The Power of Planning: Reaching Your Goals with Courageous Action

 Hey, great to be with all of you bravehearted sisters once again. I got some great stuff for you today. Hope you're doing well!

Do you know that hope is not a strategy? So, always have a plan for growth for always going forward taking steps of courageous action You know, we're about all that kind of stuff. In fact, that's what I really want to talk to you about today is how to create a plan so that you can reach your goals.

Now we used to say this, those who fail to plan, plan to fail. So you don't want a plan to fail, you want a plan that works, that's going to get you where you believe God is calling you and where you want to go, where you deserve to go. You've circled the mountain long enough, you've been in confusion long enough, and this is the season for your breakthrough. This is your season for great things, ‘cause you got seeds of greatness. So, we're going to make a plan because, as I said a minute ago, hope is not a strategy. You can hope for a better future, you can hope for more money. You can hope for a dream job. You can hope for a lot of things.

Hope is not a strategy. You have to have a real plan and a lot of people get afraid of that. They don't like the structure. They don't like the sense of feeling that routine in their life. But I want to tell you something, routine and discipline will take you a lot further down the road than desire and a whim and motivation when it shows up. I don't always feel motivated to do a lot of things, but because I have a vision and a plan to reach my goals, I keep on going, even on days when I don't feel like it because what happens is once I get going, motivation comes. And then I get laser focused and I really enjoy digging in and doing the hard things.

So, let's talk about this here today. Many people set goals. Fabulous. That's wonderful. That's a great start, but less than 3% ever look at their goals again. They tuck them away somewhere safe. You know, not a lot of people know how to set goals correctly either, and they don't know how to actually get traction toward their destiny or towards the desired outcome that they're believing for. They don't know how to develop a plan to achieve them. So let me just give you a few steps and how to do this.

First of all, don't get afraid because creating a plan is not difficult. It's easy. You don't need to see the whole big picture before you can take the next right step. It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” So, when you see the next step, then you can just take it. It's a baby step. You're going to hear that a lot in this podcast because it's going to be all about just taking those baby steps. So that's the first thing, to create a plan. First of all, just kind of look at where you are right now. Where do you currently reside emotionally, spiritually, physically, intellectually, and financially? Where are you? And then identify where it is that you want to go or where you want to be, and you're going to notice that there's a gap there. And let's say the gap has 10 stepping stones. We're not going to worry about all 10 of the stepping stones between where you are and where you want to be. We're just going to look at the next step, just one stepping stone. So what do I need to do to just reach this one stone?

For example, let's say that one of your goals is that you want to travel. You want to go someplace. Yes, I do too. Traveling is an amazing opportunity. It really changes you by the way. It really enlarges your perspective on the world. But let's say that's what you want to do. So in that case, you're going to consider all the options, like where do I want to go? First of all, where's my goal? How much money does it take to get there? How much money do I need to save? And then let's just say, what do I have to do to earn a little extra money? Or what do I have to give up? Maybe a coffee, a latte. Maybe a latte coffee, whatever it is that I'm going to put that aside for how many months and you just make a plan like that. It's easy and then you just baby step it. How much can I afford to put away while still meeting my other obligations, still living my life, and being willing to surrender some of the things that I want right now at the moment to have something that I really want in my future? Or maybe you want to achieve a certain level in your career and you realize that there's some experience that you're going to have to acquire first. So how can you gain that experience? Don't look at the whole big thing, all of the stepping stones. We're gonna look at one. What are some small things that you can do? What do you need to upgrade your education? What do you need to do? What kind of classes do you need to take? Or who do you know that can help you and put in a good word for you or be a resource to you?

So whatever your dreams and your goals are, remember that in every case, whatever they are, you're going to focus on, first of all, taking small steps. The first small steps will lead you forward because baby steps incrementally taken will lead you forward. We call it the slight edge and you've probably heard me talk about that before. So what is it that you need to do? And any kind of goal that you have now, once you say that's the next thing that I have to do. Now we're going to break that small goal down even more. That's right. We're going to create micro steps, baby, baby steps.

