What to do when you have a million goals (give or take)#

We all have dreams and goals. Some of us have a many. And some of us have a few over the generally-accepted number of “too much”. If you’re reading this, you probably fall into that last category along with me. Thanks ADHD.

Write down everything (I mean everything)#

Ask yourself the question, if there were no obstacles of any kind, what would you want to accomplish? Nothing is too great or small for this question. Now, write down all these things, giving as much or as little information as you like. It’s your list. Go!

Rank your goals#

In this next step, identify which goals are the most important to you. Number them down the list you made in the previous step. Now you might be saying, “Hey, I’m reading this blog post because I want to achieve everything now!” I get you. But it’s important to choose a place to start. If you still can’t decide, I find a randomizer app to be very helpful. At this stage it’s important to remember you are not giving up on any of your dreams. You’re taking the first important step to fulfil them.

Grab a calendar and pencil things in#

Now it’s time to decide when you’re going to accomplish all these things. Grab a yearly calendar (or you can make your own) and decide in which months you will start working on which goals. A nice way to break it up is to think in 30-day long challenges. By which months would you like to have accomplished the top goals on your list? Do your best to spread these timeframes evenly across the year. Yes, I know you want it all done by the end of January, but let’s keep it sustainable. I don’t want you to get overwhelmed. Slow and steady wins the race.

Set up systems for success#

The next question you need to ask is what needs to be set in place for you to be able to achieve each of your goals. For example, before I can start training for a marathon I should probably buy some decent running shoes (only if I don’t have them already!) and decide on a training schedule. Try to think of anything that is a prerequisite for achieving your goal. Do you need to book the baby sitter, set your do not disturb on message apps, create a schedule, etc? Write all of this down before moving on to the next step.

Pencil more things into the calendar#

It’s time to schedule again! You might want a more granular calendar for this one. We already have the timeframes in which you’d like to complete your goals. Now you can add your plans to get the blockers and nitty gritties out of the way before that timeframe hits. Trust me, when it comes to working on your goals, you really do want to get this stuff out of the way first. There’s nothing worse than wanting to start and realising there’s still a ton of preparation to do.

Form a plan of action#

We’re almost there! I stole this next part from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, but there’s a reason for that. These are the next questions to ask yourself: What can I do in the next year to move me closer to my goals? What can I do in the next month? What can I do in the next week? Day? Hour? Yes, it gets that specific. Write down your answers to all these questions. When you ask these questions, the shiny yet elusive nature of the dream gets boiled down to some very actionable steps. As you progress you may want to answer these questions again at certain points.

Pencil that in as well#

Or if you like to live on the wild side, use a pen. No judgement. Finally, (and you’ll probably want a planner for this) it’s time to schedule the steps you wrote out previously. For this, try to make the steps as actionable as possible. Your best chance for success is to know when, where and how you are going to execute on your plans. Don’t get too frazzled if that seems like a lot. You can take the iterative approach. Start with some monthly goals, then weekly and daily actions to reach them. You can reassess whenever you need to.

I hope that these steps have helped empower you to take action on your many, many plans, goals and resolutions. Remember that your dreams matter. Now go get ‘em!