Are You Over-Planning? It's Time to Accomplish Your Goals.

Any well-executed project starts with a good plan.

Many people want to go back to school, start a business, or maybe even retire early. Spending time mapping out a solid plan will definitely help you reach all of those goals.

But what happens when you spend too much time planning?

Is It Possible To Overplan?

Yes! Definite Yes.

I have a friend who wants to some day own his own physical therapy clinic. He listens to podcasts about how to start a business, how to grow your own physical therapy company, and how to get clients. EVERYDAY, he visualizes his big goal and how he will make it happen.

He spends SO much of his time looking through programs, and analyzing the costs and benefits of each program. He is certain of what his passion is and has clear goals in mind.

There's just one problem……. He’s been researching “next steps” for 3 years.

He has spent more time planning out his future than he has actually acting on his plan to get there.

He doesn't have the credentials to be a licensed physical therapist. He hasn't gotten his doctorate (which you must have in order to be legit). He hasn't even started studying for his GRE (a test required to get into many of the best physical therapy doctorate programs).

But... I Want To Be SUPER Prepared To Succeed!

While planning is the first step of any successful project or goal, it can also be the part that many people fail.

It is easy to convince yourself that you’re making steps forward because you are planning towards your goal, but you also have to set time aside to actually make things happen.

Planning is nothing without execution.

Also, all the planning in the world won’t prepare you for everything you encounter once you actually get started. (Just ask any women who’s been pregnant. Birthing plan? Ha!)

Most of the time, you have to get started on the path towards your goal and just start learning as you go.

How Do You Know It’s Time To Start?

YOU’RE RESEARCHING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER

How many times do you have to google “how to get started” before you get started? If you’ve googled this a few times, it may be time to quit researching and start doing.

YOU KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT A SUBJECT YOU CAN EXPLAIN IT TO SOMEONE ELSE

Have you ever met someone who knows literally everything about real estate but they’ve never bought their first home? If you are that person, than you need to start walking the walk. Consistent action will get you so much further than endless planning.

YOU CLEARLY KNOW THE FIRST STEP

All you really need in order to start….. is the first step. If you’re writing a book, pick up a pen. If you’re going back to school for your Master’s, apply to a program. If you want to get a new job, revamp that resume! If you want to start eating healthier, make a meal plan for the week. If you want to start working out, block off some time on your calendar to take a class.

Once you know what the first step on the path is to reach your goal, you have enough information to take a tiny step. Steps will soon turn into miles.

YOU’VE MOVED YOUR END DATE MORE THAN ONCE

Next year, I’m really going to start that meal plan. Like, for real this time.

The only way to really fail is not to even start. Take a chance on yourself and start that big goal. Your dreams are in good hands….. the best hands even - yours.

xoxo

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

5 Ways To Become A Vision Board Party Speaker

The first time I spoke at a vision board party, I was the host. My palms were sweaty, I was stumbling over my words, and to be honest…. I was pretty scared. I didn’t practice as much as I should have. I was afraid that my story wouldn’t resonate with the people in my audience. I was fearful that I wouldn’t get the response I was hoping for.

I really wanted to change lives.

I had been through SO much, and had come SO far, from having absolutely nothing. I knew that if I could find a way to authentically share what I had been through with others, that they might just be inspired to work on accomplishing dreams of their own.

Becoming a vision board party speaker is easier than you think. You can always host your own vision board party. And YOU can choose to BE the speaker for the party. You have the opportunity to speak as much or as little as you want. There is no one telling you that you can't do it, no barriers in front of you….. except maybe yourself.

In this post, I am going to give you all the tools that you need to become a GREAT vision board party speaker.

HAVE A COMPELLING STORY TO TELL

Let's be honest, no one wants to hear a boring story. If you're going to tell your story….. make it an epic one!

In my story, I went from a college graduate with no job prospects, bills up to my eyeballs, suffering from depression, and honestly contemplating suicide. I was able to go back to school, get a Masters, land my dream job, triple my income, AND create a better life for myself and my daughter.

I now get to use my story to help others see that they too, can do ANYTHING that they put their minds to. I am sure that you have your own story of trial and triumph. As a speaker, it’s your job to deliver that story in a way that’s compelling enough to inspire and motivate others.

HAVE A MESSAGE TO SHARE

It's not enough to have a great story of trials and triumph.…you also need to have a takeaway that the audience can immediately apply to their vision boards AND to their life.

Having a story is NOT enough. You want your audience to walk away from listening to your story feeling like they have actionable steps to move forward and to make Real. Lasting. Change.

Say for example, you used networking to take yourself to the next level. Simply saying ‘I used networking’ is not enough to convince an audience to make a change. You want to share exactly how you did those amazing things. You want to give them step-by-step actions. If you aren’t going to give them the goods, your talk may not be worth their time, Be open. Be honest. Be vulnerable. Be very detailed about how you changed your life. Break it down so it’s easy to understand and easy to follow. If you can do that, then you’ll really be able to help your audience make long lasting changes in their lives.

