The 10 Step Action Plan To Create Your Dream Life

You don't have to wait to live the life you want. In fact, the "good life" – the one you dream about – is closer than you think. In just a few steps, you can start building exactly what that looks like, on a foundation that lasts.

Ready to dive in? Let’s make it happen!

Step 1: Hold Your Vision

It's up to you to achieve success, and you need to hold a vision of what that success looks like. Every day, we’re faced with choices—some big, some small. These decisions matter, shaping the course of the rest of our lives.

Let's start by checking in with some basic questions:

What is your definition of success?

What do you want to achieve with your life?

Who do you want to help?

Where do you want to go?

These questions delve into what fulfills us most: our passions and core values. As the days go by and we pursue our goals, make sure they are in alignment with your vision. Every action you take, every step you make, either brings you closer to or takes you further from achieving success. That you're reading this shows that you’re an action-taker!

Take it one step further and download your FREE VISION WORKBOOK now!

Step 2: Know Your Values

Values dictate our ethics. Our interpretation of what is important in life defines our moral compass. This compass is what keeps us on track as we explore this amazing life. Strengthening our ethics means being honest with ourselves about the difference between right and wrong, and what is most important to us. Only you can define what this means, but it is important that you do so. Values are established at a young age, when we are forming our worldview. We learn the difference between right and wrong through the experiences that shape us. Today, check in with yourself to see if the actions you are taking and the things you are involved in are true to your values and ethics. If the answer is anything but 100%, it’s time to make a change.

Step 3: Analyze Your Goals

If you don’t know where you want to go, that’s exactly where you’ll end up – nowhere. It’s important to regularly reevaluate your goals, monitor changes along the way, and measure your success. Keep in mind that goals are specific. Statements like “I’d like to make more money,” “I want to change the world,” or “I’m going to lose weight” are common at the start of a new year, but these statements aren’t effective goals. These are closer to desires. Instead, a goal is definitive, like “In 6 months, I’m going to double my personal income,” “On July 3rd, I’ll be volunteering at an elephant sanctuary in Cambodia,” or “I’m going to lose at least 5 pounds this month with a nutrition & fitness plan.” Each of these examples turns the desire for change into a defined result by providing a timeline, the ‘how,’ and an action.

Take a look at the goals you’ve set for yourself.

Have you defined what it means to accomplish them?

Have you defined a general approach to the goal and can you break that approach into daily or weekly objectives?

Personally, I write down my goals every single day, usually twice: once when I first wake up and once before I go to sleep. Analyze your goals and make sure that, as the days go by, you are acting in a way that creates the outcome you really want.

Step 4: Inventory Your Time

Time is something we all have in common. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but what we accomplish is dependent on how we use our time. Take a look at how you use your time each day, noting the hours spent on essentials like sleeping and eating, and where there is room to pursue new opportunities. Notice which areas of your schedule lack productivity and which activities detract from your goals. Find a part of your day to replace one of these voids with something constructive like journaling your goals, creating content, or having collaborative conversations with your mastermind group. Challenge yourself to repeat this constructive behavior relentlessly. With repetition of small shifts, making productive changes to your time management will become easier. With focus, you will build a sort of "muscle memory," allowing you to make lasting changes in how you manage your day.

Step 5: Design a Production Schedule

Your vision is a major production. It’s so big that we can’t quantify the whole thing at once. Instead, we can break it into measurable goals and shape a schedule to accomplish them, one day at a time. Think about the goals you are pursuing and what needs to be done to accomplish them. Note the various daily routines that keep you healthy, energized, and fired up. These are essential. From there, we can begin to look outward and ahead, at how we interact with our team, network, and community. Observe your patterns—daily, weekly, monthly, and even annual patterns can have a tremendous long-term benefit to our productivity. It comes down to consistent repetition of meaningful action.

Determine what it will take to accomplish your goals and plug it into your calendar. Forget about that snooze button; we have a schedule to keep now! Discipline creates lifestyle. Success takes time, but it takes less time when we take the right actions consistently.

