How to get the support you need to achieve your dreams

How to dream bigger when everyone around you isn’t? It’s a question I get asked often. Contrary to what you might think, the culture we live in is not one of big dreamers.

Most of us are raised in societies that aspire to success yet fail to equip us with what’s needed to get there. If you’re not part of the dominant group that sets the rules you’ll get mixed messages about your personal success – at best. As women this often translates in doubt, lack of confidence, perfectionism. The belief that we have to be and do it all before we can even speak about success. Even if we’d attain the impossible we still wouldn’t brag about it. We’d remain good girls and not shed too much light on our achievements. Sound familiar?

It certainly does for me.

From the start of my career when I was 21 until well in my thirties anything I did was never good enough. Fresh out of uni I was sitting at the table with decision-makers from major corporations, building innovative projects with passion, and dedication. I didn’t feel good enough. I went on to build my own web agency. I grew it with passion, and dedication. Still didn’t feel good enough. In 2013 I sold it to a bigger player on the market, and started consulting on a freelance basis. Again at the table with decision-makers from renown corporations, and institutions. Nope. Still didn’t feel like I deserved to be there.

By the end of 2014 I’d had it. I left the white-collar world to do the stuff I’d always wanted to do: pursue my big dreams.

As a multi-passionate creative woman I’d always heard the call, but systematically failed to act on it. I bought into the status quo. Thought I had to do things “by the rules”. Add a dash of perfectionism, people-pleasing, and lack of self-worth to the mix and you’ve got a beautiful recipe of unhappy compliance. Along the way I healed myself. Worked my way through limiting beliefs, re-framed things for myself. But looking back one of the main reasons I didn’t go after my big dreams sooner is because I wasn’t surrounded with the support I needed.

Everyone in my life followed the same rules. We were all oblivious. To the status quo, the unwritten rules, the expectations. All of us expressed the same wishes for material things, the same ideas about how the world should be and our place in it. Whenever I strayed off the path and expressed my deepest desires I was met with worry, disbelief or – my all time favorite – the friendly advice not to think so much.

When I realized it’s wasn’t me, and that my big dreams weren’t crazy, I went out to find the support I was craving for. It felt like I was born again. This time my big dreams were born with me.

How do you surround yourself with support?

• Read biographies

With so many naysayers around me I had to convince myself I wasn’t crazy for wanting what I wanted. One way I did this was by reading the biographies of people I looked up to that went after their big dreams.

Reading biographies helped me believe in myself, and my dreams by realizing that everyone struggles with well intentioned people who simply don’t get it. That there’s no overnight success. That all roads are paved with challenges. If you’re looking for some inspiration, here’s a couple of juicy ones that will fire up your dream brain:

All Things at Once by Mika Brzezinski
Chanel: A Woman of her Own by Axel Madsen
Never Tell Me Never by Janine Shepherd
The Road to Someplace Better by Lillian Lincoln Lambert
Suits: A Woman on Wall Street by Nina Godiwalla

• Create your own support network

It’s great to have role models but it’s certainly not enough. Big dreams can’t be built alone. We all need a support network to help us achieve our goals.

The good news is, you can create one for yourself.

Surrounding myself with like-minded people, mentors, coaches, friends who support me, and believe in me is one of my priorities. The more of these positive influences I have in my life, the better I do. With my goals. But with myself too. Go out in search of the support you need, and ask for help. To keep you accountable, to learn, to grow or simply to be heard, and loved. It works!

• Remember you get to choose

When we’re stuck in the status quo it’s easy to believe there’s no other way. That the people we’re surrounded by are it for us, and that we’ll simply have to make it work. The truth is: you get to choose. Who you allow into your life. What your boundaries are. The kind of help you want and need.

Remember you’re free to choose – and chase – your big dreams. Whatever anyone tells you.

If you want more tips to get unstuck, I’ve got great news for you! This tip is part of a series, you can find all entries here.

How to start small to finish big

When we dream big, it’s easy to get caught up in the dream and become overwhelmed. Huge goals often feel like mountains that we’re not equipped to climb. I believe this is one of the main reasons why so many big dreamers never act on their goals. The vision is so big that they fail to see how they could ever make it their reality, so they do nothing.