TAILOR YOUR TALK TO YOUR AUDIENCE

Write down the audience that you’re speaking so that you can tailor your story to the recipient of that story. I’ll give you an example.

I have a great story about how my daughter and I worked together in order to get me accepted into grad school. I literally had my 6 year old reading me flash cards, and helping me get through definitions of big hard words in preparation for the GRE. I would give her quiet time so that I could study. And when I came home from school, super tired, she would read ME bedtime stories so she could still get her reading in and I could rest.

We were quite the team.

Related Content: How to Guarantee Grad School is Worth Your Time & Money

However, if I’m speaking to a room of college students, that story might not really inspire them. It wouldn’t be relatable to them because the majority of them probably are not Moms, much less single Moms who are working, studying and parenting. They wouldn’t need that type of advice. They wouldn’t need motivation and influence through parenting. When you tell your story, make sure to tell THE story for the audience that you’re speaking to.

Being able to relate to the people that you’re speaking to will foster inspiration and motivation. Once you have both your story nailed down and your action plan set for the audience that you’re speaking to….. it’s time to practice.

PRACTICE

I like to record my story on my phone and listen to it during walks. I listen to it during transit whenever I’m in a car, bus, train, or plane. It’s important to hear your story over and over again.

Practicing with yourself is great, but, to really know what works in front of an audience….you’ll have to actually get yourself in front of an audience.

SPEAK AT VISION BOARD PARTIES TO HONE YOUR CRAFT

It’s important to get yourself in front of an audience because it is the only way for you to see how people will receive your message. This is where you will see when they laugh, when they smile, when they get silent, and when the entire room is so engaged - that you could hear a pin drop.

This can also be one of the BEST marketing tools if you want to continue speaking at vision board parties. If you do a good job, it’s likely that someone in that audience will remember your story. Their lives will be changed by crossing your path. And they’ll recommend you to others when future events come up.

A lot of the speaking engagements that I’ve gotten, are a result of speaking at a previous event. Someone who was at that event would call me up or email me and say ‘Hey, I saw that great talk that you gave and I’d love for you come and talk to my audience’.

So always make sure to put your BEST foot forward for Every. Singe. Talk. that you do, no matter how big or how small, because you never know what opportunities could follow.

Vision board parties are a great way to share your story. And it’s an amazing way to help others change their lives. By simply sharing your journey, they’ll be motivated to take action.

Share. Inspire. Change. Grow. Motivate.

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

---

About the author

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

Why Every Struggle You Overcome Is A Gift

My family’s fate weighed heavily on my shoulders. Everything I knew - my identity, my values, my ideals for the future - crashed down around me.

I was working three jobs and charging my credit cards just to keep food on the table for my daughter and I.

I wanted a way out, I wanted something - anything - to hold onto. I wanted to catch my breath because I was suffocating from the disaster that was my life.

Related Content: What to do When You Can’t Hide Your Struggle Anymore

Then, I got an acceptance letter to the Master's degree of my choice. 

But there was a big part of me that was afraid of my good fortune.

Now, I was in a position to study with some of the best and brightest professors in the country. The other students in my cohort had already done work with some amazing companies. Many of them were coming straight from college and were 5 years younger than me.

I couldn't escape the feeling that I wouldn't fit in.

I wouldn't be smart enough.

At my age (which I thought was soooo old) I should have a great career already, right?

And I had a few more struggles than the average college student.

Related Content: 3 Tips to Keep You Going When You Feel Like Giving Up

I AM A PARENT

I had my daughter at 19. Here is what that means:

• I don’t have many friends that are my age who have kids.

• I’m usually the youngest parent in the room at school functions.

• I often need help from family and friends

I grew up hearing that having a child when you are a teenager is a kiss of death. In my head, I was already a “statistic” and would very likely struggle to make something out of my life.

And I struggled without a doubt.

My daughter accompanied me through my early twenties and going forward. Together we went on a journey of self-discovery. From undergraduate school to graduate school and from unemployable babysitter to gainfully employed data analyst.

I DIDN’T HAVE A BACKGROUND IN MATH

When I entered my graduate program, I learned that the degree I was seeking had way more math than I was anticipating. The professors would zoom through advanced statistics concepts and excel formulas so fast it that made my head spin.

I was lost. And it was obvious.

So I started to make friends with fellow students who breezed through class.

I NEVER HAD A FANCY JOB

I met several students in grad school who were much younger than I was, and they would boast about working for Fortune 500 companies and their fancy job titles. I, on the other hand, was a babysitter, a waitress and a freelancer. #awkward

When people would ask me “what do you do?“ I would instantly shrink on the inside and immediately froze up while trying to squeak out a job title that didn’t make me sound like a #loser.

I went to grad school so paranoid that no employer would ever want me because my competition was so much smarter and so much more marketable than I was.

So….. I worked harder. I showed up early to career services and stayed late. I did extra mock interviews and got my presentation polished to perfection by working with several on-campus recruiters. I volunteered for consulting programs and I did additional research projects.

