Are you already thinking about things that you want to achieve or create in 2026? For me, it’s publishing my book (eek!). In that spirit, today kicks off a brand-new 3-part series all about getting what you want, prioritizing yourself and your goals, and making good things happen. We’re starting at the beginning - defining your goals. Because you can’t get what you want if you don’t know what it is!
You’ll Learn:
This episode will show you how to figure out what you want and define it in a specific, real, and accessible way.
Click here to get the free goal-setting workbook.
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Throughout this series, I’m walking you through the 4 main steps I take when I am working toward a goal. This has worked for me to build my business, start a podcast, and achieve many other things in my life.
Here are the 4 steps:
I’ll go into each step in much more detail, but here is what you need to know upfront.
In order to take action and achieve your goal, you have to prioritize your goal. You have to commit, to say “yes” to your goal and your action plan over and over again.
And in order to prioritize one thing, you will have to deprioritize other things. The truth is that you have a limited amount of time available to you. If you want to give more time to your goal, you’ll have to make some difficult decisions about where your time is going.
Now, let’s take the first step and define your goal.
Here are 3 strategies (and a fun bonus exercise) to help you get clear on your goal. I’ll use my goal of publishing a book as an example as we go through this process.
Make it specific. If your goal is too generic (e.g. I want to lose weight), it can be hard to make a clear plan, stay committed, or to even know if you’ve reached the goal.
My current goal is to publish my book before the end of 2026. There are two things that make this goal specific for me. One is the timeline. The other is a shift in wording from “writing” a book to “publishing” a book.
Why is this important? Because I have had the goal of writing my book many times. I actually have written the book many times in many forms. But I have never actually sent a draft to the publisher (even though I have one ready and waiting).
I have been NOT doing this for 3 years now. I have a lot of fears and overwhelm around this goal, so I have continued to put it off and prioritize other things. No more.
So get specific.
And give yourself a timeline. WHEN do you want to have achieved your goal?
Make it manageable. Your goal doesn’t have to be something grandiose. In order for you to take action, it has to feel possible.
Listen, I want you to have a big vision for your life. I also know that, for me, if the goal is too big, I often can’t quite see the path to get there. When your goal feels manageable and realistic, you’ll be less overwhelmed and more likely to actually take the first (and next) steps.
This is the reason you want your goal. Reaching a big goal is challenging. It's hard. You have to put in continued effort. And when obstacles come up, you need a reason to keep going.
If you don't know why you want something or how it's going to benefit you or what it's going to create in you, you are probably not going to be able to stay committed to it.
For me, publishing this book feeds into my bigger purpose of healing the next generation in advance.
But your why doesn’t have to be about some big higher calling. Another one of my whys is simply that I’m sick of talking about publishing this book 😂. I’m tired of not having achieved this. It’s time.
Maybe you want to do something just because it will make you happy. There is no right answer. It’s about what feels right to you and will keep you committed to your goal.
Think about what it will be like when you achieve your goal. Imagine how it will feel. Maybe it’s peaceful, connected, satisfied, joyful, or content. Try that feeling on and practice it. Act as if it’s already done, you achieved what you set out to do.
My vision looks like me sitting at my desk, holding a hard copy of my book in my hand. I look around at the books in my office and think, “What if that was my book?” It brings feelings of joy, satisfaction, and even relief. I feel excited about building momentum toward other books I already have in mind to write in the future.
You might imagine making that first sale in your new business, sitting on a comfy couch in your updated living room, or looking amazing in your bathing suit.
Notice what emotions come up. If there are negative emotions and doubts mixed in there, that’s okay. We’ll talk about those when we go deeper into dealing with obstacles later in this series.
Something I’ve noticed over many years of working with parents is that it can be hard to even think about what you want while you’re raising kids. When you’re in the midst of parenting, it can feel like there is no room in your mind for it.
This week, I challenge you to do a little dreaming. Here’s a fun exercise you can use to guide you. I call it the Dream Download, and it gives you a chance to uncover some of those deeper desires that might lie within you.
Essentially, you're going to make a list of all the things that you want to achieve either this year or anytime in the future. There are no rules, and you don't have to be realistic or practical. Just dream.
Try to list 5 things. Then push yourself to 10 to 15 to 20. What do you want to create for yourself? Keep digging into your soul and finding what is in there.
Then, look at your list and choose 1 or 2 things you want to accomplish this year. Get specific about what that looks like, and define the goal.
