Building your Stairway to the Stars

© Copyright 2024 Fran Carey, All Rights Reserved.

What is your wildest, craziest, reach-for-the-stars dream/hope/plan for the new year? How can you achieve it?

The first step is actually identifying your goal. Do you want to lose 20 pounds? See the Grand Canyon? Take an 8 mile hike to a dream destination? Find something to represent this and put it on your refrigerator. Then buy a journal and put it on the front cover or the first page of your journal.

Next, in your new journal, write out your goal beneath the picture or map or drawing of what you want to achieve. On the next page, make a sandbox list of steps to getting there. For instance, to lose 20 pounds, you would eat better, try to reduce stress, and exercise more. For a trip to the Grand Canyon, you would find a place to stay, start hiking, and make sure you have a good camera, even if it's your cell phone.

Now break the major steps in the sandbox into smaller, actionable steps. Under "eat better", insert "go online and download meal plans", then do it. Under "reduce stress", you could include "buy a meditation book", "buy bathsalt", "take a walk". For exercise, "download exercise app to TV", "join gym", "buy running shoes".

For the Grand Canyon trip, list "buy travel guide for Grand Canyon", "walk 3 miles every day", "book campsite at Williams, AZ, KOA".

Next, log your progress. For "lose 20 pounds", use your new journal as a food and fitness diary, or buy new journals for each. For the Grand Canyon trip, record your campsite reservation number and your KOA rewards membership number. Write down in what infinitely logical place you put your National Parks Pass. Record your hiking mileage, elevation, and time.

Keep up with both your actions and your recording of them. Add new steps or adjust the existing ones as needed. For instance, you downloaded 101 broccoli recipes and discovered you really don't like broccoli that much. Keep your faves and download some for brussell sprouts.

If you get halfway through your sandbox and decide maybe you don't want to do this so much anymore, stop and find a new goal. If you get halfway through your actionable steps and make that choice, that's fine, too. But really think about it. Are you just overwhelmed because the steps are too big, and you need to break them down further? Or did you suddenly realize the Grand Canyon was your ex's dream, not yours? Or do you need to rethink your timeline? Maybe next year would be more realistic if your goal is Rim to Rim and you're coming off the couch. That's a big part of what the initial, big step, sandbox is about. Make the individual steps as small as you need them to be, and don't rush yourself, but don't let yourself dilly-dally and miss out on your biggest dream, either.  Line out your action plan, take the steps, track the steps, and make your dream come true.

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