Wow, that sure doesn’t sound sexy, does it? But it’s true.

A dream without a plan is just a wish. There’s nothing wrong with wishes – we love them – but we want them to come true.

As much as we want to wait for our fairy godperson to save us, part of growing up is knowing that we have to do our part, too. Our part includes believing in our dream, managing our thinking AND taking action.

The best way to make sure that our actions are taking us in the right direction is to have a plan. Because random action almost always gives us funky results, chaos to clean up and/or unintended consequences.

Why not focus on the intentional consequences, right?

Plans are made up of goals, milestones and steps that take us there. You don’t have to have the whole picture all at once – just your next milestone and the first few steps to get started. Then the next couple of steps.

There’s lots of talk these days about “massive action.” Wahoo. That sounds scary. And dramatic. Not a fan of either.

It’s more helpful to think of massive action as something that delivers big results. Actions don’t have to hard, huge or awful.

Massive action is made up of small steps. One at a time.

The most successful plans are made up of small steps. Huh. What a coincidence.

Your plan can be made up of small steps and habits that get you to your next milestone, which gets you closer and closer to your goal.

I could say stuff about habits, but I couldn’t do better than James Clear in Atomic Habits. Check it out if you want habit help.

So make a plan. Write it down. (More on why to write it down in the relatively near future.) Take small steps. That’s the action part of making your dream come true. It just doesn’t need to be harder than that.

And speaking of random, here’s something:

“If life seems jolly rotten, there’s something you’ve forgotten, And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing. When you’re feeling in the dumps, don’t be silly chumps. Just purse your lips and whistle – that’s the thing. And…always look on the bright side of life. Always look on the right side of life.” Thanks, Erik Idle, for these lyrics!

And remember: in all things – progress, not perfection!

Love and light, Maggie

*****

p.s. I still do 1 on 1 coaching. I’m focusing on using Color Thinking. If you’d like to try a free session or explore what coaching looks like, shoot me an email and we can set up a time to talk: maggie@maggiehuffman.com

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