What are you willing to give up for your dreams?

There’s a month left until the new year, and I am in planning mode. I am like many of you and am weary of 2020’s antics. Enough already; I’m excited to think about a new year!

As I plan and set goals, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I am willing to give up to reach my goals. You see, I know that big results don’t come without big changes. I believe that discomfort is the currency of my dreams.

HOWEVER, I also know that realizing a truth and acting on it are two completely different things. If I am truly committed to my goals, I have to be willing to do new and different and uncomfortable things.

To point me in the right direction, I considered what gives me the most return on my time investment. I find real return on spending an hour in focus time each day where I can read and write and think deeply. I also find it a challenge to create that time for myself, especially when our 7-year old son is schooled from home during the pandemic.

My focus time can only come from one place… early mornings. I am a morning person rather than a night owl, so I am fresh and creative in the mornings. In fact, I wrote most of my dissertation for my PhD between 3am and 7am when my (now adult) children were sleeping. In order to reach my new goals, I am going to have to get up earlier and probably go to bed earlier.

In the grand scheme of things, that’s a very small price to pay for focus time, but it does require discomfort. It requires me to change my schedule and maybe even go to bed when my husband is still up. It requires me to be committed to setting my alarm and getting up when it goes off the first time. But the payoff will be so worth the discomfort, and I will get used to the routine in time.

That’s not the only change I will make, of course. But it’s an example of one thing that has to change if I am going to reach big goals.

What are you willing to change to reach your goals in the new year?

What gives you the greatest return on your investment?

When you consider what you truly need to succeed versus what you are familiar with, what does the list look like?

It’s easy for life to pass us by while we sit in what is familiar, but growth is never found in the familiar. It’s found when we are uncomfortable.

Each year when I plant my garden, we first have to till the soil; we don’t leave it undisturbed and hope for the best. We turn under what’s there and plant new seeds. Then I go out in the hot sun and hoe out the weeds. If I didn’t, the weeds would grow and overtake the tender plants that have peeked out through the turned soil. I wouldn’t have anything to harvest in the summer because I hadn’t worked to plant and cultivate it in the spring.

So now, before the new year arrives, I am planning. I encourage you to plan with me. Write down your goals. Think about the discomfort necessary for the harvest to be successful. What are willing to commit to in order to harvest your goals and enjoy the fruits of your success?

If you would like to work with me on a bountiful harvest of your goals in 2021, set up a free session with me now, and let’s discuss how to get started! Until then, much love.