Mama, you deserve to dream. And once you know you want, you’re 1 step closer to making it come true!
In this free guide you’ll discover:
✨ A simple tool to stop yelling once you’ve started (This one thing will get you calm.)
✨ 40 things to do instead of yelling. (You only need to pick one!)
✨ Exactly why you yell. (And how to stop yourself from starting.)
✨A script to say to your kids when you yell. (So they don't follow you around!)
Download the Stop Yelling Cheat Sheet here
Welcome back to Become a Calm Mama. I'm your host, I'm Darlin Childress
Speaker:and I am about to start a three part series with you
Speaker:all about getting what you want, prioritizing yourself, prioritizing
Speaker:your goals, and making things happen for
Speaker:you. And the reason this is on my mind is because
Speaker:I am in the middle of doing this for myself. I
Speaker:am going to publish my book in
Speaker:2026 and. And just saying that gives me a little
Speaker:bit of discomfort, like, you know, a little bit of energy in
Speaker:my belly because I get nervous. Saying it aloud on this
Speaker:podcast and telling you about it makes it really
Speaker:real. And I feel quite accountable to this
Speaker:commitment. So that's one of the parts of how I am
Speaker:making this happen, is by making a commitment to myself,
Speaker:defining my goal, publishing my book in 2026
Speaker:and, and telling people about it, talking about it. I thought it would be really
Speaker:helpful to you, the listener, to the audience, to talk
Speaker:about what it is that I do when I want to
Speaker:create something for myself, when I want to achieve
Speaker:something, when I want to prioritize a goal,
Speaker:how do I get there? Because I have a lot of experience and
Speaker:evidence that I am good at reaching my goals.
Speaker:Some of the evidence that I have of reaching my goals is this podcast. This
Speaker:was a dream I had, honestly, like in
Speaker:2015, like a long time ago. I
Speaker:didn't start the podcast until 2022, but I had
Speaker:this vision of it like five, six, seven years ago before that.
Speaker:And I was going to call it the DAR show and it was going to
Speaker:look totally different, but I wanted to create a podcast
Speaker:and I was nervous about it. There was all these obstacles in my way
Speaker:that I had to clear out in order to make this podcast
Speaker:happen. And it has. And now, 204
Speaker:episodes later, I have been committed to
Speaker:publishing a weekly episode without a break,
Speaker:without stopping. So that's been incredible and amazing. And
Speaker:I went through the process that I'm going to teach on the next
Speaker:couple of episodes about how to prioritize yourself
Speaker:and your goals. I also have evidence of me being able to do this
Speaker:with my business. I started a coaching practice in
Speaker:2012. When I started, I didn't really even know what I was doing
Speaker:at all. I knew I wanted to have a successful business, I knew I wanted
Speaker:it to be profitable, but I wasn't really committed. And
Speaker:throughout the years of me starting this business,
Speaker:from 2012 to 2019, seven years, so
Speaker:I had this goal in my heart to build this business. And then I just
Speaker:kept getting distracted and Kept avoiding it and
Speaker:starting and stopping and starting and stopping. And then in 2019,
Speaker:I was so frustrated and discouraged with myself
Speaker:for putting my goal on the back burner over and over and over and letting
Speaker:myself get distracted and taking these massive detours. Like,
Speaker:I start a business in 2012, and then in 2015, three
Speaker:years later, instead of growing the business, I become
Speaker:president of the PFA for the next two years. And then as that winds
Speaker:down and instead of focusing on building my business in 2016,
Speaker:I instead pivoted and started this suburban women's
Speaker:advocacy network, essentially a not for profit for women
Speaker:to help marginalize communities. So I kept finding
Speaker:myself distracted. And then in October of 2019,
Speaker:that's when I really discovered the tools that I now use to
Speaker:reach my goals. So the steps that I take in order
Speaker:to reach my goals are, first, I define the goal. I
Speaker:determine what it is that I'm doing, what is it that I want.
Speaker:And sometimes that can be hard. So we're going to break that down. First thing
Speaker:I do is I define the goal. And then the second thing I do is
Speaker:I define the obstacles. I look to figure out what are the
Speaker:obstacles that are going to be in my way and how can I
Speaker:work on getting rid of those obstacles, how can I
Speaker:minimize them or plan for them?
Speaker:Defining the obstacles is actually the first part before I make an action plan.
