In my old house, we had a fireplace. And on winter days when it was cold or snowing outside, my hubby would start a fire and I would sit in a comfy chair by the fire dreaming up the next phase of my life. I would dream of things like spending a month in France with my family, hosting awesome events, reaching new income goals and finally buying my dream home with room to host ALL THE PEOPLE (because I love to host ALL THE PEOPLE).
Dreaming up a big vision made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but that would be the only benefit if I didn’t take action on my dreams. Yeah, you kinda have to do some work after the dreaming is done (but don’t worry the work is usually fun!).
The first step I like to take after coming up with a new big dream is doing the math.
Doing the math takes the dream out of fantasy land and brings it into my reality, making it more likely to actually happen.
Here’s what doing the math looks like:
Step 1: Do some dreaming and figure out what you want for your life. If a Genie could grant your every wish, what would you wish for? What is your heart’s true desire? What do you want to change about your life? Is it having an apartment in Paris to visit whenever you want? Is it quitting your job and having a business you love that fully supports you? Is it sending your kids to an amazing private school, or perhaps and having the time to homeschool them? Is there a dream house, car, vacation or lifestyle that you are hoping for? Maybe all you want is to pay off all of your debt. Maybe what you want is to be able to afford professional cleaners to come clean your house once per week and a private chef to cook all of your meals. There are no limits here. Write everything you want down on your Dream Life List.
Step 2: Do some research to figure out what it would take to make your dream life happen. Figure out what the approximate monthly mortgage payment is on your dream home in your preferred neighborhood. How much would an apartment in Le Marais run you? How much monthly income do you need to replace in order to quit your job? What does that awesome private school cost? Or what kind of time and money is required to be able to homeschool your children? Professional chefs, personal trainers, nannies, cleaners, figure out what it would cost to have the kind of help you’d love to have in your life. Calculate the lease on that car you love and the guitar lessons you’ve always wanted to take. Next to each item on your Dream Life List, plug in the monthly cost of that item.
Step 3: Add it all up. Now it’s time to figure out what the actual cost of this dream life truly is. This is where you add up all of the items on your Dream Life List to come up with a monthly figure of how much money you would need to make in order to turn this dream into your real life. When I do this with clients, they are often surprised at how little their dreams actually cost. Yeah, an apartment in Paris isn’t cheap, but you don’t need to be a billionaire to make it happen. Honestly, you don’t even have to be a millionaire to buy a beautiful apartment in Paris (I know cause I’ve crunched the numbers, wink). Once you’ve done this step, you’ll know how much monthly income is required to make your dream life happen.
Step 4: Make it happen. Once you have a monthly target, you can get to work on bridging the gap. Let’s say you currently make $3,500 per month and your dream life is going to cost more like $10,000 per month. Great! You only have $6,500 per month in the way of living your dreams. You’re not gonna let that stop you, are you? Of course not! Now you can begin brainstorming ideas to make that income. What products or services could you create and sell to increase your income by $6,500 per month? (Hint: choose things that are an absolute joy for you to create– the happier you are to create it, the more money it will bring in. No, seriously). The beauty of being an entrepreneur is that you can decide how much money you want to make and then build a business that supports that income level.
I encourage you to take some time today to dream up the life that you want for yourself and then research what making that life happen costs. Add up the numbers to come up with your monthly target and then brainstorm ideas to increase your income to reach that target. It’s as simple as that.
Your dreams are much closer than you think.
Need help bridging that gap? My March group coaching program begins soon. Space is limited, and registration closes on March 31st. Get all of the details on March and claim your spot.
[redline]