For example, by the way, the objective is to discover the smallest micro step that you can take every day or weekly that continues to move the needle bringing you to the next step, the stepping stone. We're not trying to make quantum leaps here. Quantum leaps seldom work. People who want to just take huge leaps into the future usually end up discouraged, dismayed, and disgruntled because it didn't work the way they thought. It was harder than they thought. They ended up in failure. They're afraid to try again.

But let's say for example, that your goal is that you want to have a body like Joan MacDonald. Now, if you don't know who Joan McDonald is, you need to check out training with Joan. Oh my goodness. She's 70 plus. That's one of my goals. She's got abs and she is ripped. She's got biceps and her muscles. She's a strong woman. I love it, but you don't need to dole out hundreds of dollars to go get a membership at the gym. That, you know what, you're not ready for it anyway, you're not gonna do it, you'll show up three or four days and then you'll be done with the whole thing. Because you bit off more than you can chew. You took a quantum leap and you ended up feeling like a failure and crashing and burning. So, we're not doing that. Remember, we're starting small and then we're taking our small goal and we're making it even smaller yet. So, I want to have a body like Joan's, so rather than say I'm going to go on a full-blown diet, I'm going to exercise four times a week, I'm not doing all that, you're not doing all that, what we would maybe do, we can do ten squats a day. I've talked to you about it before, bundle it with something else you're doing. Very often, I squat while I'm brushing my teeth. Because I know that it's connected to my brain and I created kind of a pathway there and what wires together fires together. So I've wired it in my brain unknowingly to me when I grab a toothbrush, like I just want to start squatting, you know? It's amazing. It's awesome. You need to try it, but we're just gonna do 10 squats a day. Or we're gonna just reduce our calorie intake by 200 squats We're just gonna reduce our intake calories by 200 calories a day. So maybe that's the goal, but eventually, you can move up. Eventually, yes. I want a training plan and I want a diet that works well for me and you commit to it flawlessly and the best that you can, and you keep moving forward every single day. But if you get these small micro-wins, your self-esteem will be boosted. You'll feel better about it, and you'll be surprised about what you actually can accomplish, and what you really can get done. That's super important, because better to feel really powerful, empowered, and proud of yourself for doing a small thing than to get out there and try something really big.

If your goal is to write a novel. Then you say, I want to write a chapter a month. Okay. That's the small goal which is great. What am I gonna do every week? What am I gonna do every day? Maybe every day what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna open up my computer, I'm gonna sit at the keyboard, and for a week, I'm just gonna type 50 words. Maybe that's my baby, baby, baby goal, and I start to get an idea in my brain that starts wiring when I open my computer. I wake up in the morning. I get some coffee. I open my computer. I sit and I write 50 words, and I make it part of my morning routine, and pretty soon you've written a paragraph. And then you up the ante a little bit. Now you've written a couple of paragraphs. Now you've written a chapter. If you can write a sentence, you can write a paragraph. If you can write a paragraph, you can write a chapter. You write a chapter, you can write a book.

By the way, I'm going to put this commercial in here right now. Make sure you avail yourself of my new course, it's done with you. I'm going to be walking you through how to get your story out of your head and in print. And to overcome the anxiety around telling your story, I will be coming from the angle of trauma-informed writing so that we're not victimizing anyone, not victimizing ourselves, and re-traumatizing ourselves. If you feel called to write, I really want you to be a part of that. But we're going to start with baby steps.

