Day 12: Envision

Do you have a vision of where you want your life to be in one year? Do you have a plan of how to get there? Do you have goals to fulfill your plan?
Peace comes in knowing how you want to live your life--what you want to become, accomplish, and experience. It is so good for the soul to dream...

Take time every so often to make goals big and small so your dreams can become reality. We all have ideas of what we wish our life could be. Anything is possible. Believe in your dreams and the vision for your life. Believe that your deepest wishes, your heartfelt desires can be realized. Then make actionable steps to get there.

Here is the formula:

1. Dream (Let your mind daydream about all the marvelous opportunities for your life)
2. Wish (From your daydreams, what do you wish you could have, experience, or accomplish in your life?)
3. Vision (Create a vision for your year [or 5 years, 10 years, etc.])
4. Map (What is your plan--your overarching goals--to realize your year's vision?)
5. Actionable Steps (What small steps can you take to reach your overarching goals?)

This is the way goal planning works best for me:

YEARLY VISION
January is a special month for me. I take weeks rereading the past year's journals and blog posts to see what I learned and experienced the past year and where to go from here. Then I create a theme for my year and a few overarching goals to accomplish. These overarching goals fall under the following categories: spiritual connection, homemaker, self care, health, creativity, marriage, and family.

MONTHLY MAP
On Fast Sunday, Patrick and I sit together in what we like to call "Companionship Inventory." We begin with prayer and then discuss our goals from the past month and how our children are doing. After that, we make new goals for ourselves and how to help our children. We run through our calendar for the coming months and plan a time to attend the temple together. Afterward, we tell each other a reason we are grateful for one another and then end with our testimonies and a closing prayer.

WEEKLY STEPS
I take a few minutes each Sunday to assess where I am and how the past week played out for me. Then I create a few actionable steps for the upcoming week and pencil them in my planner and calendar to ensure they happen. If I don't check up on myself once a week, my goals fall by the wayside and I fail to make progress toward my monthly goals and yearly vision.

BONUS TIP
One of my favorite ways to turn my dreams into a reality is to ponder on them as I fall asleep. Imagining yourself living the life of your dreams or accomplishing your goals is an amazing way to jumpstart your success. There are many free guided meditations you can listen to or you can simply visualize yourself.

My challenge for you today is to try some of these steps. As I have turned my dreams into reality through creating visions, maps, and steps to get there, I have felt deep, calming peace. I know the same can be for you...

31 Days to Peace Index