PP 003: What Are You Working Towards Each Day?
Find What You Want & Make a Plan to Get There
It’s the same mindless routine day in and day out.
Your head hits the pillow at night, unable to recall anything worthwhile that happened in your mundane day. You dread going to bed because in the blink of an eye you're back to the same routine.
Instead of going to bed, you waste another hour scrolling on your phone longing for entertainment before you reluctantly crash.
Does this pattern sound familiar?
I’m referring to my life before I found a reason to get excited about showing up each day.
There was nothing significant happening in my life and no wonder why—I wasn't enthusiastically working towards something.
Maybe your stuck in this same cycle?
You’re not alone and from my conversations with other creatives, it sounds like plenty like you and me share this same feeling.
I want to convince you that you should be chasing something that excites you daily and how having a plan will make it possible.
Voices in Your Head
Let me ask you a question and answer it honestly to yourself:
What is it you truly want in life and what’s holding you back?
I always loved art growing up but never thought there was a future in it. The doubt in my abilities and future career never allowed me to invest excitement into a vision.
Of course, I had a few flings with creative pursuits, but I never believed anything would come of it. That doubt still lingered in my head saying, “this isn’t going anywhere Scotty—quit wasting your time.”
Am I the only one who has constant conversations with myself?
While that voice of doubt still tries to argue with me, another voice of encouragement has increasingly grown over the years once I caught a glimpse of my potential.
All it takes is a glimpse.
This voice propels me forward towards that vision.
The vision of:
making a living off creating the work I find most fulfilling
while meeting a demand in the world
Working towards something gives each day a purpose. However, without a plan, I can lose the excitement and fall back into that mundane routine.
When you have nothing you're working towards, you tend to settle.
Lacking a plan opens up the door for the voice of doubt creep back in. The wider the door gets, the more quickly doubt suppresses that voice of encouragement and extinguishes that ambitious flame you once had.
Protect the Vision With a Plan
So I ask you again, what is it you truly want in life?
Take your vision and protect it.
Create a plan around it that gives you something objectively to work towards each day.
Don’t get discouraged if you feel like you’re dreaming too big and your vision feels impossible.
"If your dreams don’t scare you, you aren’t dreaming big enough.”
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Instead of seeing your vision as impossible, reverse engineer it and work backwards by designing the necessary steps to get there.
Work from the end goal all the way back until you reach that first step. By doing this, you’ve essentially created the outline to your plan.
Something that works for me to stay on track is every night before I go to sleep, I write down 1–3 things that need to get done the next day that’ll progress me forward to the vision.
As I sleep, I’m mentally and visually preparing my next day. I wake up immediately knowing what I need to do.
Once you start checking these tasks off each day it builds momentum. You continue this process until step 1 and its subtasks are completed—then continue to Step 2.
Momentum continues to grow and that voice of encouragement grows louder and overpowers the doubt.
Believe me, this day-by-day progression is powerful…..and addicting.
Have Some Enthusiasm
Pick something that excites you and start working towards it.
Whether it’s the thing you were meant to do in life or not, you’ll never know unless you pursue it with enthusiasm. It may not be the thing you were meant to do but progress is progress.
Working towards something will let you know if you need to continue or to move to the next thing. That next thing just may explode your creative career.
What I do know for sure is by not pursuing anything, you continue to get the same results.
Find what is is you truly want in life and make a plan to achieve it.
Or would you rather keep scrolling on your phone at night dreading tomorrow?
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CREDITS
Music - Blookah
Executive Assistant - Paige Garland
Photo & Video Specialist - Colton Bachar
Social Media Coordinator - Hannah Schick
Animation Specialist - Greg D'Amico