Dreamer

Hello Dreamers, and good morning!

As you are sipping your coffee, I decided to give you all the resources you need for an amazing year.

We all know the resolutions, and we all know most of them fail. However, at midnight in the New Year, each of us made some wishes, set some goals, or decided on some things we wanted to do this year.

And it’s perfectly normal. However, I’m here to make sure you are a step closer to achieving those little dreams of yours, and not to end up quitting by Sunday!

Let me assure you I don’t have a superpower or a magical formula. I have experience (AND A FORMULA BUT, IT’S NOT MAGICAL, OR MAYBE IT IS?). I have big dreams, and I work towards them, however, when I put myself in second place, I lose. Why? Because I don’t spend enough time with myself.

So, I got every piece of information from every setback I had and, here they are!

DISCLAIMER: ANY EXAMPLE SERVES JUST AS AN EXAMPLE, NOT AN EXACT ATTITUDE, THINKING, PLAN, SUGGESTION, OR ANYTHING.

Firstly, no matter what, be clear on your “why?”! Why do I want a nice car, why do I want a boyfriend, why do I want more money? You might have as answers: to feel important, to show the world that I’m the best so I can feel the best, to feel loved and appreciated, so I don’t receive any more questions from my family, and I feel peace, so I can help and validate my need to be a good girl, so, I can have the freedom, etc. But I think you’ve seen where I’m going; You need to set your “Why” in order to have a clear END goal. Also, establishing an emotion can help you attract it even easier because you can put Yourself in the spot of feeling it sooner, so you’ll be more determined to do the work.

Second, work SMART, not hard. And by that, what I mean is to take care how you phrase your goals. When you say you want to make more money, you don’t know how much money you want (need) and when to stop, and it will always look so far away and intangible. However, when you say I want to make an extra 10 K by the end of the year, some things start moving.

Your brain automatically will divide 10k by 12 months and 52 weeks, and you’ll see that you need to make an extra 834/ month and 193/week. Let’s say 850/ month and 200/ week. And when you see you need 200/ week, you’ll understand that you only need an extra 30/ day for the year. And my math was by approximation, so, best case you earn a little over 10k. So, technically you should sell one thing for 30 every day for the year. Say 50 so you can add tax, and what do we have for 50? Sunglasses, power banks, a blanket, a phone case, earbuds, wine, a gift set, a charcuterie board, coasters, furniture, clothes, flowers, food, LED lights, and art. And this is what I’ve got with a quick search.

I know, the reality is much more harder. You can’t sell daily. You might not want to sell. You might want something different. Maybe tutoring. 50/ hour? Can you find 365 students? You might want to write on your blog. Can you get traffic so you’ll have 50 revenue through ads?

Many questions, I know. But these questions make your brain spin and find more answers than I need more money, how can I make them? If you train a pigeon to bring you money, and it brings you everyday let’s say 1 dollar, it will be 365 by the end of the year. Technically more money, but I’m pretty sure it’s not enough to cover your dreams.

This is why I encourage you to work SMART, more exactly using SMART Goals.

What are smart goals? Well, these goals are written in a way so they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

If we take our example: I want to make 10k extra by the end of the year.
It is specific? Yeah: You want to make money!
It is measurable? Yea! How much? 10k.
Is it achievable? Well, I need to sell something for 365 for 50. Or 183 for 100, or 92 for 200, Or 46 times for 400, or 23 for 800. Or go the other way around and sell 730 times for 25. Depending on your skills you have options, and to me, it’s achievable for many.
It is relevant? If you have your why, it is. Because you know you want an extra 10k to feel cool, to feel needed, helping, or whatever.
It is time-bound? Yeah. It is until the end of the year so 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days.

If you are still confused, don’t hesitate to check my first blog of the year where I wrote my goals, the Smart Way so you can have many examples.

After writing your SMART goals, it’s time to take action towards them. And the first action is to start planning.

I love to start my planning firstly by writing down everything that’s a must, outside my goals, like family errands, weddings, work events, etc. Everything I know.

Afterward, I take each of my goals and start brainstorming every activity I must do to achieve it.

For the sake of example, I’ll start explaining using one of the most heard resolutions for the New Year: get fit, look good.

Let’s start: Why? Well because I want to feel accepted, and included, to love myself, to be seen, etc.
SMART GOAL: I want to lose 10 kg until June.

