I have to start by stating that there are exceptions to this post as with everything in life. For example, if you are blind, you could not be a pilot, and if you want to join the United States military there is an age limit in which you can enroll. Taking in account that there are certain exceptions, this post will apply to every facet in life. It also needs to be said that this advice only applies to things that don't effect other life beings. One example being that if you want to date someone or have sex with them and they don't feel the same way, you need to respect that person and accept that in this situation, you will not get what you want. Despite what the movies make us believe, we live in the real world and in the real world, if someone doesn't feel something towards you, there is absolutely nothing you can do to make them change how they feel. It doesn't matter how much you Love someone or what you do for them or what you say to them, if they don't Love you, there is simply nothing you can do to change that. I know that sucks, and I know it can hurt. By accepting that, you can move onto to someone who does feel the same way for you that you feel for them and truly be happy.
The answer to being able to do anything in life, which includes but is not limited to, your character, your health, your social life, your abilities, your talents, your mental health, your perspective, your education, your career, and so on and so forth. The answer to how to accomplish anything is... baby steps and small goals! That's it, it really is that simple. With that method you can literally transform your entire life and your entire being. You have the ability to be anyone you want to be and do anything you want to do.
Of course, we need some examples just to see how easy this truly is. Let's go with our physical health since so many of us are unhappy with our current health. We have all been told to exercise, any quick google search will result in thousands of sites telling you all about the benefits of exercise. Yet many of us still don't exercise, why not? For those of us who don't exercise when we think about exercising our brains automatically jump to some hypothetical future where we've spent thousands on a gym membership only to never use it, or if we do go to the gym, it's the having to spend countless hours there being miserable.
Obviously someone who doesn't work out and who never has is not going to want anything to do with that kind of thinking. So how do we solve this issue? Baby steps and small goals. Set a small goal that you 100% know that you can do and start there, that is the baby step. So for example if you can only do one push-up, commit yourself to doing one push-up everyday. That's it. One push-up a day can be done anywhere, it won't cost you anything, and it will only take you a few seconds. After a few days of doing one push up you will start to feel more confident in yourself, you are accomplishing a goal that you set for yourself that wasn't out of reach. Even if you can't do one, just do whatever you can and keep doing your best, if you can do a partial push-up then do a partial because eventually you will reach one push-up a day.
Too often when we want to accomplish something, we set this huge unrealistic goal which we can never attain and when we inevitably don't, we get frustrated and give up. When we set small goals that we can accomplish, our brain rewards us every time we reach a goal. When you accomplish the goal of doing one push up a day, your brain will reward you with that feel good chemical that we all crave, which will in turn naturally cause you to want to create another goal as to get that reward chemical again. We can then set a goal and commit to doing two push-ups a day. When you do two push-ups a day, another chemical reward will be blasted in your brain, and you will get another rush. Continue this pattern of moving the goal post to a reasonable distance indefinitely. Eventually you may find you want to add different types of exercises into the mix. Who knows maybe someday you'll not only compete in a triathlon, but you'll also win it. All because you learned the trick of getting your brain to reward you for meeting your own achievable goals!
The other side effect to this, is the inevitable massive increase in self-confidence. The more goals you achieve, the more you start to see your true strength and the more confidence you gain, the confidence naturally pushes you to see your own limits and even test some fears that you have or traumas you've been repressing. Along with strength, confidence, fearlessness, and stamina you will also learn how to Love better not only yourself but others, how to have more empathy, how to see a more beautiful world. You will eventually start to see the world and everything in it as perfect since you see that you are powerful enough to do literally anything, since you know you have this enormous powerful energy within you, you know that all others have this enormous powerful energy within them also. All this was achieved by setting a goal of doing one push-up.
The first step is 100% the hardest but as soon as you get yourself to take that step you are able to look back and see just how tiny that first step was and how tiny every other step along the way is. As stated earlier, this advice applies to (almost) anything. Want to be more social? Set a goal of saying hi to one stranger a day or even a week if a day seems to be overwhelming. Want to be smart? Make a goal to read one paragraph a day from a nonfiction book. Want to be an expert at something? Read a book on the subject that you want to be an expert in. Want to be rich? Set a goal to find a way to make a dollar a day and save it. Want to be a nicer person? Do one selfless act a day, not as easy as one might think, but it turns into a pretty fun game of trying to find ways to accomplish it. Want to be happy? Smile once a day, fake it till you make it.
Want to play an instrument? Find a way to get one, if you're poor there are second hand on eBay, if you're broke, ask around the music scene, post an ad on your local sales groups. There are plenty of musicians who would give you an old instrument for free if it's just sitting around not being used. Set up a go-fund me, ask anyone you meet for a couple dollars to help you get an instrument. The point is, there is always a way to do something if you want it bad enough. Once you have the instrument you will just play it, since you have it anyways, getting the instrument really is the hardest part. After you have the instrument, there are apps, free and paid, there are YouTube tutorial videos, there are subreddits dedicated to learning instruments. A thirty second google search resulted in this subreddit for learning guitar.
Think of anything you want to do or anyone you want to be. Ignore the millions of steps that your brain immediately tells you are in the way of you getting whatever it is that you want. Find the first step and set a goal for that first step, achieve said goal and add another goal, repeat indefinitely. That being said even setting more than one goal at a time can be too much at times which can cause the goals to fail despite how tiny they are. If you are someone who struggles with goals, just set one goal in one aspect in your life, as you get better at achieving your goals and start to see your resilience, the more goals you'll be able to set. Someday in the future you could have hundreds of goals in hundreds of aspects of your life going all at once, becoming an expert goal maker and achiever. Just think of the possibilities!
Don't compare yourself to anyone else. Don't listen to anyone who tries to tell you what goals to set for yourself. You are the only one who knows what you are capable of, you are the only one who knows what goals you will be able to achieve and what goals you won't. Pick a goal that you 100% know you can and will achieve, pick a goal that it would be impossible to not achieve. If you know you can't even do a push-up as in the above example set a goal of taking one step a day, if you can't get out of bed, set a goal of clapping your hands for a couple minutes once a day. The size of the step is not important at all! The only thing that is important, is that you meet that goal and then add to it and keep doing that. You can take as much time as you need between goals but if you never add more goals, you will stagnate and you will essentially end up back where you started.
Any human in the world can do this. This doesn't require any training, this doesn't require and special skills or knowledge, this doesn't require anything specific. This is something that is individualized to every person which means it can't be given. No one else can do this technique for you, you have to do it. The good news is since you are the only one that can do it and you know yourself better than anyone else that means you know exactly what goal you can achieve and then you can achieve said goal. Give it a try, what do you have to lose? That was rhetorical but I'll answer anyways, you have nothing to lose, absolutely nothing! You can do this! I believe in you! You got this! I want to hear all about how you played at Carnegie Hall or won that triathlon or won a Nobel peace prize all because of that baby step and tiny goal that you made! You are amazing and beautiful! Love and Peace!