No tags yet.
Women take on many roles: mother; wife; sister; friend; employee; entrepreneur; student. In those roles, we take on much more: chef; chauffeur; maid; therapist; laundromat; babysitter. We juggle hats on a daily basis, often times putting aside our own wants and needs -and dreams- to fulfil the many other obligations we consider more pressing. As little girls, we often dreamed of what we would become as we grew up. Would we be well educated? Would we run the fashion industry, or fly to the moon? As we got older, we took on more "realistic" dreams: mother; wife; professional; boss. Maybe we dreamed of running a marathon, or owning commercial real estate. Perhaps we simply dreamed of owning a small B&B in a quiet surfing town on the Australian coast, rising each morning to do what we love. These dreams are beautiful. They are our dreams, after all, and they are what keeps us getting up each morning to move through the necessary paces of life. Unfortunately, as we take on more roles and pursue the completion of other obligations, we tend to push aside these dreams. We lose sight of that little girl with a twinkle in her eye imaging the bright future ahead of her, holding ourselves back from pursuing our dreams with excuses. "How would I even get there?" you ask. Well, what if I told you there is a way.
Close your eyes for a moment. Take one deep breathe in, and slowly let it out. Now listening to your breathing, I want you to picture what your life would be like if you there weren't any obstacles holding you back. Where would you be? Who would be with you? What would you feel? When I close my eyes, I see the ocean and white sand beaches. I see a white wooden house with a wrap-around deck. I see a blue and red "Surf shop" sign, and my family playing in the sand. This is my dream. What's yours?
What if I told you that with the right planning, you could have your dream? I know I can have my dream, and I'm already well on my way there! How? By following a few simple steps, you can set a path for yourself that will help keep you motivated and moving forward towards your dreams! How? By creating a ten year plan (print out worksheet here)
We start with your personal values. Can you name five words that describe the most important values in your life? Mine are: Love - I love to be loved, and am passionate about those that I love; Family - my family is my reason for everything I do, and will always put them first; Education - I am a life long learner; Travel - the moment I stop travelling is the moment my heart ceases to beat; Health - my body was built to move and be healthy, without my health I am unable to fulfil my dreams. Once you have identified your five personal values, look back on that dream of yours. Does it align with your values? Why or why not? These are questions to ask yourself, to dig deeper and find what dreams truly inspire you. When setting goals, they shouldn't be made because they are just "the responsible thing to do;" but rather that they invigorate you. Your goals should scare you (a little) to see them through, but scare you more NOT to see them through. That is the beauty of building a goal: to push yourself towards change.
Now, here is the fun part: look at your dream life and your values. With these in mind, where do you want to be in ten years time? Great, now lets make that a 10 year goal! We take a dream and make it a goal by making it specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based. SMART
Specific - how will you achieve your goal?
Measurable - how will you know when you have achieved your goal?
Attainable - is it realistically possible, with your current financial situation/lifestyle to attain this goal? Will you have to make changes?
Realistic - is it within the boundaries of known physics? Do you have the support system you need? Are required resources available to you?
Time-based - give yourself a deadline!
Keeping to this structure as you write down your goals forces you to think through how you will achieve your goal. Set your goals, in writing, on the 6-10 year line in your charts and look at them. Do they make you happy? Do they excite you? Good, because they should! Now, let's work backwards: what do you have to do in the next 1-5 years to get yourself on that path? What do you need to accomplish within the next year? By setting these time-sensitive goals you are creating the "yellow-brick-road" for you to follow towards your dreams.
January 1, 2015 my husband and I sat down to review our goals (as we do every New Year.) We sat there, and realised that in order for us to continue working towards our dream life, we needed to pay of a lot of personal debt. With that, we set about a plan and made monthly payment goals until we had paid down $17,000 of debt in six-months time! Yes, it did take some sacrificing. No, it wasn't easy. But I can assure you that we would not have been able to accomplish this goal, especially with me as a SAHM, without a strong plan and a very exciting goal. This is the power of goal setting!
Setting your goals and writing them down gives you something stronger than a dream to work towards. This is why you write them down. Now, I encourage you to take these written goals and make them public. Post them on your fridge as a daily reminder of where you are heading! Share them with your partner or a good friend, as I assure you they will be more than happy to cheer you on! Make yourself accountable, not only to this paper, but to your word. This will keep you moving forward.
As busy women, we should still allow ourselves to dream. Living a life without following your heart is living a life with regrets: don't live with regrets! Working towards your own personal goals is working on yourself. Working on yourself will make you feel more fulfilled and happy. That happiness will no only affect your life, but will spill over in to the many lives you touch. This is why I encourage you to work on yourself. Work on yourself first, on your personal happiness, and the happiness of those around you will follow. So please, don't stop dreaming. Don't let go of that little girl from so long ago. And don't ever push aside your own personal obligations because you deem something as more pressing. To quote the impressive Maria Michelle: you are more than enough, today; tomorrow; and every day there after.