Anyone who has participated in my seminars or heard me speak knows that I believe in finding your life’s dream, and then taking the necessary steps to bring it to reality.
My approach is to identify your Vision, declare your goals as your Mission, and then create an action plan in the form of your Blueprint.
Why all of these steps? I’ve found that it is the most realistic way to create lasting change. One of the most intimidating parts of living up to your life’s ambition is how huge that ambition can be. It can create a lot of pressure, trying to take on a giant task to save the world. By breaking it down into a clear mission, and then a step-by-step plan, this big dream can become attainable.
Taking an action plan from big to small means drilling down into the prep work that is necessary to make the big goal happen. That can include classes, training, man-hours getting your hands dirty, enlisting experts or team members or volunteers, raising money, or tons of other things. I use the term Blueprint deliberately, because crafting a dream can be just as complex as building a house. You need to pace yourself, and get the right supplies ahead of time, and start with a strong foundation. By planning this way, you’ll realistically know what it will take to make your dream come true. You can also identify smaller tasks to do that will honor the spirit of your dream without too much time or money.
As you work towards your big goal, making small changes along the way can be a major confidence boost.
For example, my passion is helping the environment and supporting wildlife preservation. I would love it if I could make some big, dramatic gesture that could solve those problems for all of us! But until then, I get a lot of satisfaction by helping a little bit every day with small things like recycling, cleaning up litter, and committing to a regular donation schedule for my favorite charities. The hope of the big goal stays alive thanks to the regular completion of these little goals.
I love it when my clients and readers take my challenge to identify their Vision, Mission and Blueprint. But if that’s too challenging, ask yourself, what small thing could I do today, in service of the bigger goal in my heart? Sometimes, that’s plenty.
