(5 minute read)

Don’t call it a dream. Call it a plan.

We recently talked about how you need to “Just do it” when it comes to going after your goals and what you seek in life.

And previously we talked about how doing “Just one thing” each day will simply help you to actually reach your goals and what you seek in life.

Today we will talk about the importance of turning your dreams into a plan and how simple it is to break it down and achieve success.

I call it Reaching Your Goals: One Step at a Time.

Imagine standing in a spot, and as you look ahead, say about ten feet or so, there is something you want to get. Maybe it’s that bottle of your favorite, craft beer, a slice of fresh pizza, a juicy, erotic novel, or simply the remote control to your television…

If you try to take just one, giant leap, that full ten feet away, super athletes notwithstanding, you’re not going to be able to reach your desired item, and, you’ll probably land flat on your face some five feet short of that slice of pizza.

So, what do you do?

Well, for some of you, if you’re lazy enough, you’ll just forget about what you want, “It’s too much trouble,” you’ll say, and not even bother going to get it.

For the rest of you, hopefully at some point, you’ll just say “screw it” and walk over to the remote control and pick it up, maybe even grab the beer, the pizza, and the erotic novel while you’re there, but when you walk over to get all that stuff, it will be one step at a time.

Why?

Because it’s a lot easier to get somewhere when you take one step at a time then it is to take one giant leap.

Well, guess what?

Goals are no different.

Sometimes you have a great or grandiose goal, but it’s kind of far away and hard to see, too far to make that single, giant leap, so you just tell yourself it’s too much trouble and you decide not to go after it.

Uh, no!

That’s the easy way out and if you take that course of action, which is no action at all, you’ll never reach your goals.

Remember, a goal usually starts out as a dream, something you fantasize about doing or wanting, but if you don’t turn that dream into a plan, a blueprint of how to get there, your dreams won’t manifest into goals, and your goals won’t become realities.

If your goal is to write the next great manuscript, say 300 pages worth, or gaining 300 great prospects for your business, the thought of writing 300 pages or obtaining 300 great prospects can be a bit overwhelming, so let’s break it down into ten steps…

Let’s make the first full completed draft of 300 pages, or gaining 300 prospects, step #10, the final step to achieving your goal.

Now, let’s make step #5, the middle point, to have written 150 pages or gained 150 prospects…

Step #1 -- after dividing that 300 number by ten will give you a starting step of only 30 pages or prospects.

Writing thirty pages, or obtaining 30 prospects, is much more attainable than being overwhelmed at the thought of writing 300 pages, or obtaining 300 prospects…

And as you move through each step, after completing 60 pages or obtaining 60 prospects for step

#2 -- 90 pages or prospects after step #3, and so on and so forth, you will feel quite accomplished and proud of your progress.

Now, after you reach the middle point of 150 pages or prospects, imagine you are standing on a straight line that has ten intersecting lines going through the main line, equal space apart, indicating the ten steps…

You’re standing at the middle point (step #5), you turn behind and look back at where you began (step #1), and then you turn and look forward at where you want to reach (step #10), it’s the same distance, and so you might as well just keep going forward…

You’ll WANT to keep going forward!

When you first started, that initial site of standing at step #1 and looking way out at step #10, it seemed so far away, but not anymore…

It’s because you didn’t try to make one giant leap to go from step #1 to step #10.

You went one step at a time, so going from step #1 to step #2 wasn’t so bad…

Then going from step #2 to step #3 was even less bad…

Then going from step #3 to step #4 you got rolling and it was actually somewhat easy and kind of fun and you felt great when you went from step #4 to step #5 and reached the halfway point of your goal.

You can see step #10 so much clearer now.

You got this!

Let’s take this a step further by being more specific with your plan, and giving yourself an attainable timeline that you absolutely will hold yourself accountable to, no matter what.

For this example of writing a 300 page manuscript or obtaining 300 great prospects for your business, we broke it down into each of the ten steps equaled 30 pages or prospects, but we never placed a timeline on WHEN you would get those thirty pages done or obtain those 30 prospects.

Placing a timeline on your goals forces you to be much more accountable to yourself in completing the steps, especially if you share your steps and timeline with someone else.

That timeline is something only you as individual can make, but as long as you’re honest with yourself, choose a timeline that works for your individual situation.

We need to establish a timeline for these 30 pages or prospects to be completed or obtained.

How about one month?

If we agree that there are fifty available weeks in a year, as we already talked about the importance of taking two weeks off, then fifty weeks in a year breaks down to just over four weeks a month, so we’ll round down to four weeks in a month…

And of those four weeks each month, make yourself available five days a week.

Let’s take those five days and times it by those four weeks, and we have twenty days. Those twenty days will now be your new 20-step plan.

If you divide those 30 pages or prospects into four weeks, you will need to complete or obtain 7 ½ pages or prospects a week.

If you break down 7 ½ pages or prospects into five days in a week that comes out to just 1 ½ pages or prospects a day.

Wow!

Just one and half pages or prospects a day.

That 1 ½ pages or prospects a day times twenty days (your 20-step plan) comes out to your goal of completing thirty pages, or obtaining 30 great prospects, in one month’s time.

That’s not too much at all to turn to take your dream, turn it into a goal, and then make it a reality.

And if you noticed, by completing this 20-step plan, you also just completed step #1 of the above 10-step plan to actually complete your ultimate goal of completing that 300 page manuscript or obtaining those 300 great prospects for your business.

And remember, it doesn’t have to be a 10-step plan or a 20-step plan. It can be a 5-step plan, an 8-step plan, whatever, as some situations will require more or less planning.

Just make the steps realistic and attainable because when you constantly reach each step, you will be excited about accomplishing and reaching that step, which in turn will give you the confidence, enthusiasm, and desire to keep going, then before you know it…

The final step is just ONE step away!

Have ACTIVE faith in your desires and believe in yourself.

Be confident in your abilities.

Be humble enough to always want to grow and improve.

YOU WILL SUCCEED!

Your partner in success,
Claudio Capra II
CEO, Jasper Dynamic, LLC