In order to achieve big dreams it’s important to start small: plan small, take small steps, move forward in an achievable way. That way the path that leads to your dreams feels more manageable, and you’ll be more likely to remain motivated and in action.

How do you start small?  

• Put action steps on your to-do list, not goals

Last week a client told me about the “goals” she’d been stuck with on her to-do list. When I asked her how long they’d been on there, her reply was: “Forever”. I wasn’t surprised. I see this so often in my coaching practice. When we fail to turn goals into actions steps when putting them on our to-do lists, not much gets done. Who can blame us? Goals could take weeks, months, years to accomplish. Having them as an action step on our daily planner inevitably will cause overwhelm.

Keep your goals and dreams on your vision board and use your daily planners for the actual steps you’ll take to achieve them.

One way to do this is to break down each of your goals into all the steps it’ll take you to accomplish them. Then use this master list to put together your daily, weekly, or monthly to-do lists, starting from the actions you can take right now. If your goal is to start an online business for instance, steps you’ll need to take range from figuring out your website software, domain name, hosting provider all the way to writing content, defining your offering, and putting together your marketing strategy. Not all of these steps can be taken immediately. But some can, like researching website options, or brainstorming domain names. Those are the steps you need to get started with first.

• Make sure you can complete each step in one sitting

It’s not enough to turn goals into action steps. You have to make sure you can tackle each of them in one sitting. What I mean by that is that you have to be able to complete any action step in 30 minutes to a few hours, depending on the time you’ve allocated for it on your daily schedule. If not, the action step is not small enough and probably looks more like an intermediate goal that needs refining.

When I put together action steps I like to revisit them a few times to make sure they’re the smallest they can be. When I review them I always ask myself the same question: “Is there anything else I need to do to complete this step?”. If the answer is no, I know I have a good action step. If it’s yes, I break it down further.

• Plan ahead weekly

Once you have a master list of action steps for each of your goals it’s time to plan. I love to plan ahead of my week on Sunday. It’s the most peaceful day of the week, with the least amount of distractions. At least for me  I sit down with my list and fill my weekly planner with the steps I’ll take that week. It not only helps me to stay focused, but I consistently achieve more when I plan ahead like this.

One thing that has helped me throughout the years though (and that I’m still working on) is to limit the amount of things I put on my list every day. It’s so easy to overestimate the amount of time we have available, and to stress ourselves out with too many things we think we “have to” do. When we do, it’s as if we’re adding the goals back on our to-do list: we become overwhelmed, and our momentum fades away. Make sure to give yourself enough time each day to complete the actions steps you’ve set yourself, and limit how many you’ll do each day.

Remember there’s a whole world out there. While you’re building your big dreams make sure to experience, and enjoy it. In the end, now is the only time we’ve got.

If you want more tips to get unstuck, I’ve got great news for you! This tip is part of a series, you can find all entries here.

How Christine started a soulful creative services business

Christine is a vibrant, multi-passionate explorer of life. Following her own entrepreneurial path, Christine created a company where’s she able to enjoy and benefit from many of her passions: photography, writing, traveling, life coaching. Something I know many creative women would like to do, and the reason why I needed to know more about Christine’s inspiring journey. Here’s how she achieved her dream.

What was your big dream, and what inspired you to go after it?

The big vision I held that I couldn’t stop dreaming about was becoming a successful soulpreneur. I believed it was possible for me and I knew it was only a matter of time, but it still felt like another lifetime away.

I craved the freedom to fill my schedule with the variety of things and passions I came to love over the years. This entrepreneurial dream morphed when I found Life Coaching. It was the missing piece of my multi-passionate puzzle.

Did you always had this dream?

I wanted to become a full-fledged entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. The dream evolved – as I did – over time from a brick and mortar business to the latest iteration of a sustainable creative entrepreneur. As an internationally certified Life Coach, I support and empower both women and men to uncover true alignment with themselves and throughout their lives.

What was one of the first thing you did to get you started?

One of the very first steps I took toward pursuing this dream was enrolling in a class focused solely on Entrepreneurship during my senior year of high school. I went on to study and graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Management with honors to boot. I was pulling double duty throughout high school and my undergraduate studies as I worked my way up the ranks in various full-time retail positions, always with the hopes of taking my career to the next level.

What were the biggest challenges you faced in working toward achieving your dream?