Speaker:Step three is define the plan. Sometimes those go
Speaker:together. Like, I'll make a plan and then I'll look at the obstacles or look
Speaker:at the obstacles, and I plan for the plan. It's kind of like a little
Speaker:bit of a teeter totter between the two. But essentially
Speaker:I'm defining my goal, and then I'm figuring out, okay, how am I going to
Speaker:get there and what are the obstacles going to come up in
Speaker:along the way. And I add solutions to
Speaker:those obstacles into the plan. That's why I have to know the obstacles before I
Speaker:know the plan. Define the goal. I define the obstacles, I define the plan.
Speaker:And then step four is I do it. And that is meaning taking very
Speaker:big action, massive swings in order to make that
Speaker:goal happen. And that is really where the prioritizing comes in.
Speaker:In order to do my action plan and to take
Speaker:those big steps, sometimes they're even little steps.
Speaker:I have to prioritize the commitment I made
Speaker:to my goal. And that means I say yes
Speaker:to my goal and I say yes to my action plan. But by
Speaker:saying yes to that, I'm saying no to other things in order to
Speaker:prioritize one thing you have to deprioritize other things.
Speaker:Now, of course, you don't want to neglect all these areas of your life,
Speaker:but when you look at your time and you have a limited amount of time
Speaker:available to your goal, you really do have to make decisions
Speaker:about how to use that time and what are you going to
Speaker:prioritize. So I'll get into that bit as
Speaker:well. So the way this series is going to go is
Speaker:I'm going to today talk about goals. Like
Speaker:defining your goal, figuring out what you want, really defining it in
Speaker:a way that makes it tangible and
Speaker:accessible and real for you. So it's not some
Speaker:nebulous kind of I want to build a business, I want to
Speaker:lose weight, I want to make money. Like, I want to
Speaker:become a calm mama. Right? Whatever it is that your goal is, I
Speaker:want you to kind of define it in a more specific
Speaker:way. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to define your goal.
Speaker:And then next week I'll walk you through how to figure
Speaker:out the obstacles and some tools to work through
Speaker:those obstacles, some actual practical ways to, to
Speaker:solve for those obstacles. And then the last week we'll talk about
Speaker:doing the plan, actually figuring out what the plan is and
Speaker:then how to do it and how to overcome when you get, when
Speaker:you start procrastinating, when you get distracted, like how to get back online.
Speaker:Now you can use this strategy,
Speaker:these steps for any goal that you have
Speaker:could be something with your home, with, with your health, with
Speaker:parenting, with personal growth, with financial ideas
Speaker:that you have with your family, with your friendships, with your hobbies,
Speaker:sort of anything that you want in your life, you want to invite
Speaker:in or get done or do. You can use this process.
Speaker:So what I'm going to talk about a lot is like my process of
Speaker:preparing to get this book published. And I'm
Speaker:not going to go into all the details about it, but my own experience and
Speaker:the way that I'm doing it right now may be referencing how I've
Speaker:used these steps in the past. As a life coach, I do
Speaker:think it's really helpful to share with you how to achieve
Speaker:the things you want in your life. Right? As a
Speaker:parenting coach, I'm here specifically to help you get what you want as
Speaker:a parent to achieve the family dynamic that you want in
Speaker:your home, the relationship you want with your kids, the emotional health you want for
Speaker:your children, your the peace and calm you want in your family. How to
Speaker:do that. That's what this podcast is all about. But as a life
Speaker:coach, I actually have the same skill set to help you do that
Speaker:in many, many areas of your life, which is really cool.
Speaker:So that's what I want to share with you today. Now, there is a
Speaker:workbook that comes along with this series.
Speaker:And if you want to get a copy of that workbook, you need to go
Speaker:to my website, calm mamacoaching.com
Speaker:go to resources, and you will see the
Speaker:goals workbook on that page. We'll also link it in the Show
Speaker:Notes. So that will be really helpful for you to have as a
Speaker:resource for you. Okay, so let's get into
Speaker:defining what you want, defining the goal.
Speaker:That's the first step is you have to figure out what you want.
Speaker:So I have decided that I want to publish
Speaker:my book, which is all about becoming a Calm Mama by the
Speaker:end of 2026. Now, this goal is
Speaker:very specific, and it's specific for a reason.
Speaker:Because I have had the goal of write
Speaker:my book many times and I
Speaker:actually have written the book many times. I have
Speaker:a full draft of it. I have written it as the
Speaker:workbook. A lot of this podcast is the content of the book.
