Time. We all wish we had more of it but we all know we could do a better job at using the time we have. Anybody else with me on that one?! On Monday, I gave a huge announcement in my Million Dollar Monday Show about a BIG dream I’ve had for many years that is finally starting to take shape.
If you missed the episode, take a look at it here!
I announced that I’m writing a book and even just the fact that I am finally doing what I’ve always dreamed of doing makes me cry (literally, I cried on the show). When it came down to it, I had to decide that I was going to make time for this big dream of mine. Slowly, I’m getting it done and I can’t wait to share it with you when it’s finally finished!
I’m writing this post today to talk about the ways that you can start setting aside time for your big goals too! In my Feel Like a Million Facebook group, we’ll be discussing this blog post topic on a member’s only call at 2 pm ADT today (May 20). If you want to join that call, sign up to be a member for free here!
Step 1: Write out your Goal. Seems obvious, but it doesn’t happen often! Thinking about your goal and actually, physically writing it down are two different things. Writing it down solidifies it in your mind and helps you to really see what you want. It’s staring back at you from that piece of paper! You just made it real. Write it down and then see if you need to specify your goal at all, or make it more clear. Do that if necessary.
Step 2: Ask yourself; “What can I do for 20 minutes every day to work on this goal?” Come up with something really small and easy that you can commit to doing for just 20 minutes each day. If that means writing for 20 minutes, or messaging prospects, or whatever you need to do to get from point A to point B, commit to doing it for at least 20 minutes a day. No excuses.
Step 3: Look at your schedule and block out those 20 minutes. We all know that there are 20 free minutes somewhere in the day. We easily waste at least that much time scrolling on our phones! If you want to spend at least 20 minutes working towards your goals, you need to set aside that time in your schedule. Look at your schedule and find a time in the day that you know you can call your special goal-time. Write it in, block it off, do whatever you need to do to make sure that time doesn’t get taken over by other things. If you know you could spend more than 20 minutes, time-block a higher amount instead!
Step 4: Start at 20 minutes but don’t stop there. You may find even 20 minutes a day is difficult to fit into your schedule. The key to this is consistency and if you can only manage 10 minutes at a time, stick with 10 minutes at a time. Going too big, too fast will result in burnout and you’ll give up entirely. Be happy with where you start. After a while, you can consider slowly increasing the amount of time or frequency that you work on this project (yes, your dreams are projects!) You can go from 20 minutes a day to 25 minutes, then 30 minutes etc. Whatever you can manage, you can keep increasing the amount of time by blocking it off in your calendar and sticking to that plan. Some days you might find that you need to scale it down a bit and other days you might be able to spend a whole lot more time on it. Do what you can.
Step 5: Don’t give up. It’s easy to lose momentum or to feel discouraged when you only see results slowly. These big dreams are longterm goals so it’s okay that they move slowly. Doing a little bit each day will help you to keep this as a habit in your life, even if you do feel discouraged. Don’t give up and keep showing up each day and you will see the results start to happen.
This is a very simple way to set aside time for those dreams you’ve always had in the back of your mind that might not always get your time or attention. We all have cool ideas that we would love to see one day and instead of waiting until a better time in your life to work on them, start now by setting aside a small amount of time each day. There is no better time than the present to get started!
Connect the Dots
Follow these steps as you think about a goal or dream you’ve always had. What are the things you need to do to get there? Do you need to get funding to start a business? Do you need to take a course? Do you need to talk to a mentor?
We all will start at different places but the foundation is the same: if you don’t make time for your dream, it can’t happen. Setting aside the small chunks of time is a start to getting your goals going.
If you enjoyed this blog post, consider joining the Feel Like a Million Facebook group where we’ll be going on a live call together today, May 20 at 2 pm (ADT) to discuss this topic! I’d love to see you in my community.