Step 6: Invest Every Dollar You Have

A savings account is a good investment if you aren’t sure where to invest yet and need a place to gather your funds. However, the truth is, every dollar unspent is only as good as the interest it accrues. If your money isn’t generating more for you, it’s time to put it to work. This is about more than just numbers. It’s about value. The most value from your dollar is where it will do the most to contribute to the accomplishment of your goals.

Investments can include self-education, like a coach or course designed to give you the specific knowledge or guidance you need for success. It can also include hiring a virtual assistant to help you work more efficiently or performing vehicle maintenance that could become costly if left unchecked. Wherever your dollar can do the most for you, that’s exactly where it needs to be. Until then, you are losing valuable, nontransferable time. Your vision is coming together here and now, not someday. Value your time, invest your money, and let’s get to work.

Step 7: Uncover Opportunities

It takes action to acquire experience and find the exact steps that will lead to your dream life. It may be closer than you think. This article provides you with a proven roadmap to realize your vision. One thing is certain: it’s not going to come to you without taking action! Exploring your horizons is critical. If you aren’t 100% satisfied, fill the gap with things that will contribute more to your endeavors than you have already. If you’re only looking where the light is good, you won’t find what will bring the most value to your life.

Let's face it, you already know what's in front of you. Opportunities are everywhere. Look high or low, far away or close by. If you're covering new ground, you're uncovering new opportunities. You just have to look. Meeting new people and facing new challenges often pulls us out of our comfort zone. In fact, comfort is a sure sign of familiar territory. Challenge yourself to look further than you have before. You will see, through exploration and adventure of any scale, that there lies an experience that will help you reach your potential and step into a life that today you may only dream about.

Step 8: Get More Experience

You have all the experience you need to take the next steps, but each of these steps builds on your experience. Design your actions to increase your skills, awareness, and understanding of what you’re exploring. Every connection, conversation, or activity has something to do with the direction you’re heading. It’s important to assess whether the experience you’re accumulating is aiding the achievement of your goals, or distracting you from them. Everywhere you’ve been has brought you to this point.

Make two lists:

1. An inventory of your current experience. As you write it, don’t analyze it or try to qualify its relevance; just write it out.

2. A brainstorming list: What actions can you take right now that will enrich your experience and provide a more comprehensive understanding of your field – your expertise?

   
   

Step 9: Establish Your Personal Brand

Your personal brand is your resume. It is your presentation of yourself to the world. If someone were to enter your name in a Google or Facebook search, what would they see? Establishing your personal brand means presenting who you are in a way that those who find you will know what you’re all about and the impact you’re making in the world. Like it or not, we all have a personal brand. No matter how secretive you’d prefer to be, it won’t do you any good. Present photographs, creative content, and conversation that represent who you are becoming.

Who you were is relevant to your personal brand to the extent that your experience (See your lists from Step 8) has enhanced the momentum you have now. As you look back on your experience, you can identify stories that highlight the achievement of your future goals. Remember, your experience doesn’t need to be quantified or evaluated in detail; it simply demands one question: Is this demonstrating my capacity to make the difference I aim to make, or not?

Step 10: Take Massive Action

You're already taking action. You're filling your day with action, and it's important to be aware of this concept. Every moment that goes by is gone forever, and you’re not going with it! Even if you slow down, your heart beats, you breathe, think, sleep. Life is about forward momentum. It’s called growth, and it applies to everything alive. The concept of growth and decay applies to our psychology, relationships, health, and work. It’s like riding a bike. If you stop, the bike needs support or it will fall.

When you inventoried your time, you saw the moments conducive to the achievement of your goals. You also saw those that are not. This is where we set our targets, but that’s the easy part.

Now, it’s time to take action!

No matter how long you prepare or analyze the results and process of an action, it doesn’t change the fact that the action needs to be taken. Take it now! The future rests on what you decide to do right now. In the previous 9 steps, you’ve outlined actions you can take. I want you to fill your day with them. Make action-taking a habit. Keep your goals and a list of activities available. When you notice yourself taking actions that are counterproductive, realign them with the intended outcome. There are two directions: forward and backward. You can’t stop, but you can stray. Your resources, energy, and especially your time are being consumed. This leaves an unguided life in a state of depreciation!

Success is your responsibility. Take action! This is the life you have and it's up to you to make it count.