Setting goals is about to get a lot easier. This is a ‘simple in theory’ but rarely actually done process that I am excited to share with you today.

When I was studying for my NLP (neuro linguistic programming) certification, this idea came to me. I recorded a podcast a few years back about it.

The realization was that I was moving through life and business with the assumption of, ‘of course I know what I want and am working towards.’

But, do I? Do you? Have you sat down and actually considered what you want your day to look like exactly one year from today? It’s February 28, 2022. What does February 28, 2023 look like?

Your instinctive response may be like mine: of COURSE I know what I want!!! But then ask yourself this: okay—what do you want?

If you’re like a lot of my clients, the answer is way less concrete than you realized. You probably pause for a while and start to say pretty ‘basic’ things: Money. Success. A successful business. Debt free. To weigh whatever weight. For a soulmate. Whatever? You’re kinda just.. making shit up honestly. It’s not that you don’t want those things, but it’s nothing you deeply desire, that you feel deeply connected to.

This was me, too. I hadn’t actually taken the time to visualize one year ahead and I’m guessing you haven’t either.

Here’s why it matters: If you don’t ACTUALLY know what you want, if you don’t have a vivid picture of our goals... how will our brains (or our subconsciousness) know how to make it happen? How will you find the right actions, if you don’t know what the actions are supposed to lead to?

I was having THIS epiphany and when I landed on that thought, the other voice in my head was like, ‘yeah but sometimes you just gotta take action without clarity’—which is a pillar of my message and my business. Action definitely creates clarity. Contrast, bumping into things, seeing how you feel when things happen… 100% that’s how you get clarity.

BUT, that isn’t an excuse to work with no intentionality. Here’s an example, maybe I don’t know exactly what my offers look like one year from now, but I do know that I don’t work Fridays. I don’t need to bump into working Fridays to realize I don’t want to work Fridays, I’ve already realized that. So work from where you are now, with what you have now, and start to fill in the picture.

My picture includes waking up naturally, refreshed, well-rested inside a cozy and clean home. It includes lots of candles, background music, and decor that makes me happy. It has me doing work from wherever, not tied necessarily to a computer for hours a day. It has me serving people in a big way that lights me up. I could go on and on, but this is about you and your year from now!

So whatever comes up for you, I challenge you to go deeper. Be more specific. What sounds do you hear? What smells do you smell? Who’s with you? What’s the temperature? What flavor La Croix are you drinking? To truly visualize it, think of all your senses, paint a real scene of your day to day life.

If you’re into self development no doubt you’ve been told to do this exercise before. If you’re anything like me you started off super detailed but by like 3pm in your dream day you’re like, ‘yeah and then I nap. And then I get a million dollars. And then someone gives me free Chipotle for life.’

Which I mean, sure, hell, if you want to manifest free Chipotle for life first of all ME TOO and second of all, no judgement you do you friend.

But that approach to visualizing isn’t going to garner the results you seek. Consider this a meditation practice. Set aside real devoted time and think through all aspects of your day. Think through who you speak to, think through what you wear, think through how you feel at 1pm, at 6pm, think through what your office looks like, what your hair looks like… get detailed!

When you do that you begin to plant seeds in your subconscious that this is your new reality. And then maybe a day later, or a week later, or months later… if you hold onto that vision you’ll start to get nudges that will lead you on a path that makes February 28, 2023 a reality. Now it’s not magic—it’s your brain looking for opportunities and ways to bring that reality to life. You’ve explicitly told your subconscious to find ways to make it a reality that your office looks like this or that you get to wear that, and it’ll do just that. 

 The opposite there would be leaving it vaguely defined, the boat we’re all sort of sitting in now. When we tell our subconscious, “oh I want to be rich. Oh I want to be successful.” But we don’t give clear details to what that means and our subconscious is like WHAT IS RICH? WHAT IS SUCCESS?

Do you ever notice in movies when someone goes up to a bar they’re like “yeah, I’ll have two beers” and the bartender just turns around and gets them two random ass beers. And us in the audience (okay, maybe not you, if you have’t noticed it before… but you will think now…) are like, WHAT BEERS?! Did they want a pilser? An IPA? Were they looking for something fun and casual or so stout-y that it takes an hour to actually drink? WE NEED SPECIFICS. A beer order can say a lot about character development, OKAY?!

Well that’s your subconscious every time you’re like I WANT SUCCESS AND MONEY. It’ll be like well “okay, here’s like five bucks. Is that what you wanted?” And then you get frustrated and think nothing is working and give up.

When I originally recorded this podcast years ago, the main way my business was making money was through design services (my first company). So whenever I do my money mindset work, I used to just wake up to a flood of new design inquiries (because that was money’s easiest path to me). But what I would really desire was, like, a random check in the mail. But I never got that specific, so money just kept coming through the path of least resistance.

The point here is to get really specific, as specific as you can, on what you want exactly one year from now. That way you can actually start taking the STEPS to getting there. The time is going to pass regardless, it’ll be February 28, 2023 regardless. But if you get clear on what you want, visualize it in detail, and take action to make those visualizations a reality—then you’ll be surprised at where you are one year from now.

Your action steps:

Set aside 15 minutes. Get quiet. Turn off distractions. Let yourself meditate and visualize on one year from today. If you want to think it, think it. If you want to say it, maybe voice memo it. If you want to write it, write it. But go through your senses and focus on the smallest of details along with the big picture strokes and let yourself relax and feel really excited about what’s going to shape out for you over the next year. I’m excited for you!

When you do it, DM me on Instagram what you visualize! I can’t wait to hear about tit.