This week is part 2 of How to Prioritize Your Dreams, with some further focus on why getting clear on your dream is so important.
As I mentioned in last week’s post on How to Prioritize Your Dreams part 1, you need to have clarity on your dream so that you can get excited about it.
So many women I meet, and clients I work with, have a vague goal in place. Something along the lines of “I want to be happy and successful”. And there’s nothing wrong with this, but it also is not a clear goal to help you move forward with action plans, or excitement. A vague goal is just a hope. A specific goal, one that you can feel and experience with all your senses as if you are living it, is the key to creating a life you love.
Be Pulled Forward By Your Future
To follow up with last week’s tip, you need to have such clarity on your dreams and goals that they actually pull you forward.
This comes up in 2 ways, first, when you have a goal to pull you forward, you will take action on it with purpose rather than letting it get pushed to the wayside. A goal you are excited about is a priority in your life – you make time for it and are intentional about working your way towards it.
Without a goal like this, it easily gets lost in the monotony of day-to-day tasks, other people’s emergencies and even just seems like another item to add to your list. Make it the driving factor pulling you forward.
Secondly, when you have a goal that is pulling you forward, you start to step into the person you need to be to live that future. What this means is that you are where you are today because of the decisions and commitments you have made to get here, but to get to your dream future, you will need to grow into a greater version of you. Having a clear picture of your future allows you to see the type of person you are when you are living that future and you can then use that as a roadmap to get to that point.
I love the question, “How am I in contradiction with my future self?” or the variation “What do I need to do/be today to become more like my future self?”
With these two questions, you are looking at where you are blocking yourself and your dreams, and also where you can be taking inspired action.
One example for me last year was that I had a shoulder injury that was limiting my workouts. I kept saying that I wanted to be in full health, and continued doing my workouts, but I wasn’t making time for my PT exercises in the morning. 12 minutes seemed like a lot of my precious time. However, when I put it in the context that my ideal self is at optimum health, my body is strong and I am ready to take on anything and do my workouts with ease, I realized that by not doing my PT exercises, I was directly contradicting that future self and my goals. And within a month of daily exercises, my shoulder had improved 80%. A year later, I still do those exercises a few times a week to maintain my optimum health and fitness.
Daily Habits
I see moving towards your goals as having two parts, the big picture (which inspires you and helps you create your roadmap) and the daily actions you take (the small steps) which continually move you in that direction.
The first step is to understand where you daily tasks are on this chart of important vs urgent.
Important vs Urgent
First, you need to know what in your day is important, and make it a priority.
This means breaking down your bigger dreams into smaller bite size steps so that you can connect your daily actions to your bigger goals.
Once you understand that, you can better prioritize your day.
I work with clients to break down your large goals into smaller pieces until you get all the way down to your daily goals.
Write Down Your Most Important Activities for Each Day
On a daily basis, choose your 3-5 most important activities to complete and prioritize those based on your most creative time of day. It’s often first thing in the morning, before distractions, but as a night owl, you may find afternoon is your peak state.
It’s been known as ‘eat the frog first’, but it is important to complete your most important tasks before you let unimportant ‘emergencies’ run your day.
Tip: Don’t check your email until you’ve done your most important tasks (and if you need to, search for the person you are looking for emails from rather than scanning your inbox.
If you’d like to take action on this sooner, request access to my Private Facebook Group, where I recently recorded a training on How to Take Action on Your Dreams with a more detailed plan on how to gain inspiration and build habits into your life that help make success inevitable.
As a Business & Mindset coach, I help successful women who are smart and successful, but are stuck. You’ve plateaued, you’ve hit a wall, you haven’t maintained consistency. The thing is, you know what you need, but it’s those final mindset shifts that help you take the inspired action you are looking for. If you’re tired of waiting, request your Reclaim Your Badass Life call today, to see what next steps would look like in working together.
