From Someday to Now: Tips on Achieving Your Dreams

For years I’ve been to content dream, make plans, and live in the “someday” category. You know, that place of always putting off till tomorrow and then the next day and the next. I’ve found excuses to stay in my comfort zone. Lots of excuses. But in the last year, my excuses have been stripped away from me, quite painfully I might add. I guess if we don’t willingly let go of excuses that get in the way of our growth, then the universe finds a way to do it for us.

I am now living alone for the first time in my life. Seeing as I’m such an independent woman and have been self-sufficient since I was 17 years old, you would think it wouldn’t be a big deal. But I went from my family to college with roommates, to marriage, to single parenthood. There’s always been someone around. That is, until my son moved away to college. I am now an empty-nester, fixing meals for one, getting to watch the TV shows I want to watch, and not having anyone to be accountable to. I can come and go as I please without giving an itinerary to anyone. It’s very freeing, but also a bit strange.

The goals I put off until “after my son goes to college” are staring at me, pleading with me. And it’s suddenly clear that I’ve been hiding behind excuses. It’s easy to make plans for someday. But quite another to make them for a specific day.

Someday has allure. It tells the world you have aspirations. But it fails to put an actual expectation around them. Making plans is easy. Following through until you reach them…well, that’s where the real work lies.

It seems appropriate that I’m thinking about this as we are in full swing of the New Year, and more than a few people I know are caught in the resolution craze. Someday is now for many people. And it starts with a plan, followed by consistent action, and commitment even when things get rough.

My someday list includes:

• Moving to another state
• Creating more freedom in my schedule
• Adding new skills to my toolbox to help my clients
• Singing more often…personally and professionally
• Spending more time with good friends
• Finding romance

As I look through my someday list, I see that I really have been working toward all of these items for some time. But the loss of my excuses has helped propel me to the next level, and begun the process of manifesting what I want. Within the next couple months, I will have made significant progress toward and/or complete at least four of these items. And it all started with my intention to create it and my faith that it was possible.

What’s on your someday list? Does it involve relationships, career, finances, health, hobbies, a vacation, romance, business, etc.? Here’s some tips to help you go from someday to now.

• Make a list of your someday items. Brainstorm as many things as possible. You might find some of them to be small and seemingly easy and quick to achieve. Others may take a while or seem next to impossible. Just write it all down.
• After you make your list, put it away for a day or two. Let all your ideas percolate. Let the excitement grow about actually doing something to achieve one or more items on your list.
• Go back to your list. Read through it and make note of which items hold the most excitement (or fear). Those are the items you want to pay close attention to. Anything worthwhile is something you are going to have some strong emotion around.
• Pick one item that is emotionally-charged and flesh out the idea. Think and write about what achieving that goal would look like, feel like…how it would change your life. Have fun with it. Keep that emotion going.
• Now make a plan for how to achieve it. Don’t get too caught up in the mechanics of how to make it happen. Just start brainstorming the steps involved.
• Take action. The only way to get to your someday is through action. Action when you don’t feel like it. Action when things are tough. Just don’t stop taking action.

You’ll find that when you have emotion around something, set an intention, and begin to take steps toward it, things start to happen. Forward movement. Coincidences. Momentum. So go out there and get to your someday.