What’s It Going To Take TO Achieve My Dreams?
This is the last post before the New Year, which probably means everyone is busy thinking about their resolutions. Those 12 goals are my resolutions, but it is not enough to set them. We have to actually create a plan to achieve them and find ways to navigate and maintain that plan even when life is hard. I know we’ve all had years in the past where we made resolutions that quickly fell off the books as soon as we missed a day or got a bad night’s sleep.
We go from that list of 100 dreams down to a select few to focus on. I picked twelve, but you can pick whatever number is best for you. Plus, most of my dreams connect through the same work activities, so achieving one usually links to achieving or coming close to another. We then narrow that list down to the daily and weekly activities we need to do. The dream is never enough; we must put in consistent effort to reach it. The whole dream stays there so we can keep putting in the work.
We can use any metrics that we want. I like a combination of daily, weekly, and monthly things to track. I like daily to keep me on track with my educational goals. Weekly is good for keeping track of effort goals. Monthly are great for keeping track of results goals. The biggest thing is that we want to set ourselves up for success. Too many of any one type of tracker can get us behind really quickly, and often, when we get behind, we tend to throw the whole system out the window. I’m not saying this is a perfect solution, but we have to try something. If that something fails, then we’ll pivot and try something new.
I took my twelve goals and broke them down into what I need to do on a monthly basis to achieve them. Then, I can take that information and determine the activities I need to implement on a daily and weekly basis. Some of these goals have specific deadlines, and others can be accomplished over the course of 12 months.
1. Buy a Honda CR-V
The hybrid model from last year costs around $33,000. I don’t have a timeline to achieve this goal, so at this point, it can happen anywhere over the 12 months. We could always end up buying it on a payment plan that fits within our budget, but for the purposes of the New Year, I am going to act as if we are paying cash for the car, which would be great! So that works out to saving about $3,000 every month. When figuring out numbers, I always round up rather than using the exact numbers. The bigger number is often more motivating to me than the specific one, and it means I am always more prepared for what I want to achieve rather than accidentally coming up a little short.
2. Book my first speaking gig
This one also does not have a timeline, and there are no costs associated with it. My action metric for this will be submitting two weekly requests to speak. It doesn’t matter where the event is happening or what the context is, as long as it is something that strengthens my skills. Getting my name out there will lead to more speaking gigs and paid ones as well.
3. Have a greenhouse
Here’s another one without a timeline. Based on my research about the size and style I want, $10,000 seems reasonable to keep in mind. This means saving $850 every month.
4. See AJR Live
I plan to attend the concert in April, so this one has a clear timeline. I estimate $500 to see the concert between the cost of tickets, hotel, food, and drinks. It’ll probably end up being less than that, but I always want to overshoot. This means saving $125 every month.
5. Meet Sheila Wray Gregoire
I am operating as if this event will happen in September. The wedding I am attending in Canada is then, and if all works out, I will hop on another plane over to where Sheila lives and take her out for a cup of coffee. If that is how it all works out, I’ll need about $1,000 to cover the additional cost of flights, hotels, and food for the trip. She may very well end up doing a speaking engagement in a city near me, and I can drive in for it, but for now, I should plan for the long-shot version of this dream to come true. This comes out to saving about $150 every month.
6. Visit Canada
As I said, the wedding is in September, so we need the money for flights, hotel, food, and activities by then. I estimated $2,000 for flights, which definitely seems on the high end based on my searches, but the wedding is over Labor Day weekend, so it could end up being that pricey. This comes out to saving $450 a month.
7. Launch my dream manager program and have my first client
This doesn’t have a timeframe, although it certainly needs to be sooner rather than later. I plan to pull some income from this once I build my skill set, and this program will further my credibility when I reach out for speaking opportunities. I’ve decided to dedicate 5 hours every week to building this program, my education, and my confidence.
8. Have 500 readers on the blog in one month
Staying consistent with my work is the most critical piece to achieving this. Spreading my name through speaking engagements and my program will help as well. I may also decide that I need to hire more support to market my blog and research growing brands. For now, my metrics are committing 10 hours a week to writing. It takes me, on average, about two hours to create a post between writing, editing, and uploading. Dedicating this time will guarantee that I get a week’s worth of posts written while also helping me get ahead on the next and making sure I put energy toward my book.
9. Be a guest on a podcast
Similar to my speaking goal, my metric is to put our two inquiries a week.
10. Have 1000 Instagram followers
I am currently halfway there, meaning I’ll need to gain 42 every month to reach this goal by the end of the year. This may be very achievable, but with the posting schedule I’ve been using, I have gained, on average, 13 followers every month. So I need to figure out a way to triple my success rate. This means maintaining my six posts a week and spending two hours a week researching and implementing social media strategies.
11. Get a literary agent
It would be, and has been, very easy for me to push this off since my book hasn’t felt ready. But I know I will have the book ready if I find the right agent. I work pretty well under deadlines, even if they stress me out. To start, I will also be putting out two inquiries a week.
12. Make $55,000 on my own pen
My husband makes good money, and that pay raise will help out, but it is nowhere close to allowing us to save what we need to achieve these goals. You may notice that I increased the amount from when I wrote these goals on Wednesday. When I did the math on what I needed to save to achieve everything else, it came out closer to $55,000. Our goals have to align with one another, so my dreams forced me to raise the standard for myself. This will come from a combination of (hopefully) my speaking engagements, dream manager program, and insurance sales. I will primarily make this money through life insurance since that is the simplest and quickest way to earn from the three options. Making that money should be possible if I run 40 appointments every month. I am also dedicating 5 hours a week to studying products and training to increase my skill set to be more successful since a lot has changed in the four years since I last did this.
To sum all of this up, I will be putting in about 22 hours a week between my writing, planning, and studying time. I will be saving $4,600 a month. I will be running 40 insurance appointments. I will be sending out 6 inquiries to a variety of people. I don’t like scheduling out every second of my day. Every time I’ve done that, it has been incredibly easy for me to get off track and then get discouraged when I do. Plus, I will be doing all of this as a stay-at-home mom. I get plenty of support from my husband and family, but I need to maintain flexibility in my schedule to deal with the times my son is sick or refusing a nap. I am also starting all this on the day we move to a brand-new state. I will need to be open to opportunities to create relationships out there, which also means maintaining flexibility in my schedule. Having big markers like this helps me take advantage of my free time while simultaneously forcing me to get my work done if time is running out. I may quickly discover that this plan is not the right one for me, but I have to try something, and I hope you are figuring out ways to set your dreams up for success in the new year.