It’s day 16 of the series 31 Days of Lessons Learned from My 20’s. If you want to read all the posts in this series, you can find every post listed here. If you want to have all the posts delivered to your email inbox, subscribe here.

Sometime in my late teenage years I decided I wanted to become a runner. I was not considered athletic by any means, so the thought of me running more than ten yards was a stretch. Plus, I am a chronic procrastinator. I’m more of a dreamer than a doer.

So one summer I started getting up early and running around our block. It was about a mile long. Then I went away to college and ran some here and there, but I still wouldn’t consider myself a runner. I didn’t log my miles or buy special shoes. I just ran when I felt like it. But I ran.

After college I decided it was time to up the ante a little. I went to the local running specialty store and not only did I buy a pair of running shoes, but I got fitted for a pair. The salesperson looked at my foot. I ran a few minutes on the treadmill. Then he sold me the perfect shoe for my foot.

The shoe that would make me a runner.

Over the next several years I ran a few races – 5Ks, 10Ks, a 15K. In 2011 – 17 years after I graduated high school – I ran my first half-marathon.

I asked myself, “Am I now a runner?”

I trained for that half-marathon. I was intentional and logged my miles and ate my nutrition. But I still wouldn’t consider myself a “die-hard runner”. I didn’t run in the rain, sleet, and snow. I didn’t run when it was 100 degrees outside either.

As I look back on those 17 years that I became a runner, I realize it’s not my intensity or a formula that I used that taught me to run. It’s just that I ran.

Just dreaming gets you nowhere.

So many times, even now, I get bogged down on the details or a dream or a goal. I become so hypersensitive to the “How?” that I become fearful of starting at all. Then I’m there, stuck in my dream going nowhere, living in a non-reality, and wishing for something else.

Remember, that it doesn’t matter so much how you’re going to get there. Just move. One step at a time. Just do the next one thing.

In the beginning I ran when I felt like it, which wasn’t very often. But I kept doing just that. Then I felt like it more often.

Finally, I knew I was a runner.

What one step can you make today to move you closer to your dream?