The simplified process to achieving your dreams

I had lunch with a friend last week, and she asked me about the process it took for me on this journey to my dreams. And while there is a lot to the process, I wanted to share the basics, because the truth is, achieving your dreams is a LOT easier than you think.

WHAT??

It's easy?

Believe it or not, your dreams are often closer than they appear. 

When we decided to embark on the dream house process, almost a year ago, I told my husband I thought it would take 2-3 years. He wanted to shorten the time, and I was like, okay, go for it. We still thought we'd be about a year out. But then, as I started researching the possibilities, the spark of what we could do kept coming alive, and before we knew it, we were living in our dream house. What started as a "maybe we can do it in 2-3 years" only took six months! Here is what it took:

Step one: Dream
That sounds really basic, but a lot of people are afraid to take a look at what they want in life, because they're afraid they won't get it. They're afraid they might be dreaming too big. Here's the crazy thing: oftentimes, what seems like a HUGE dream is completely do-able, if you're willing to make the effort.

Step two: Research the Dream
Now this also sounds basic, but it's amazing to me to see how many "impossible" dreams were actually possible with little to no effort. For example, last year, we went on our dream vacation to England. We'd wanted to go for years, but thought there was no way we could do it. When we were planning a trip, we had a few locations in mind, and for curiosity's sake, I looked up how much flights to England were. Whoa!! Yes, it was expensive, but as I looked at our budget and what we wanted to do, I realized that it cost almost the same as another trip we'd been looking at. What seemed to be impossible actually was closer than I thought.

Step three: Focus on the Dream
How often do you focus on your dreams? I have a dream notebook I look at every day, reminding me of my dream, and allowing me to clarify what I want out of life. In that notebook, I have several letters to myself, where I talk about my vision, written in the future tense, expressing gratitude for having reached those goals. I read those letters to myself every day, not only reminding myself of the dream itself, but also of the why.

Here is a video I did today on Periscope showing my dream notebook.



Step four: Plan the Dream
You've researched, you've focused, but you also need to come up with a plan. For example, how much does your dream cost? Have you broken down how much extra money you'd need to make that dream come true? Have you created a plan for how you'll come up with that money? What if all you needed was an extra $50 per month? Or just one hour per week? I'm always amazed at how, when you break down the dream, and start making a plan, how much more do-able it is.

Step five: Move in the direction of the Dream
Sometimes the cost of the dream is more than anything you can see. My ultimate dream, when it comes to my writing retreat, is that I would have a retreat center in the mountains, where people could come and be refreshed. I figure that building the retreat center I want is going to cost at least a million dollars. Sounds pretty hard, right? But I am starting small, and I'm hosting a retreat at a hotel as a first step. Then I'll host more retreats, and find even cooler places to go. And with each step, I'm building a foundation to create a retreat center that it going to nourish so many people. Yes, it's going to be work. And no, it won't happen tomorrow. But it's going to happen, and it's going to be wonderful. Even though it's still a long way off, it's a lot closer than it was when I sat around, talking about how cool it would be with no real movement in that direction.

What's your dream? Have you thought about how you're going to reach it?

Good intentions gone wrong, and it's okay!

Happy August! In case you're comparing dates between posts, then yes, it HAS been a long time since I've posted, and that's okay! In fact, "it's okay," is the theme of today's blog, and I write mostly to comfort those of you in the same position I'm in. You had a lot of really good intentions, they didn't pan out, and now you're looking at where you'd hoped to be wondering how you got so far off track.

If you don't follow me on social media, let me catch you up. What? You don't follow me on social media? Please, rectify the situation as soon as possible.

Here are a few happy places to find me:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/danicafavorite
Instagram: https://instagram.com/danicafavorite/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanicaFavoriteAuthor

  

Oh wait, I just got sidetracked! And that, my friends, is exactly what 2015 has held for me. Sort of. You see, a year ago, I had the grandiose idea that since we've always dreamed of living in the mountains, we should start taking the steps to living that dream. I had plans for 2015, and none of them involved selling our house, buying a fixer upper in the mountains, moving, and living in an incredibly beautiful space in a tiny house! That, my friends, was supposed to happen in 2016 or 2017. Now, before you think I am complaining, let me assure you that I am incredibly happy with our situation. But so many of my other plans, they did not happen, and that's okay!

I had a lot of really great intentions with this move, and prior to the move, and they all kind of went by the wayside. To be honest, I've really been beating myself up over my failure to do EVERYTHING I'd planned. I thought about giving you a list, but then I realized it would only serve to bring up my stress meter. What I realized is that be thinking about everything I didn't do, I was paralyzing myself from doing all the things I can do, right now!

And that's the relevant point today. I think we all go through seasons of paralysis because we realized that we bit off more than we can chew, and we have no idea how to get back to normal. I watched my plate get bigger and bigger, and kept wondering how I was going to eat it all. But here's the great thing about your plate of life. It's YOUR plate. You get to decide what's on it, and if you put too much on it, you can empty it off. In my case, I decided that the date of January 1, 2015 is a completely arbitrary (although somewhat convenient) way of determining what will and won't happen in our lives. So I hit the reset button. And now, I'm saying that all the things I intended to do, it's okay that I didn't do *cough* many of them.

But here's what happens AFTER you hit the reset button. You sit down and think about your priorities. Moving forward, what do you want to do? It doesn't matter what you didn't accomplish. What matters is, looking at tomorrow, what can you accomplish?

So here I am, blogging about stuff I didn't intend to blog about, because it was never on the plan. But you know, it's okay. My plan changed this year. And I lovingly accept that in myself. I hope, that whatever plan you got off track from, that you can lovingly say, "it's okay." Because it is.

I did a piece in my art journal today, and I started with one intention, but it became something else. Interesting, since that seems to be the theme of my life. The funny thing is, I love what I did in my art journal far more than what I'd originally planned. Sometimes, letting go and accepting where life takes you instead of drowning in disappointment can bring you to a beautiful place.

How have you dealt with being sidetracked in life? Is there one thing you can do right now to get back on track?