Dare To Dream BIG This New Year!

Reflecting on how this last year went and those implications for the new year? Curious about what this new year will bring? Desiring a new beginning, a new hope, a new perspective?

In my experience when there is an opportunity for something new-  I know it’s time to let myself sink deeply into my heart where my passions mingle with my soul, and find an un-discovered dream waiting for me to get behind.

Questions that naturally arise in my mind as I reflect on the last year include things like:

• How I showed up in my life
• Lessons learned
• Key areas of interest in continued growth

As we find these answers they naturally lead us to a place of self-discovery and even better- Curiosity!

When we allow ourselves to become curious and explore our passions and interests we become energized, giddy- even a little nervous! And that’s when you know you have found something that awakens you – enlivens you. This is an incredibly empowering place to be.  Breathe deeply into your belly and allow yourself to feel the excitement, the potential, of this place.

Then after a bit, begin to gently and carefully reign it in.  Create a big enough container around it so that you can hold onto that big energy.  Once you feel you have a grip on it, you can then free yourself up to begin to imagine how you would like to manifest those interests and your passions into your life.  THIS is the magic! DREAM BIG.

If the sky was limit- how would this look?  A career change, a new partnership, a move?  This is not the time to let our analytical brains kick in- we will need them- just a bit later.  Right now, give yourself permission to really go for it.  If you could really could create anything at all – what would it be?

Okay, now once you feel really excited about this can we start to drill down into bite sized pieces. This is when we can sooth the part of ourselves that says- no way- that’s impossible!  And convince it otherwise.

You may have heard the acronym SMART for goal creation. It stands for:

S- specific

M- measurable

A- attainable

R- relevant

T- trackable

So, once you have your BIG DREAM – break it down- but don’t start at the ground up. Start from the sky down.  Your- pie-in-the-sky idea, what sits right below that? And then right below that? Etc.

For example, if you want to fly in space and your exciting new dream is to orbit the earth, you would need to be an astronaut. To become an astronaut, you need a degree, to get that degree you need to finish your bachelors, to finish your bachelors you need to go to school 15 hours a week, to go to school 15 hours a week you need to find a job to work 20 hours a week that meets your budget, maybe you need to adjust lifestyle to be able to cut down work hours, you find a room for rent and move out of your town home etc. Get it?

Once you have outlined your steps then you break out your SMART tools and go to work.

• How long does each step take- write down your deadlines for accomplishing each one.
• Create a system for tracking your progress. It is infinitely more powerful to have accountability to someone you need to report your success to like a friend or accountability partner.
• BOOM! There you have it.  You have paved a road that leads you right to orbiting the earth!

Of course, within each step there are smaller goals to be created and tracked, but if we start small we don’t usually end up in outer space ❤

To New Beginnings and A Happy New Year

Love,

Stephanie