I know how difficult it can be to think about the lack of progress you’ve made toward your dreams this year.
Maybe you’ve been dreaming for a long time about creating a solid, sustainable plan your future and you really thought this could be the year that dream comes true.
Maybe you’ve been dreaming about going out on your own and starting your own business. Or maybe you want to become a coach and help other people figure their life out.
You’ve been attending virtual conferences, signing up for free webinars, bought some training, and maybe even hired a coach or two.
Yet, day after day and night after night all you do is dream.
Week after week, month after month, year after year, you fail to make progress toward your dream.
Are you lazy? Are you not capable? Are you not smart enough?
No, it’s actually something worse! You’re in dreamland and don’t know how to move from dreamland to a solid plan. You’re stuck!
If this sounds like you and you’re finally ready to go from dream to done keep reading! In today’s article I’m sharing the three behind the scenes secrets to transforming your dreams into reality with a workable plan.
Start With the Long-Term
How many times have you been asked during a job interview, “Where do you want to be five years from now?”
Whether you’re looking for a traditional job or want to start your own business, asking yourself where you want to be in the future might just be the most important questions you can ask.
Why?
Because without knowing where you’re headed in the long term, it’s impossible to create a map to get there.
Think about the last vacation or family trip you took. Did you know where you were going?
Of course you did. You wouldn’t say, “I’m going on vacation or taking a family trip but I have no idea where I’m going.”
You wouldn’t pay for a vacation or take time off work without knowing exactly where you’re headed.
As a result, without knowing where you’re heading in the long term, it’s impossible to create a map to get there.
You need to know what your destination is, so that every day, week, month and year you can check your progress to be sure you’re still headed in the right direction.
Exercise: Write down at three to five long term goals you have for yourself right now.
Create Milestones
Once you know your ultimate destination, you can create a plan to get there, and create the interim goals that will help you stay on track.
For example, if in five years you want to be free to travel for 8 weeks every year, then you need to have a few things in place before that can happen:
You will need…
- Enough income to cover travel costs
- Passive income to sustain you or your business while you’re not working
- Possibly a staff who can manage the business while you’re away
Now with this list, you can work backward from your five-year goal and create milestones along the way.
Let’s say you know you’ll need $150,000 annually in order to fund your travel plans, and right now you’re earning $60,000, then reasonable milestones might look like this:
- Year 1: $70,000
- Year 2: $85,000
- Year 3: $105,000
- Year 4: $125,000
- Year 5: $150,000
With these milestones in place, it’s much easier to figure out exactly what you need to do to achieve them by setting monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
Create Small Goals
If you think about going from $60,000 to $150,000 in five years, that can feel like a very overwhelming task.
After all, it’s a $90,000 increase and most people will look at that and immediately think it’s impossible.
However, when you break it down like I did above, and align each milestone with smaller doable steps, it suddenly looks much more attainable.
In the first year of the plan I’ve outlined here, we’re increasing your income by $10,000. That’s less than $1000 per month. Surely that’s easy enough to accomplish.
We can further break it down by the week: $1000 per month is just $250 per week.
If you sell just one more group coaching package or five more of a $50 training program, you’ve already reached your milestone.
That might mean sending one more email to your list, or investing an additional $20 per month in Facebook ads, or perhaps reaching out to one more one-on-one coaching client.
The point is, reaching this much smaller goal is far easier than thinking about $90,000 over five years.
So what’s your big dream? How can you deconstruct it into achievable milestones, workable goals, and ultimately, daily and weekly tasks?
If you can do this (and you definitely can) then you can achieve anything in business and life.
Does this resonate with you but you’re not sure how to apply it to your life? Why not book a FREE strategy call with me?
It’s 100% cost and commitment FREE. You have nothing to lose and your future self to gain.