Hey, hey, hey, my friends. It is fall in Michigan and I’ve got my cozy clothes on and my pumpkin spice latte and I’m living my dream life, mh-hmm. And so, today I wanna help you take one step closer to yours. We are gonna talk about how to take your dream and actually create an action plan you can stick with. Let’s go!

Hey you guys, my name is Denise Walsh, I’m a transformational trainer. I was a clinical psychologist turned business coach and I’ve spent the last 20 years helping people design a life that they love. But here is what I know, so many times people tell me they want something. They wanna get out of debt, they want to lose weight, they want to be healthier, they want to be more self-disciplined, they want to learn a new skill, they want better relationships. And then a year later nothing has changed. Do you guys know those people too? Well, typically when that has happened, there is not this head-heart-feet connection. Maybe they want something but they don’t quite believe it and they certainly haven’t taken action on it.

So, today we’re gonna help you connect your head, your heart, and your feet so actually get done the things you want to get done. First of all, you gotta know what you want, right? You gotta set your internal GPS by deciding on a specific goal. So you take your dreams, these big lofty ideas, these things that you want and you make it a single sentence with one clear focus. Here’s what I know, you can live a dream ten life in all areas of life, but you cannot work on them at the same time. We’ve gotta have a clear focus, so one goal, this becomes your dream life goal.

What are you gonna focus on right now? Maybe it’s your health. If it is, you would say, I weigh 150 pounds in six months with a date, instead of saying I wanna lose 50 pounds you would say what it is you want. You could also say maybe it’s your business, I wanna earn $ 2,000 extra a month with my side hustle within the next three months. You know you are specific and detailed in your goal setting. What this does is this sets your internal GPS. You are telling your body where you want to go. This makes your mind clear, this helps you to set your priorities when you take action and – and put things in your calendar.

So when we’re setting these goals we’re using what we call the smarter goal process. S stands for specific, clear and measurable, there’s a clear outcome. M is for measurable. I know if you are yes or no you are not 150 pounds in six months or yes or no you are making $ 2,000 a month in your side business within the next 30 or 60 or 90 days. Yes, I can tell, I know for a fact because it’s a outcome, it’s measurable I can see it right? So, S is for specific, M is for measurable, A is for attainable, meaning you actually can do it. For example, if you were to say I’m gonna um, maybe you need to lose 150 pounds and you gave yourself six months, that might not be attainable given the parameters, right? So we gotta know, is this actually attainable. Realistic for R means, do you believe that it can happen? That’s where it goes from your head to your heart. Yes, this is what I want and yes I believe that this is something that’s reasonable for me.

If your goal makes you go, “yeah right, I doubt it”, then maybe change your goal because you wanna actually believe that it can happen. So we’ve got S-M-A-R-T is time-bound. Time-bound means that there’s an end date to it – there’s an end date to it. You have a goal and there is a specific spot on your calendar where you will see, yes I did or did not hit this goal. E-R stands for evaluated and reviewed, meaning the process can be flexible. You set your goal every few weeks, you assess and identify, you evaluate and review if the process is working and you can switch things up and be flexible. R also can stand for reward.

At the end when you have hit your goal you celebrate, not with food, uh, maybe a cheap meal if that’s your preference, but typically we want to celebrate with relationship and we celebrate with something fun and keep the celebrations out of the food realm ’cause Americans celebrate with food all the time and we don’t need to, say no. Okay, so smarter goals, you are going to create a goal that’s smarter, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound and you’re gonna evaluate it and reward yourself. Then, that’s a priority, now this goal gets a spot on the calendar. You’ve created a dream life goal and it now gets a spot on your calendar.

So you have to take a look at your calendar and figure out when you can put actions that meet – that will take you on this journey for your dream life goal to see success in your calendar. Now my guess is, is that you have other things going on; you’re working a full-time job, you’re a mom, a – a dad, you’ve got lots of stuff happening. So your dream life goal may be in some nooks and crannies in your day but it’s there. I can tell you I never wake up and think “I will work out if I have time”. No, it’s in my calendar. The things that you are – that you put in your calendar are the things that you know are important to you.

So, you have identified your dream life goal, you now need to decide exactly what needs to happen for this dream life goal to come to fruition and then you put it as a priority in your calendar. My favorite tip for time management is to reverse engineer your goal. Maybe it’s a three-month goal, maybe it’s a six-month goal. Well, what do you need each month, each week, each day, to do to take you in that direction? You guys, it’s not about the big huge steps of reaching our goal. It’s about the small steps every single day that take you in a direction you desire. And we know once we hit that goal we get to celebrate, we get to pat ourselves on the back but there is no finish line, you are going to continue to set a new goal so you can continue to grow and get better in a different area of your life. So I would love to hear from you, post in the comments below what your current dream life goal is.

After you have gone through this smarter process, take in your dreams and honed it down into one thing that you can focus on for the next three to six months so you can start taking directions on a specific and clear measurable dream life goal. Post it in the comments, be sure to subscribe, hit the notification box ’cause I’ll see you next week. Have an awesome day.