5 Steps for Turning Hope Into an Actionable Roadmap

It’s likely that somewhere inside you, you feel “hope” for a better future. This can be anything from quitting your job, starting your own business, traveling the world, and joining a non-profit. You daydream about this future and hold onto that hope, but for one reason or another, you aren’t actively working towards it (sad face emoji).

But there’s good news! Hope CAN be turned into an actionable roadmap that literally walks you from where you are to where you want to be within the very near future. This is a practice I walk my clients through to turn intangible “hope” into very tangible action and amazing results.

The beautiful thing about this exercise is that you’re starting from a point of what you really want out of life and why. That means that you’re starting from a point of passion and dreams. When you reverse engineer this into actionable baby steps, you begin to fill your day with tasks that not only move you measurably closer to your goals and dreams, but you also replace busy work and headache-inducing daily minutia with passion-infused action steps. Your task list will fill up with things that you both enjoy doing AND that move you measurably closer to your overarching goals. This is why it’s important to take the time to find your clarity and write it all out.  At the end of this post, there’s a link to a blank worksheet you can use to fill out your own answers.

 

1. Start with your “why”

Mentally remove yourself from the minutia of your business, projects, and day-to-day life. Throw away all your assumptions and step back into the big picture. Do this by going somewhere quiet (such as a park, on a hike, or to the beach). Use the following questions to regain your clarity on what you really want out of life, break your goals down into actionable baby steps, and reprioritize “life goal” steps over busy work and other important tasks.

1. What do I really want out of life?
2. What makes me the happiest?
3. What makes me the most unhappy?
4. How does this apply to my work?
5. How does this apply to my daily life?
6. What are my long term goals?
7. What are my short term goals?
8. What baby steps do I need to take to reach my goals?
9. Do my current daily tasks consist of the above baby steps I need to take to reach my short and long term goals?
10. If not, how can I adjust my daily tasks so that I am moving measurably closer to my short and long term goals each day?

 

2. Get clear on your “big goal”

At the very bottom, write out your “big goal”. This “big goal” is your hope for the future. Do you want to double your income? Do you want to travel more? Do you want to lose 50 – 100lbs? Make sure it’s a goal that is:

1. Big
2. Specific
3. Challenging
4. In line with your “why” from Step 1

 

3. Identify your starting point

Once you have this all figured out, grab a piece of paper. At the top, write out (yes, handwritten – it’s therapeutic) your overarching goal. For me, it’s this: “Create a steady stream of cash-flow through either strategic income automation or a passion-project, providing me the freedom to travel, pursue my hobbies, focus on giving back, spend time with family and friends, and brainstorm innovative ways to have a positive impact on the global community.” I know from experience these are by far the things that make me the happiest, and what is life but precious time to chase after the things that make you feel most alive?

Under it, write out where you are at in the process right now. What’s your starting point? What steps have you already taken to work towards your goal? What place are you starting from? This could be something like “Have $30k in savings”, or “Have 3 years experience and 4 major connections within the industry.”

 

4. Determine big steps and baby steps

Write out the big steps you need to take to get from where you are now (written at the top of the paper) to where you want to be (written at the bottom of your paper). Once you have the big steps written out, break them down into actionable baby steps.

These steps need to very clear and specific. For example, say you’re a business owner and your goal is to “double your income”. To do this, you’ll need to sign on 10 more clients for your main package. “Sign on 10 more clients” will be one of the “big steps” towards this goal. You can this break this “big step” down into “baby steps” to get you there. What do you need to do to sign on 10 more clients? Baby steps may include gathering a list of prospects, exhausting your existing network for opportunities, posting more regularly on Facebook and social media about what you offer, cold calling with email follow up, creating marketing collateral, and joining a local networking group.

It will be up to you to determine what action steps are big and which ones are baby steps, but in general, you should be able to complete big steps in a 2 – 4 week period and baby steps in a 1 – 3 day period.

 

5. Give yourself deadlines

Setting deadlines and a system to hold yourself accountable is key to turning hope into action into reality. How long will it take you to complete each big step and baby step? Set a start date and end date with specific deadlines by each big step and baby step. You can find an example of a filled out worksheet here.

 

And there you have it. You’ve regained clarity on what you want most out of life (i.e. that which will make you the happiest) and now literally have a step-by-step roadmap to get from where you are to where you want to be.

Use this roadmap from now on to remind yourself where to prioritize your time and energy and WHY you started on this journey in the first. I promise you, if you do this, burnout will happen less often and you’ll get closer and closer to waking up every single day felling like you’re still dreaming because life is just THAT good.

Remember – this roadmap is not set in stone. If you continue to get burnt out, you can continue to revise your roadmap as needed. You’ll often start out in the process thinking you want one thing only to realize you actually want something else entirely. Revise as necessary until maximum happiness is reached 🙂

 

Print The Worksheet Here

 

For life coaching and business mentoring, call or text me TODAY (seriously) at my personal line – 801.602.9101

-Jonathan Jaussi, CircuitComplete Mentor