Speaker:Like it's in my heart. I have written it, but at the same time,
Speaker:I have not actually published it. It's really funny because I
Speaker:even have a publisher already who is waiting
Speaker:for the draft to be sent to them. And I
Speaker:have been not doing that for three years now, four years
Speaker:now, because I am nervous. I have a lot of
Speaker:fears around it. I have a lot of overwhelm around it, and
Speaker:I keep kind of putting it off and prioritizing other things
Speaker:over this book, over this publishing of the book. So what
Speaker:I've done is I've changed the word write to publish, so made it very
Speaker:specific and I've given a deadline. When you set
Speaker:goals, it is important to be specific. If we
Speaker:are too generic with our goal, like I want to lose
Speaker:weight or I want to make more money, it
Speaker:can be hard to stay committed or to even know if we've reached
Speaker:the goal or what the amount of effort it will take
Speaker:to get that goal. When you have a goal, I want you to
Speaker:actually be as specific as possible. So you want to make
Speaker:more money, how much you want to lose weight,
Speaker:how many pounds or what size do you want to be if you
Speaker:want to build a business? What does that mean? How many clients do you
Speaker:want? How profitable do you want it to be? Now, I don't want you to
Speaker:be super overwhelmed. I'm not saying I want to write a book that's
Speaker:357 pages and is a bestseller or
Speaker:whatever. I actually am saying I want to publish a book at this
Speaker:point in time because I have been in so much turmoil
Speaker:over this thing. I just need to be specific, but I don't
Speaker:need to be grandiose. I don't need to make it so
Speaker:overwhelming that it seems impossible. I want to make a goal
Speaker:that feels possible. So publishing a book this year, especially
Speaker:since I already have a publisher, is possible now.
Speaker:Sometimes people will say, you know, dream the impossible dream and
Speaker:think really big. And I love that. I want you to
Speaker:have a big vision for your life. And if you want to create
Speaker:something, like being like, Beachbody ready, or
Speaker:increase your salary by $400,000 a year
Speaker:or something like that, or redesign your house, but only
Speaker:have to spend $40,000, like. Like if you
Speaker:remodeled, not redesigned, but remodeled your house, it. It's like,
Speaker:it's okay. I want you to dream as big as you want to dream. But
Speaker:I've noticed for myself that when I make it too big,
Speaker:I can't quite see a path to get there.
Speaker:And it's funny, because in Manifestation and Mindset
Speaker:World, a lot of times people will say, you know, you don't need to know
Speaker:how to get there. You don't need to know the steps. You just need to
Speaker:have the dream and the ambition. I agree, but at the
Speaker:same time, I'm too practical. And I think probably, if you listen to this
Speaker:podcast, you're probably similar to me. You're also really practical. You kind of
Speaker:want to know, like, all right, well, is it possible you can also
Speaker:make a decision that you want to publish a book this year even if you
Speaker:don't have a publisher? That's totally possible, and then make a plan to
Speaker:how to get there. Right. The first step would possibly be writing it, creating a
Speaker:draft. Right. Whatever it is, doing a book proposal, all the things
Speaker:you can dream as big as you want. We're going to get into the obstacles,
Speaker:and we're going to get into the action plan in the next two episodes. My
Speaker:recommendation and what I'm doing right now is being specific
Speaker:and manageable. And maybe that's limiting, I don't
Speaker:know. But that's what I have decided to do, and I think it will be
Speaker:helpful for you. I have other goals in terms of
Speaker:financial goals with our family. I have different goals for my
Speaker:physical health. I have different goals in my marriage, and
Speaker:that means that I have things that I'm working
Speaker:on in my life. That then I also have some
Speaker:action plans for so they don't have to be this big
Speaker:grandiose idea of like building a business
Speaker:or starting a not for profit. But if you have those big
Speaker:dreams, good. I want you to prioritize
Speaker:your dreams. Make it specific people. If it's, I want to
Speaker:start selling items on Etsy this year. Great.