Now, the key target here is that I want you to imagine reaching your goal. Let that motivate you through the tough times. What will it feel like when you reach that goal? How will you wake up in the morning? How will you spend your money? How will you feel? What will it mean for you? How will your family change? How will you change? Make sure that you take time to think about those things when the days get rough so that you will keep on going. You have to connect to your why and that'll be the next thing. You're going to make small goals, you're going to make them even smaller yet, and then I do want you to cut out the pictures that represent what you're believing for. You gotta have those visuals. You have to imagine what it will be like when you reach that goal. So just remember that the road for you to ride upon to reach your goal. So, no matter how small the step is, that is all that matters. That is how you begin.

So, I'll just give you this quick formula. The overarching thing is your big dream and vision. Your BHAG, right? Your big, hairy, audacious goal. So, we got the big goal. Then we're going to break it down even more, and it's going to be our small goal, stepping stone goals, the small things that I need to do to reach the big goal. Then we're going to break it down even more and we're going to have daily micro-target goals. So these little goals helped me reach the first goal. When I reached that, I'd go to the next one. And that is how we build a plan.

Now, you also want to make sure that you have to change your thinking along the way. We start eliminating the words, I can't it's too hard and I'm not good enough. I also want you to remember that your goal is if you do something every day, you're so much more likely to accomplish what you're wanting. Because if you just have a goal out there with no plan to reach it, you will disconnect from your goal. You won't be passionate about it. You won't stick to it. It's way too easy to get lazy, to take shortcuts, to forget about it. And before you know it, you've skipped the workout. You haven't written because you don't have time to write a whole chapter. If that was your goal, it was too big. If you can't do a little bit every day, then your goals are not small enough.

So I'm going to give you three things real quick to help you stick to your path and consider these pointers for a moment. Number one, keep your daily targets easy to accomplish. I've already said that in many ways. Introduce them slowly. Don't be in a rush to get somewhere. It's better that you just start off, that you enjoy it, and you're having fun than getting burnt out too fast and quitting. Two, do keep track of the days you succeed. That's important and maybe the days that you didn't. And see if you can tell why. Jerry Seinfeld uses this technique and he calls it the chain. Every day he does what he sets out to do he puts a big check or a big cross on his calendar. And that's very rewarding and very addictive to see those big red marks on the calendar of Yes I did it but when he breaks the chain. That discouragement right there helps him build the desire not to break the chain. So do give yourself the gold stars, the check marks. Do it. It works. Alright, and three, use the most practical and proven methods to get where you want to be. Believe in your plan. Don't reinvent the wheel. Ask people who are already where you want to go, how did you get there? What are the three most important things that I could do to get that counsel, get that advice, and then be willing?

Remember, work out your plan, and don't get disheartened really, if you do miss a day, don't get this, don't beat up on yourself. No shaming here, no judgment here. But do find a way to motivate yourself to get back into the routine. ‘Cause I really believe, oh my goodness. So many of us are really quite discouraged right now. A lot of the women that I talked to and minister talk about how they lost their momentum and they're stuck and they're out of routine and they can't find a way to dive back in. So this is my way of helping you. Get back into the flow. Get a plan, take those baby steps, do something every day, and watch what you can do. Because you know what? Most of us overestimate what we can do in a short amount of time. But we way underestimate what we can do with baby steps over a lengthier period of time. So make a plan, plan your work. Work your plan and I'll see you at the top. I don't remember who that was that used to say that, maybe it was Zig Ziglar. But in any event, that's a good saying.

So that's what I have for you today. I have a free download that I want to give you. If you need to boost your confidence and soar with self-esteem, I have a free e-book that I want to give you - Ignite Your Confidence & Soar with Self Esteem. You can click the link right below. Also, take advantage of all the resources that you'll see on that page by going to braveheartedwoman.com/resources and you will see a bunch of stuff just for you.

Don't forget, if you want to be part of that writing class/ masterclass, I am going to ask you to fill out an application here. It's not for everybody. There has to be some level thereof readiness, but if that's you, I look forward to connecting with you.

Alright, that's what I have. I'm going to leave you like I always do, bravehearted woman, this is your moment to find your brave and live your dreams!