might see some others flying past you on the journey. Conversely, the more able you become at travelling with greater progress the more likely you are to pass others on the road. The idea of not playing on the road is more to do with not getting too distracted by the pretty or interesting things you find on the side of the road. The more you play on the road the less progress you will make. If you spend your time, talking about or wandering from here to there you will never make progress.
Counting steps on a clear road
The road you are on will only be clear once you are walking it so count your steps as you go. You watch the time and effort needed making progress on the current road and see which ones make more progress. If you find that any steps do not help you move forward then reduce them and concentrate more on the ones that do. Be really ruthless in doing this and you will move faster. Often the steps we take are instinctive or just come naturally but do not necessarily have anything to do with the journey you are taking and by continuing to do them you are wasting time. If there is an accountant in you, be the accountant in you, measure all your effort, take stats, record clearly, though don’t go too far, measuring how long you take measuring can be a recursive thing and defeats the purpose entirely.
The strongest effect of doing this though will make the idea of “All Roads Lead To Rome…†come true for you. You will see for yourself what works and what doesn’t and become self-reliant. You will become more skilled at testing out each road and seeing what takes you to Rome quicker and with less effort. Using this as the information you need to plan your way will change you to become more practical and not just the dreamer with Rome in site. As you go on you will begin to see more clearly how many more steps are needed and possibly how to reduce them.
Of course you can find maps along the way that show you how to reach Rome, it is always worth spending a little time finding them. However, don’t spend too much time here; most of your effort should be in moving forward. Remember, maps can be wrong; they can slow you down and misdirect you. Your only defence is how well you see the road and measure the steps that actually make progress.
Lift Share along the way
The road to Rome can be a long and lonely one and at times not a pleasant journey. So something that will help you along is to share all or part of the journey with others who have the same destination. A few travel buddies along the way can be a great help when there are obstacles in the way.
If you get to Rome using this blueprint just tell them ‘Shawn’ sent you…
As an experiment I tried producing this in a few formats…
Here is my YouTube rendition of the article
… and I tried out AudioBoo too … realised it only took the first 5 minutes…oh well…
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