Speaker:How many items do you want to sell? Or when do you want to have
Speaker:your Etsy page published and ready? I want you to be
Speaker:thinking about how specific you can be with
Speaker:yourself. So that's a big part of having a goal, is
Speaker:writing it down, what is it? And then also a date. Like I want to
Speaker:say by the end of 2026, like I want to hold my book in
Speaker:my hand. I. By the end of 2026, I want to have it
Speaker:like a hard copy that I get sent to my house that I
Speaker:hold in my hand. That's what I want. Honestly, that's
Speaker:as far as I've gone. Because when I think about where the impact of the
Speaker:book or whatever, who else is going to hold it in their hands, it gets
Speaker:a little overwhelming. So I just think about myself. What I want is
Speaker:having it in my hands. I have
Speaker:my goal. Now, the second part of defining your goal
Speaker:is defining your why, defining
Speaker:your reason. Because if you don't know why you want
Speaker:something or how it's going to benefit you or what it's going to
Speaker:create in you, you are probably not going to be able
Speaker:to stay committed to it. Because reaching a big goal
Speaker:is challenging. It's hard. You have to
Speaker:put in effort. And when the obstacles come up, you need to know
Speaker:what your reason is and why you wanna
Speaker:stay in the game and keep pushing yourself and keep showing up
Speaker:and doing that hard work. When I think about
Speaker:my deep, deep why, which I've talked about a lot on this
Speaker:podcast, I have a big dream,
Speaker:a big vision, a big purpose, and that is to heal
Speaker:the next generation in advance. I've talked about that before.
Speaker:My goal is, is to heal
Speaker:families so that they don't create pain and trauma
Speaker:in childhood. The healthier a family is in
Speaker:the midst of raising kids like you as the parent, the more education
Speaker:you have, the more insight you have, the more emotional regulation
Speaker:you have, the better you'll show up for your kids. And
Speaker:then the less pain you'll create in your children so that when they
Speaker:grow up, they don't have to go back to their childhood and heal
Speaker:from the past. They show up in their young adulthood and they're
Speaker:ready to accomplish whatever they're going to accomplish. So
Speaker:healing in advance is my way of preventing pain.
Speaker:Now, of course, life is full of pain, and you can be the
Speaker:best parent in the whole world and do everything perfectly, which is not possible. But
Speaker:you, you know, imagine you could. Your child is still going to have pain.
Speaker:They're still in a world where they have sad things
Speaker:happen, they have challenges, you have challenges.
Speaker:Economic stuff happens. Loss, medical trauma,
Speaker:so many different things, right? Bullying, there's a lot going
Speaker:on in the world, but you can almost
Speaker:inoculate your kids and give them the
Speaker:tools they need so that they have the ability to process
Speaker:all the emotions that come in life, and they're emotionally healthy. So
Speaker:even if they have pain, you've given them tools to process that pain.
Speaker:And that is really the only way we heal. It's
Speaker:not by preventing pain. It's by being able to know how to
Speaker:process pain, how to overcome hard things.
Speaker:But I have other whys. One of the whys is that I'm
Speaker:sick of talking about this book. Like, this is kind of
Speaker:what happened to me with my business as well, is I had been working
Speaker:at it for seven years, and it hadn't really been successful, which
Speaker:means I didn't really have that many clients. I didn't have a big impact, and
Speaker:it didn't make much money. And I just kind of got tired of
Speaker:that being my reality. I was like, I'm done.
Speaker:Not achieving. Like, my why
Speaker:was. I was tired of not having it. My why was almost like
Speaker:disgust. But that's not. I don't want it to be, like, from a mean place,
Speaker:but I was just like, I'm done. I'm ready. I just want to achieve already.
Speaker:I'm willing to do whatever it takes. And then I went try to
Speaker:find the obstacles. Why hadn't I achieved what I wanted? What was preventing me from
Speaker:getting what I wanted and then making a plan to solve for
Speaker:those obstacles and go for it. And I did, and I
Speaker:achieved, and I have this business and it is profitable, and I have a big
Speaker:impact and I have lots of clients, and it's wonderful. Same with the podcast.
Speaker:I wasn't sure what to do. I did it. Now it's here and
Speaker:you're listening, right? So it has the impact that it has,
Speaker:and I'm really excited about it. One of the motivations for
Speaker:me was to finally do it. And that has
Speaker:happened to me at other times in my life where my why is not
Speaker:always some big, higher calling purpose. Meaning
Speaker:is maybe just to be Happy. Maybe it's to be settled, maybe
Speaker:it's to move on. If you are trying to think about
Speaker:your marriage, you want to improve your marriage or your parenting,
Speaker:maybe your reason is because you're tired of being unhappy.