I think it’s safe to say that any creative or entrepreneur deals with their own inner critic on a regular basis. Whether it’s with the far-fetched ideal of perfection or the notion of not-enoughness. As if that isn’t enough of a beast to wrestle, I also had to release and detach from people’s opinions and perspectives about my life and the way I chose to live it. It was imperative that I weed out the voices and attitudes from those people who ultimately didn’t support me and weren’t vital to my forward momentum. And, when you learn to be discerning, you begin celebrating yourself instead of relying on others for praise.

What do you wish you would have done differently? What would you warn others about?

There’s a big part of me that wishes I would have leapt and left my day job sooner to fully and wholeheartedly pursue creative entrepreneurship. With that being said, the biggest piece of advice I can offer is that there isn’t an exact equation or ‘right’ series of steps to follow. You’ve got to figure it out for yourself and your life.

Would you say you’ve achieved your big dream yet?

Yes! And I know it’s also only a matter of time until another level or bigger dream appears and it’ll be completely up to me to choose whether I grow with it or not.

What do you think helped you achieve it?

There were a number of things that helped me finally transition from an employee to an entrepreneur. Seeking out and developing an unwavering support system was hugely beneficial, but the belief in myself had to come first and foremost or I never would have jumped. I had to arrive at this place where I was more confident with my abilities and the work I wanted to share with the world and less concerned or worrisome of the unknown. And here’s the truth of the matter: the pleasure and pride I have for the work I now put out into the world as a writer and a life coach is more important than any opinions or critiques.

What’s the best advice you have for others who want to follow their big dreams?

The only piece of advice you need is to be relentless in paving your path! There will always be someone who has something to say if you’re looking for it so make things easier on yourself and stay focused on what actually matters. You are going to have challenges and obstacles come your way so you’ve got to find the thing worthy of your time and your fight.

Christine embodying soulful, unconventional courage

More about Christine – thrivingadventure.com

Equal parts explorer, writer, and life coach, Christine has a penchant for sharing her real (read: human) journey while encouraging people to reclaim ownership and reignite courage so they can live out the adventure of a lifetime within their own lives.

You can learn more about Christine’s work on her website.

You can follow Christine’s journey, and adventures on instagram @christine.barnes and read her thoughts, and insights about living an unconventional creative and courageous life on medium @hellochristineb

Christine’s favorite quote:

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.
– Mary Ann Radmacher

Christine’s big dream for the world:

To encourage and support women and men to live the adventure of a lifetime within their own lives! We all have the ability and power to live our best lives regardless of our backgrounds, our locations, or the paths we choose to pursue and I’m committed to making this less of a far-fetched idea and more of a reality.

If you want more inspiring stories, I’ve got great news for you! This story is part of an interview series, you can find all entries here.

3 inspiring women who achieved their big dreams

When I think of women with big, ambitious, crazy dreams they’ve achieved, I can’t overlook J.K. Rowling or Oprah Winfrey. Their stories inspire the world.

J.K. Rowling said of the time when she wrote the first ‘Harry Potter’ book that she was as poor as someone could be in modern Britain without being homeless, her marriage had imploded, she had a daughter to care for, and all she had was hope, a big idea, and a typewriter. Failure didn’t break her, it helped her discover who she was:

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.

Oprah Winfrey grew up in poverty. She was sexually abused as a child, ran away from home, and had a baby who died soon after birth when she was just 14. Her first boss told her she woudn’t make it in television because she was too emotional. She started her own TV show and it became the highest ranking TV show in America.

People refer to me as a brand now – the Oprah brand. I never knew what a brand was when I first started out. I became a brand by making every decision flow from the truth of myself. Every choice I made, for every show that was going to be on air, I made based upon ‘does this feel right?’, ‘is this gonna help somebody?’

J.K. Rowling and Oprah Winfrey are highly visible big dreamers, but they’re not the only ones. There are many other big dreamers, just like you.

I love to go in search of inspiring women like you and me who achieved big dreams. It helps me to keep going, and to know that I can do it too. The 3 women I want to talk about today aren’t global celebrities. They’re real, normal people, living normal lives. But each of them had a big dream they went after without giving up. Here are their inspiring stories.

Tahera Rahman

Tahera Rahman worked for WHBF (a local TV station in the USA) for two years as a producer before finally getting the chance to turn her big dream into reality.

