How many people do you hear complaining about their job, where they live, how little money they have, or how they can never take a vacation?

How many times have you heard those same people, when they hear about someone else who made a lot of money from an idea, say,

“I could have done that!” But yet, they didn’t.

And they continue to complain about where they are in life.

A friend of mine owns a dog grooming business, and she buys supplies from another pet business in town.

One day, as she talked to owner, she found out that owner’s husband made liver treats for dogs—he bought liver at wholesale, cut it into thin strips, dried it, packaged it, and retailed it to pet businesses. Eventually he got a contract with a distribution company and was doing very well with what started out as a simple side business.

My friend was upset when she was talking to me. She explained that she had had that idea several months earlier, but didn’t follow through because she didn’t think it would fit into her business.

“I could have done that!” she said, with some resentment in her voice.

It's easy to fall into trap. Well-intentioned individuals of all ages don't mean for it to happen, but that doesn't matter. It takes much more than good intentions to steer clear of this problem. If all it took was good intentions world would be packed with people living their dreams and accomplishing their goals. But that's not how it works, and this trap is one of most common reasons why it has happened too often in past, and will continue to happen in future.

What exactly are we dealing with here? What is so deadly to goals and hopes you have stored away in your head?

Routine.

ACTION WITHOUT PURPOSE A very unusual experiment was conducted by John Fabre, French naturalist, consisting of processionary caterpillars, a type of caterpillar that blindly follows one in front of it. This explains name processionary caterpillar. The experiment consisted of several of these caterpillars, a flowerpot filled to rim with dirt, and pine needles.

The caterpillars formed a complete circle around rim of flowerpot, with first one touching back of last one. The pine needles, food of processionary caterpillar, were placed in center of circle.

The caterpillars began their procession around flowerpot, one following other in a circle. This went on hour after hour, day after day, for an entire week. In end, every one of caterpillars dropped dead of starvation.

The one thing that could have saved them was only six inches away, but without purposeful thought or action, caterpillars continued with a habitual routine that eventually proved too much to endure.

This is happening to people you know, maybe even you, although not to this degree. Get stuck doing same old thing every single day and your goals, sitting only inches away, are as good as gone.