Speaker:That's a good enough reason as far as I'm concerned. Now I want you to
Speaker:start to think about what it will be like when
Speaker:you achieve what you have achieved. Like imagine the thing that
Speaker:you want to have achieved. Like imagine sitting
Speaker:around the dinner table with everyone laughing and talking
Speaker:and sharing and eating the food that you made and having that peaceful
Speaker:feeling. Or imagine having that marriage and that you
Speaker:get to go to bed at night and it feels really connected and
Speaker:you are happy with that relationship. Or maybe
Speaker:you're trying to figure out whether you should prioritize your well being over your
Speaker:marriage, right? So then maybe that means you're getting a divorce.
Speaker:Then looking at, okay, how do I want to feel in my life? How will
Speaker:I feel when I've made this decision and I've moved on in my life? I'm
Speaker:going to feel satisfied, I'm going to feel joyful, I'm going to
Speaker:feel content, anticipating the feeling that you'll have
Speaker:and then kind of trying that on and practicing that emotion.
Speaker:It's almost as if you act as if it's already finished, that you've
Speaker:achieved what you want and you get into that emotion now. So
Speaker:I want to finish this book and I imagine holding that book in my
Speaker:hand, sitting at this desk right here where I am and it
Speaker:being on my desk I have like, you don't know, but my office is filled
Speaker:with books. I have so many books in my desk and so many books in
Speaker:my office and I just kind of picture like, what if it was my book?
Speaker:Like what I was smiling right now, right? Just getting into that
Speaker:emotion of being settled and satisfied and joyful
Speaker:and actually kind of like ah, relief I think
Speaker:is what I'll feel like I did it. I have the second book
Speaker:that is in mind that I want to write. And so I'm like,
Speaker:oh yeah, okay, I got one down, one to go.
Speaker:Like I just kind of feel like this is momentum that I'm excited about.
Speaker:So as you think about whatever it is that you want to achieve, wearing that
Speaker:bathing suit or having your cozy couch that you, you know, your living room
Speaker:that you've determined or a meal plan that really works in your family
Speaker:or a business that you really wanted to achieve and you get that first
Speaker:paycheck from it, or you get that first sale or Maybe you want to
Speaker:expand, maybe you want to make a podcast, right? You imagine publishing that
Speaker:first episode and having it out in the world, really kind of
Speaker:picturing it done, noticing the emotion that comes up.
Speaker:Now if you have some negative emotion coming up, then that might be
Speaker:One of the obstacles that we'll talk about next week is that maybe there's an
Speaker:obstacle about belief. Maybe you don't believe it's possible.
Speaker:I have been there before, especially when it comes to this book. The
Speaker:book was birthed in my little baby soul in
Speaker:2012. It came to me almost like a vision. It's the Kamama
Speaker:process. It's the same thing I've been teaching that calm connect limits that
Speaker:correct for the past, what is it, 13, 14 years.
Speaker:That little kernel of a book was born within me that
Speaker:many years ago. And I'm glad I didn't write it then because I didn't have
Speaker:enough information. But as I have grown as a coach
Speaker:and shared this philosophy over and over and over and over and over and over
Speaker:and over again, I'm really ready to put it on paper and have it out
Speaker:there in the world. But when it first was germinated within
Speaker:me, I had a lot of imposter syndrome, a lot of doubt. And I
Speaker:still do a little bit, but I'm working through that's an obstacle. So
Speaker:we'll talk about the obstacles of self belief next time. Thinking
Speaker:about what do you want now? I've noticed with women, well, it's not
Speaker:fair to say with women, I've noticed with people that it
Speaker:can be hard to even have
Speaker:time to think about what you want because you're raising kids,
Speaker:you have maybe a parenting goals and that feels like, okay, I can
Speaker:achieve those because I'm in the middle of parenting my children and this is my
Speaker:world. But what if you have other things that you
Speaker:want to achieve that are outside of
Speaker:parenting? Sometimes there's no room in our mind to even
Speaker:know what we want. Right? We have no, we can't even
Speaker:think. So as we head into the new year, this episode is coming
Speaker:out right at the end of 2025 as we anticipate
Speaker:2026, I really want you to start to think about like,
Speaker:what do you want? Maybe it's not for, for this year, maybe it's not
Speaker:possible. But I would love for you to do a little
Speaker:dreaming. So one of the things that I teach
Speaker:is a dream download. It's a fun
Speaker:exercise that you can do and it's essentially you're going to make
Speaker:a list of all the things that you want to achieve
Speaker:either this year or anytime in the future. This list can be
Speaker:goals or dreams. There's no rules in this dream
Speaker:download. You don't have to be realistic. You don't have to be practical. You don't
Speaker:have to define your why or anything like that. I just want you to
Speaker:dream about what you want. Doing this exercise is going to give you a
Speaker:chance to uncover some of those deeper desires that might
Speaker:lie within you. Just start with aiming for five
Speaker:things and then push yourself to 10 to 15 to
Speaker:20. Really go into the dirt and keep digging. Go
Speaker:in the dirt of your soul and keep digging through and seeing what is in
Speaker:there that you want for yourself. Do you want to
Speaker:build something? Do you want to create something? I have friends who want to
Speaker:start a bed and breakfast. I have a friend who wants to publish a novel.
