12 Bottles of Dreams
I saw this reel the other day and totally fell in love with the idea. You can watch it here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1IHVoQgbxI/?igsh=ZTcxMWMzOWQ1OA%3D%3. The text says, “This is your sign to your 2024 goal on champagne bottles so you can pop them & celebrate when you reach your goal.” I think this is a great idea, and I fully plan on doing it when I get to Georgia.
I want to make a clarification between the words goal, dream, and wish. I think often there is confusion about what falls in each category, which can sometimes make plans for achievement tricky to create. Everyone kind of has their own definition, and I think across the board, it doesn’t really matter as long as we can distinguish the level of work required to make things happen in our lives.
In my opinion, a wish is the initial level. A wish is anything and everything that we might want. A dream takes that one step further because we’ve decided to put effort into these things. That may not happen today, but it will certainly happen one day. A goal has its work clothes on. We are actively pursuing this and putting our daily, weekly, and monthly effort into it.
Honestly, these are minor distinctions between the terms, and they probably don’t really matter. For my purposes, we have our list of 100 dreams that we want to one day see come true. Then, we have our specific dreams that we are focusing on right now, which become our goals. Heading into the new year is a great time to think about these things. That list of 100 is far too broad to focus on. We have to narrow it down; otherwise, we’ll never get anything done.
I’ve picked twelve goals to focus on for the next year, and once I get to Georgia, I’ll write each one on a wine bottle (champagne isn’t really my thing). I’ll start focusing on the goals now, but logistically speaking, we don’t have room for anything else in our cars for this PCS drive, let alone 12 bottles of wine clanging around. It is also totally okay to do this on a smaller scale or over a shorter time frame. It’s definitely not in everyone’s budget to buy 12 bottles at once, and the only reason it’s in mine is because my favorite wine is dirt cheap.
You can revisit my current list of 100 goals in this post: https://www.becominginevitable.com/blog/making-multiple-dreams-come-true-at-once. Today, though, I want to share the 12 I picked to focus on this year and why. Some of these are pretty simple to accomplish. Some of them are stretch goals, but they are achievable if I put in consistent effort. And some of these are shot-in-the-dark goals where I really need to plan, work, and get lucky to achieve them. I think a combination of those three makes for a well- rounded year. Some of these also vary from the initial dream and are smaller and more achievable in one-year dreams.
1. Buy a Honda CR-V Hybrid
My car still has life in it, but it’s definitely getting close to its last leg. I would much rather buy my new car at the right time rather than be forced into that decision or deal with a single-car situation. I do too many things for that to be sustainable in the long term, and it’s even harder to navigate when we don’t live on base. I want to buy the car when we have room in the budget for a monthly payment (or potentially pay cash for it if my other dreams work out) and wait until Honda offers a good incentive to purchase. Plus, our credit needs some time to bounce back from buying a house. This dream is reasonably achievable, but there are also specific circumstances that I want to line up with when I achieve it.
2. The dream is to speak in front of 1,000 people—This year, it is to book my first paid
speaking gig
This may end up being relatively simple to do, but it requires a level of education and confidence in my skill set that I don’t feel prepared for. Achieving this dream means growing, taking a chance on myself, and facing lots of rejection that I have not put myself out there for yet.
3. Have a greenhouse
This dream is complicated to achieve in a few ways. First, it’s out of the budget to install, so we need extra income to afford it. Second, this is not our forever home, which means anything we do to the house needs to add value and not deter buyers when they come looking in a few years. I have a vision of what this dream looks like coming true, but until I meet with actual developers, I won’t know if it’s realistic to achieve or what the price tags attached to it are.
4. See AJR Live
This one shouldn’t be too complicated to achieve. I need to buy tickets and probably figure out a babysitter since my husband will probably be deployed. They are touring in a couple of cities near me next year, and I have friends who also want to go. While this dream may seem simple, I assure you it will be a dream come true in every way.
5. Visit Canada
I’ve got a trip on the books for Labor Day weekend since my friends are having their second wedding (like many military couples, they did a quickie one initially and are having the full-blown celebration later). I’m a bridesmaid in it, so I have to be there, but I also want to be in a position to see and experience more of the country. I don’t just want it to be a weekend trip, and I am hopeful that my husband can join, although he will likely be deployed at that point.
6. Meet Sheila Wray Gregoire
This is definitely a long-shot dream. She doesn’t travel to speaking engagements very often, and she lives in a totally different section of Canada than the one I am visiting, but who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to hop over to her section, and perhaps she’ll say yes to meeting me for coffee. I don’t have much control over this dream coming true other than putting myself in a position where I could get lucky.
7. Launch my dream manager program and have my first client
Technically, those could count as two separate dreams, but they do go hand in hand. Like my speaking dream, launching this program requires confidence and a skill set that I don’t feel I have yet. I can make this happen; I just have to put in the work to be ready for it.
8. Make a six-figure income on my own pen—The dream for this year is to make 50,000
myself
I’m going to start working in insurance again. I’ll also be launching my coaching program and booking speaking engagements. I hope to earn this income through the combination of all of that. This is definitely a stretch from my minimal income this year, but I genuinely believe if I put the work in, I can reach it (and maybe even exceed my goal)
9. Have 500 readers on my blog in one month
The only thing I can do for this is to build my recognition and stay consistent. I will get there, but it requires weekly effort that I need to maintain. It is definitely a stretch goal, but Iknow it only takes one month for everything to fall into place.
10. Be a guest on a podcast
It’s very similar to my speaking goal, just on a different platform. This will require a different approach while meeting much of the same criteria.
11. Have 1,000 followers on Instagram
It’s very similar to my blog readership. I’ve been growing; I just need more time to stay consistent. As long as I keep doing what I’m doing, this should happen, which doesn’t mean it was easy by any means.
12. Get a literary agent
This is probably the biggest stretch goal. I have to have my book ready (or at least more ready) for agents to see. I have to send out lots of queries, which can be a lot of work in themselves. I have to practice my patience while waiting for a response. And then I have to be ready for when someone says yes because that’s when the big balls get rolling, and I don’t want to stop that object in motion.
I like this idea of narrowing down the goals we focus on for the year and ensuring that we are intentional about celebrating when a dream comes true. It’s very easy to skip over to the next dream and just check the box, but then we miss out on the magic of our achievement. That’s why ALWAYS DELIVER is so important! We have to follow through to the finish line and stay fully present when we reach it.