How to plan out & execute big dreams
This blog post started with me thinking:
“WTF — I want the level of success of Chanel and Lagerfeld… what am i doing with my life?“
Three Things You Need To Become First
We all have big dreams, but most of us grow old with a big bag of regrets. If you’re reading this I want you to make a promise to yourself right now that you won’t be that person— ever. Achieving your big dreams is going to be very hard and it will take a million little steps, but it is not impossible.
The formula to achieving success is quite simple, but we get so overwhelmed with the day-to-day activities that we often forget to push the needle forward. Sometimes we wait a day, a month, a year… and all of the sudden we wake up at 80 with a bunch of regrets. Not on my watch!
There are 3 things you need in order to make sure your big dreams become a reality and here they are.
Things you need to become to achieve your big dreams.
Become resilient
There will be a million people who will tell you your plan is too big, stupid, you won’t ever achieve it. There will be people who will tell you that you can achieve it, but won’t help you. Work on your dream every single day of your life and surround yourself with smart people who are ahead of you in their game. Even if you don’t accomplish it all it’s still better than waking up at 80 full of regrets.
Fire the wrong people
Get rid of all those people who are doubting you, who always complain, who say it’s not possible, who don’t help you and always take from you. Put yourself in a room full of people where everyone is more successful than you. It doesn’t matter if it’s your family or a best friend from childhood. You only live once and there are a billion people out there who would be better from you. Fire everyone who doesn’t serve you.
Have a crystal clear vision & plan
You need both. Your vision needs to be clear and you need a rough plan of what you need to accomplish to get there. You might not always follow the plan and have to be open to opportunities that await you. Never know— god/universe might have a better plan for you. If you’re not crystal clear about what you want you’ll just end up taking random half-assed steps towards success that will kinda give you something, but not what you really wanted. Get clear and get to work.
Here is how you can plan out your dreams
You have to start by clarifying your dream
What is it you want to achieve, really? Are you doing it for yourself truly or for your parents or to impress others? Get crystal clear, but make sure it’s YOUR dream and no one else. Yes, it’s important to be crystal clear in what it is, but also where it is coming from.
Justyna’s Personal Note: I’m 30 right now and to an outsider I am an accomplished human being who has won awards and has done impressive things. To myself I am a coward in a way because I forgot my original dream, which I think about every single day. I always wanted to be a powerhouse in fashion and I just let other people live this dream for me. We’re on this journey together and I am ready to be crystal clear.
What are the smaller steps you can take today?
It won’t happen in a day. Your big dreams are your big dreams. You have to give yourself a few years. My friend Erika De La Cruz, Editor In Chief of The La Girl, told me once that we often underestimate what we can achieve in five years, but overestimate what we can achieve in one year.
Break down your dream into smaller steps. Maybe you have to get hired by the right company first, maybe you need to meet specific people. Maybe you need to quit your job and get some side clients so you also have time to have an internship. Or maybe you need to learn SEO to blow up your brand?
Justyna’s Personal Note: I am in this space of splitting from someone I worked with for years or rather this person was tagging along for the ride while I was doing all the work. It got me thinking how I was there building our platform because I wanted to accomplish something, but at the end of the day I was just taking random steps towards random success. Today, I am ready to be crystal clear about the plan that I want and my real goals and dreams.
Without deadlines, nothing matters
Have you ever procrastinated in your life? Have you ever said to yourself that postponing something to tomorrow is ok? Yeah, guilty! If you don’t have deadlines for when you want to achieve something you’ll end up not doing it at all. A whole year will pass by and you will not get anything done. Make them realistic and don’t think it will be done in one day. You can always stretch a deadline, but make sure you give your best at estimating.
Justyna’s Personal Note: I’m going to shout out my friend Erika De La Cruz again. She really gave me a good tip last year. What she said is we focus on too many things at once and don’t get anything done. Focus on accomplishing one thing a month! Not 50, not 100. Just one. Do it with passion, do it well and move on to the next goal.
Track what you accomplished & hold yourself accountable
Sticking to something is super hard, but you know what is even harder? Not achieving what you wanted and living in regret. Track all the accomplishments in a spreadsheet and also make a list of the useless things you accomplished that do not align with your main goal. Why did you do it in the first place? Did someone influence you? Do you have to make any adjustments?
Justyna’s Personal Note: Very often I fall into a trap of doing random things for no reason. I spend the whole day on self care, watching some random show or reading a book that has nothing to do with my dream life. It’s important to track your progress and your goals, but it’s also important to track the time stealers that have no business being in your life (even the good stuff sometimes). Check out my blog about Lucid Dreaming. Yes, it’s cool, but did it really help me out in my longterm vision? No, it was a distraction.
Never ever give up
So, you’ve come this far to quit? Absolutely NOT. Things will get tough, you will lose yourself in random tasks of life and the time stealing activities I mentioned above. It’s ok! If you have the balls to pursue your dreams that means that you are already halfway there. Become in tune with your own soul, your dreams, desires, fears and push through all of it.
Justyna’s Personal Note: Yes, I talked a lot about how there are random tasks that mean nothing and contribute nothing to your main goal, but guess what? At least you did something, improved a skill, met a new human being and didn’t cave in to your doubts. There is nothing worse than a talented person who doesn’t fight for their own success and lets their life rot away.
Little Justyna with grandma’s note that says “Look how many rings she has on.“ Fashionista from day one!
NO one is coming to save you, it’s all you
It’s scary, but also empowering. Your journey will be unique, often lonely and scary. There will be times when you will feel like giving up. Don’t ever do that. Celebrate your wins, love like there is no tomorrow, improve yourself daily and analyze what went wrong. At the end of the day, no matter where you will end up, you’ll be better off trying to do something than giving away your life to the Kardashians and being a follower.
Always choose to be a leader. It’s hard, but worth it.
What are you waiting for? Let’s gooooooo!
Want to connect with Justyna? Just email justyna@newschool.edu
