Achieving the Impossible

I was there too, at one time. Constantly dreaming of that outrageously unattainable goal, and never knowing how I could make it a reality. For me, that dream was to purchase a Marafin petpet. I’d wanted one since they were released as a top-tier plot prize in the Maraquan war - their big eyes and cute little fins were positively squee-worthy. Yet, I wasn’t very good at earning Neopoints and I was even worse at saving them, and even more frustrating was how rare these petpets seemed to be. So I gave up.

Yet it stuck with me for years. Eventually, I started doing some research and found that there were a few of the critters out there still. It was going to cost me me a pretty Neopoint, but there was a tangible goal. I knew it could take me years to reach the goal, but I made the decision to start saving and to see if I could make my dream come true.

It did. It took lots of time, lots of hard work, and lots of convincing that this was worth it, but I am writing to tell you that I made my dream come true, and I purchased my Marafin about a month ago. But more than that, I’m writing to teach you how you can make your impossible dream come true as well, no matter what it is. Here’s how to turn your dreams into reality:

1. Make a conscientious decision to work towards your goal.

This may seem like an obvious and simple step, but I honestly think this is the most important thing you can do when working towards your big goal. It is very easy to talk about The Big One in hypotheticals, and only think of it occasionally in your mind as if to say, “Well, this would be nice to achieve...someday.”

Stop living in somedays and hypotheticals, because it won’t help you complete your goals. You need to authoritatively and declaratively tell yourself, “I am going to start working on this goal NOW.” And actually follow through, even if you need to take tiny baby steps towards your dream. Which leads me to my next tip.

2. Prepare for the long haul.

Chances are if your goal really is that big, it is going to take you a long time to achieve for you. That might mean a matter of months, or years. When I began saving towards my goal, I knew it could take me years - upwards of four years, theoretically. That was a tough thing to swallow, but knowing that as a harsh fact made it easier to prepare myself and work towards it. I knew I wasn’t going to achieve my goal within a few months, but I figured that if I worked hard enough I might be able to cut down my time spent saving. This ended up being true - instead of taking four years, I was able to meet my goal in about two years.

It was still a long time, and it might be a similarly long time for you too. However, once you have a ballpark estimate it will give you a potential challenge to beat, and it breaks your goal into something linear that you can chip away at. Speaking of which…

3. Break your goal into smaller chunks and deadlines.

This step might vary depending on your goal. If you’re saving for an item or target savings, this might mean that you break your large goal (say of 100 million) into smaller chunks that you want to meet (say, 20 million) and then give yourself a target date to meet it. Or if you’re trying to trade for an UC, it might mean that you want to train your BD pet that you’re offering up to a particular HSDL by a certain date. Don’t make your mini-goal deadlines impossible, because then you’ll never want to work towards them and it won’t actually be helpful for you.

Try to give yourself enough breathing room to accomplish these smaller goals - for me, that meant one of my first steps was trying to save one-sixth of my hypothesized purchase price, and I wanted to achieve that within a year, which I did. Then I dreamt a little bigger for the second year: I wanted to have 1/3 of my overall goal by the end of year 2. It required a lot of cramming at the end but I managed to do it because I had set that deadline for myself and I wanted to meet it. After those smaller goals (which there were more of) it became easier to accomplish more in a shorter amount of time, and I was able to celebrate the small victories while I worked towards something that still seemed somewhat impossible. This brings me to my next tip…

4. Tell your friends, tell your mom, tell everyone.

By the time I eventually purchased my Marafin, almost everyone I knew was aware of my goal and associated it with me. Complete strangers would tell me that they had saw me saving and they were rooting for me. It might seem silly, but telling those people around me made a major impact. Every time I wanted to give up, people were reminding me of how far I had gotten already and cheering me on. It’s a little thing but it made a big impact to know that so many people believed in me.

5. Don’t give up. If something isn’t working, change it.

Like I said, I wanted to give up many times. Oddly, the more time I spent working towards my goal, the more impossible it seemed. Yet, I kept working on it, little by little. When I got really dissatisfied with my progress, I’d look and see what else I could change to make it go faster. I started playing Food Club and investing in stocks, which I had previously scowled at. When I saw the profits trickle in (and sometimes positively pour in via Food Club), it became part of my new daily routine and it lifted my spirits as I saw how I was making better progress. Try everything you can. Towards the last month or two for me, I started restocking like a madwoman - and I hated restocking (I know, I was a fool - it’s now my favorite method to earn Neopoints).

The combination of all these tireless efforts is what got me to this point, where I can write about my successes. And this applies to you, too - you could be me sometime in the future, writing about how you finally got that stamp avatar or completed your massive candy gallery, or made petpages for every single one of your pets, sides and all. Do absolutely everything you can to make your dreams come true, and if you’re having trouble, ask your support system for advice.

Going for The Big One can be an intimidating, infuriating, frustrating journey. But it’s also incredibly rewarding. I wish you the best of luck meeting your goals.

You can do it. After all, I did, so why can’t you?