This is the year (part 1): Your biggest dream

tl;dr Your action plan

Identify the one big dream that’s most meaningful to you.
Find a compelling and emotional reason why you want it.
Write it down. Write it in a secret journal, text it to your coach, or share it with friends online. Whatever you do, put it into the world.

This is the year

It’s December, which always has me thinking about goals. I love the natural cadence of turning inward to review my life’s focus at the same time I’ve literally turned in to avoid the cold weather outside. I love the boost of energy new goals supply through the first frigid months of the new year, when sockless Toms feel so far from reach.

Here’s the thing about this season. You can make your wildest dream your reality. No, it won’t fully come to be in 2019. But you CAN make big progress. You can head in that direction. So will you?

Maybe the excuses are already flooding your mind. I don’t have the time. This is good enough. Not now, not with this new baby / aging parent / hangnail.

“There’s always a million reasons not to do something,” as Jan so eloquently said to Pam in The Office Season 2. But what about that one reason to do it?

This moment is all we have.

With this three-part series, you’ll set the stage to make a major life change in 2019.

Part 1: Define your big inspiring life goal.
Part 2: Break your goal down into actionable steps without losing your mind in details.
Part 3: Build a process that supports you in achieving your goal.

Let’s do this.

What’s your big dream?

What’s your biggest “someday” dream? Notice: I’m not asking what you want to accomplish next year. I’m asking for that exciting dream you wouldn’t dare say aloud without prefacing it with words like “ridiculous,” “unrealistic,” and “obviously a total fantasy.”

What is your biggest “someday” dream?

Why go big? In The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, author Gary Keller talks about the domino effect. Using the analogy of falling dominoes, he says that each step you take towards your goal makes the next step easier. Did you know a domino can knock down another domino that’s 50% larger? In other words, it doesn’t matter if you take a tiny action, because its power compounds. So go ahead and dream big.

“So when you think about success, shoot for the moon. The moon is reachable if you prioritize everything and put all of your energy into accomplishing the most important thing.” – Gary Keller, entrepreneur, bestselling author

One of my big someday dreams is to be a bestselling author. I’ve wanted to be an author since I was a little girl, scribbling plotless ghost stories into journals and hiding angsty poetry under math textbooks in my closet. This year, I’m making significant progress in this direction.

What’s the ONE most important thing?

Narrow your focus to just one dream.

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say No to almost everything.” – Warren Buffett, investor, speaker, philanthropist, multibillionaire

Maybe you have a few things in mind — a life-purpose dream, a relationship dream, a creative dream. That’s ok. But decide which ONE is the most meaningful to you. There is no such thing as multitasking, just the costly practice of task-switching. If you want to make anything happen, decide to make one thing happen.

If you want to make anything happen, decide to make one thing happen.

Why do you want it?

As I wrote way back when and again here, what you’re really after is a feeling. What’s the feeling underlying this dream? For a big goal to stick, it needs to be backed up by powerful desire. I invite you to ask yourself, “What’s the compelling and emotional reason why I want this?”