Related Content: How to Make sure Grad School is Worth your Time & Money

Looking back, I realize that everything I was able to accomplish was because of my weaknesses:

1. As a young parent, my daughter helped keep me focused and grounded through school.

2. Not understanding math (and being honest about it) helped me build connections with other people who had different strengths - and it helped me learn what my strengths were.

3. The fact that I didn’t have a fancy job motivated me to work hard in grad school to ultimately land my dream job.

The things that I thought were my downfalls, were actually the things that lead me to success.

Every personal struggle that I had imagined would make me different in a negative way…..ended up doing the opposite.

My past made me a stronger advocate for myself, resilient in the face of tragedy, calm when everything came crashing down, and a very quick learner.

Without the struggles that I overcame, I would never have built the mental tools necessary to overcome extreme difficulty. I wouldn't be typing this from my desk at my dream company. I wouldn't have a message to share with the world. I wouldn’t have a road map to my personal success to inspire you. 

So, if you’re struggling today, or if you can remember a difficulty that you went through, take some time to appreciate that gift today.

Because the price that you paid to learn those lessons and build that resilience, will pay dividends for the rest of your life.

xoxo

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

---

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

5 Ways Ordinary People Can Start Achieving Extraordinary Results

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

GOALS.

I’ve always had a problem with “SMART” goals. The concept just seemed too easy, too unfinished. Like… I set a goal, but what’s next? There are millions of people who set goals every year that do not finish them. I’m sure their goals are smart.

But why aren’t they finishing?

Goals are not really the end of the journey. They’re just the destination. Once you figure out your destination, you have to figure out:

• What you budget is for the trip

• When you’ll make time in your schedule to take this trip.

• Whether you’re going to get there by bus, train or plane.

• Who is going with you

• How long it will take

• And as you go, you’ll likely be checking your progress with Google Maps the entire trip (Am I right?)

To truly start accomplishing your goals, you must think about the end goal as a destination. And then begin the journey, step by step, to get from where you are now to where you want to be in your life.

My Destination

I started paying off my student loan debt three years ago. I had $42,000 of total debt from my undergraduate and graduate degrees. Finally, I got my first “real job” and couldn’t even enjoy my income because I felt crushed by my student loan debt.

Related Content: How to Guarantee Grad School is Worth your Time and Money

I felt #defeated, every time I made my minimum payment and it wasn’t even enough to cover the interest on my loan. (Facepalm).

That's when I decided that I had to start aggressively paying off my student loan debt. I set the SMART goal first, but then I also had to use every tool in the goal setting garage, not just toolbox, in order to make this big dream a #reality.

Here’s how you really build the habits to accomplish your largest goals:

Start with setting measurable goals.

This means setting your goal in way that you can measure whether or not you’ve achieved it. Make sure you have an exact number associated with your goal and a date you want to complete it by.

For example, here are two ways you can set a goal to tackle your debt:

Example #1: "I'll pay off $42K of student loan debt by December 31st of this year."

Example #2:  "Take control of my debt."

The first example outlines exactly how much you want to pay and when you want to complete it.

In the second example, you're setting a vague goal that's difficult to track. How do you know when you’ve taken control of your debt? Is it when you’ve started making the minimum payments? Is it when you’re doubling the minimum? Is it when you’ve deferred that payment again to tackle your other priorities?

If you haven’t set a CLEAR goal in the beginning, it’ll be impossible to measure your success.

Set Milestones for your goals.

Since I knew I wanted to pay off $37K in my first year, I set a monthly number that I would have to pay in order to reach that goal.

$37K/12 months = $3K per month

Once I knew how much I needed to reach my goal, it was really easy to look at my budget and plan how I could make it happen. Also, I could easily track whether I was on track to reach my goal on a monthly basis.

Use a goal tracker.

I am a VERY visual person so I like to see things on paper. When you're working towards a long term goal, (like paying off a ton of debt) it can get boring and you almost start to wonder if you're actually making any progress.

I created a chart where I could color in one square for every $1000 of debt I paid off. If you like to track electronically, there are lots of good apps where you can track your progress on your phone.

Slowly, but surely, I started to fill my chart with colorful boxes. I hung it on the wall so I could see how much progress I had made and how much I still had left.

Use an accountability partner.

I had a friend that I'd call monthly to make sure I was paying my debt off in a timely manner.

We'd have a 30 minute call once a month and talk about how much debt we'd paid off, how much we had left and what the next steps would be. This helped me build the habit and keep the habit of paying off my debt, right from the beginning.

A Note on Habits

All of these goal-crushing tools help you build the right habits so that you can take the right actions every day. Your goals are the result of taking the right actions over and over again until you reach your destination.

If you can master your habits, you can reach any goal you want.

It hasn't been a short journey, but I've made great progress toward this goal over the last two years. And by the end of this year, I’m proud to be able to say I’m student loan debt free!

What will your next SMART goal be?

 

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!