Speaker:I have a friend who has a TV script that she wants to get made
Speaker:into show. I have a friend who wants to develop
Speaker:an interior design company or to grow her interior design
Speaker:company. I have a friend who really wants to work on her mental health. I
Speaker:have a friend who wants to become a shaman. I have a friend who
Speaker:wants to write a coffee table book that is filled with recipes
Speaker:and design elements and beauty. I love
Speaker:all my girlfriend's dreams. They are inspiring to me
Speaker:and they're like these little kernels within them and they're
Speaker:secret a lot of times and that's okay. But it's okay
Speaker:for you to sit by yourself and put down your
Speaker:dreams. Maybe you want to visit all the continents. One of
Speaker:my dreams is to go to every national park in the US
Speaker:and that is a fun little goal or dream I have. I have a friend.
Speaker:His goal was to circumnavigate the earth sailing. And he
Speaker:is doing it. He's almost finished. It's amazing when
Speaker:people have dreams. Sometimes they get manifested, sometimes they
Speaker:don't. But I want you to have an opportunity to explore
Speaker:yourself in your own private little world. So get a
Speaker:journal, get a piece of paper, get your phone, put in the notes app,
Speaker:write down some dreams. What do you want to create for yourself? And
Speaker:then look at your list and I'd love for you for the
Speaker:exercises that we're going to do in the next couple episodes is
Speaker:pick one from your dream download that
Speaker:you would maybe like to work on this year or accomplish this year.
Speaker:You can pick one or two if you want. And then we're gonna define
Speaker:that goal. So you do your dream download. You pick the one
Speaker:that you are wanting to work on or the two that you want to work
Speaker:on. So mine has been like, publish this book. Publish the book. Publish the book.
Speaker:It's been on my dream download for 15 years, but this,
Speaker:now it's real. Now it's like, this is the year I'm doing it,
Speaker:and I am going to stay committed to it. I know my why,
Speaker:and I'm gonna find all the obstacles, solve for all those
Speaker:obstacles, and get it done. So thinking about the one goal, I
Speaker:would love for you to be specific about it. I will
Speaker:accomplish whatever that goal is by this
Speaker:date. And then that's the goal you have for 2026.
Speaker:Isn't that fun? I think it's really cool. So like I
Speaker:said, my goal for 2026 is that I will
Speaker:publish my book by the end of
Speaker:2026. That's my goal. I
Speaker:know my why. It's so that I can stop talking about
Speaker:it. And also to help
Speaker:families in the future. Those are my big whys.
Speaker:And now the next two episodes I'll share with you. Sort of how to solve
Speaker:for those obstacles, what the obstacles are typically that come up with any
Speaker:goal, and then the action plan, how to get it done, do the work.
Speaker:Okay, I'm glad you're listening. I'm excited about this, and
Speaker:this will be really great for you as we wrap
Speaker:up 2025 and head into 2026. And
Speaker:yes, thanks for listening. If you want to share your goal with
Speaker:me, I would actually really love to hear about it. You can either
Speaker:if you're on my newsletter, reply to the podcast email that you received
Speaker:about this and just shoot me your goal so that way I can talk about
Speaker:it with you. Or you can, you know, direct message me on
Speaker:Instagram or put it in the comments on
Speaker:the Instagram post that's like, about these goals
Speaker:and put it. Put it in the public if you want. That way we can
Speaker:all be accountable and share and encourage each other. All right, mama,
Speaker:thanks for listening. And I will talk to you next week and we will talk
Speaker:about how to make an action plan.