Brainstorm: It’s January so I have 5 months. This means 2 kg/ month. It’s achievable and not so harmful for my body. How I’m doing it?
Well, I could analyze my habits. How much I’m eating, when, what. How much water do I drink, how much do I sleep, do I work out? How many steps/ day? Then I might need to eat differently because I know that I need to be in a caloric deficit and this can be done by decreasing the caloric amount and raising the activity, so I need to either go to a nutritionist or buy a recipe book with a caloric table explained. And I need to buy a scale so I can weigh my food. I need to search for a gym and make a playlist so I can stay motivated while I want to die working out. And I need clothes for the gym cause I can’t work out in stiletto and skirts.

Well, here you have a ton of activities that will take you one step closer to your goal. All you have to do now it’s to start planning them in a logical order, and an order that allows you: firstly to check things off the list from time to time so you can have dopamine added to your life, in order not to quit; then to have time to joggle a little around cause we are not in control of everything.

I recommend you use my Goal spreadsheet, a form of Gantt diagram, you find in Free Printables, but if you are not it’s ok, here’s how you can create you’re own.

Establish the main actions in a logical order:
Habit Analyz;
Find nutritional help;
Buy a scale;
Get gym equipment;
Get a gym subscription;
Make a playlist;
Work out;

Then set a time frame for each:
Habit analyze Day 1-3 from week 1.
Find nutritional help; Day 3-14
Buy a scale; Day 2-3
Get gym equipment; Day 3-4
Get a gym subscription; Day 3-7
Make a playlist; Day 4
Work out. Day 8- June

And I also love to color code, to know what is more important to do in case of an emergency.

Using Red for mandatory, Yellow for it will impact the final result, and green for, it can be easily adapted on the way, I would prioritize my action this way:

Habit Analyz; RED
Find nutritional help; YELLOW
Buy a scale; GREEN
Get gym equipment; GREEN
Get a gym subscription; YELLOW
Make a playlist; GREEN
Work out; RED

As you can see I have 2 reds, 2 yellows, and 3 greens. How do I interpret them? Well, I certainly can’t lose weight if I don’t start working out, but I can’t work out at home too, and use some sweats I own. And I can work out without music, it will be less fun, but I can do it. I can also lose weight without nutritional help. Harder, but it’s possible. And if I have nutritional help, but I don’t have time to cook, and I order, I don’t need a scale so, I’m safe!

After all this planning that will give you tons of hopes and dreams, comes the nightmare: getting to work!

Going to the gym, started creating products, selling, advertising, and going out of my comfort zone.
At this point, you start to feel pain, to suffer, to be sleepy, and hungry, to feel many things you didn’t until you started, and here it’s very important to remind yourself WHY. Remind yourself why is this important!
Also here is the part where many fail. Usually, our goals can’t be seen in a minute, in a week. It takes time. This is why I find it very important to incorporate the little tasks (make a playlist) into the big plan, so you can see, from time to time a little progress to be easier to stay on track.

I also recommend for the big journey, to set some smaller goals, for the same reasons. Being able to see progress is like a treat. Also, think you are climbing and reach a certain point. You look up, you have 2 more days, you look down, and you climb a whole day, through the scariest part. You’ve seen that you survived the worst. But it still takes time to finish. But if you climb down, the next time, you have to climb this dangerous scary part, to do it all over again. Seeing from this perspective might help you in your journey.

And for the last part, it’s analysis. No matter if you reach your goal or not, you have to look backward. See what went well, where you got stuck, where you were lucky, what you liked, what you disliked.

This will help you learn more about yourself, understand your strengths and weaknesses, what you like, and what you are down to or not.
This final step helps you improve your plans, and this final step is what brought me in front of you with advice.

And for my and my goals, if I want to fail all I need to do is to time block in a day.

See, I’m a people pleaser and I need to do everything myself when it comes to bday, holidays and so on. And then, I have my family and they have their time paths, and scheduling things just frustrate me cause I can’t stick to the schedule. When I get frustrated, everything falls apart.

Well this is all for today, it’s an interesting topic, and this is why 2000 words came out of nowhere. I want to remind you that all the examples are just examples and are not meant to be taken as anything but that.

Feel free to use any of the free resources you can find on my blog, and also to try a paid subscription for more planning supplies, or even go to AMAZON for planners and so much more!

Until next time, I wish you #adreamerlife!

Cristiana Apreutese