Tahera always wanted to be a TV reporter, to bring the latest news to people’s homes, but even her mentors would tell her that it was unlikely she’ll ever get to do that. Why? Tahera is Muslim-American and wears a hijab.

The lack of Muslim-American women who wear a headscarf on camera was obvious — I was very aware of that fact — but I never considered this something that was impossible.

On February 8th, 2018, Tahera’s dream came true, as she became the first full-time broadcast TV reporter in America to wear a hijab on the air.

How did she do it? She worked hard and didn’t get discouraged, not even after multiple rejections. When she learned the station she was working for had an open position for an on-air reporter, she applied and she did everything that she could to become the perfect candidate for the job.

Montana Brown

At 24, Montana Brown became a pediatric nurse, fulfilling her big childhood dream. Montana met amazing, kind pediatric nurses during childhood, when she had to fight for her life and beat cancer, not once, but twice – first at age 2 and then again when she was 15.

On her first day working as a nurse at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta she wrote in a Facebook post:

Never in a million years did I think that at the age of 24 I would have achieved my biggest and wildest dream – to work at the hospital I was treated at as a child/teenager. It’s amazing and crazy and awesome and I’m SO excited to work with such an inspirational organization!!

What we can learn from Montana is that our big dream isn’t always about us, it can be about helping others and giving back some of the love and care we received when we needed it most.

Isabel Conde

Isabel Conde knows how to make a dream come true. She achieved hers at a young age through the power of determination, showing the world that where there is a will, there is a way.

Isabel’s big dream was to visit Peru and discover its magical mountains and nature. The obstacle? She had no money for the trip. So, the 18-year-old made a vision board of Machu Picchu and Cusco, Peru, and started working. Hard. For 6 months, she worked 3 jobs, sometimes starting work at 3 AM and finishing at 11 PM.

After those 6 months, she had $7,500 for her trip to Peru and $1,000 saved for college expenses for when she’d be back. Her dream was about to become reality.

She didn’t know anyone in Peru and she traveled alone. In the beginning, she had doubts about what she was doing, but as soon she saw the mountains, she knew she achieved something amazing. By making this dream come true she offered herself a unique gift, one that will stay with her for the rest of her life.

There isn’t anything you can’t do if you plan enough. A positive attitude, work ethic, and a plan are the only requirements to make your travel dreams come true. Even if you don’t have the money to travel now, with enough planning and dreaming it’s all possible!

What’s your big dream? Let me know in the comments below.

How to take care of yourself without neglecting your priorities

Back in 2010, when my journey toward dreaming bigger started, one of the first things I learned was how important it is to take care of ourselves. Whatever you want to achieve; making sure the body, mind, and soul achieving it are nourished in a meaningful way is essential to succeed.

As women we’re conditioned to put everyone else first. Many of us are taught to be good, quiet, not too demanding, and certainly not selfish.

We’re expected to do all things without complaining. To bring children into the world, to care for our families, to look gorgeous, to be exemplary daughters, sisters, mothers, wives, and mistresses. In recent times to be wildly successful at our careers and businesses too.

The result is an epidemic of over-extension and overwork. Of perfectionism, people-pleasing, and dieting. Of trying to live big lives while keeping ourselves small, exhausted, trying to do it all.

It doesn’t work.

You cannot dream big while trying to please everyone. You cannot see the possibility in everything when the only way you believe you can be is perfect (read white, thin, and young). In order to achieve your goals you need to nurture yourself, and put yourself first.

Because pursuing big dreams is a marathon, not a sprint. So you need to be in optimal physical and emotional condition to keep at it over time, and to get to the finish line.

How to take care of yourself?

• Self-care is not selfish

One of the first things we need to unlearn as women is the belief that taking care of ourselves is selfish. It’s not. Putting ourselves first is smart. It’s necessary. Even taking care of others works better when we take care of ourselves first. There’s no need to feel guilty, ashamed, or not good enough.

• Self-care can be anything

The media easily associated self-care with spa days, and massages. Or time off in the Sun on a tropical island. Sure, those are great ways to take care of yourself but not the only ones. They’re also costly, and time-consuming which makes it harder to fit them into your life.

If we look passed this limiting picture of self-care a whole world opens up. Self-care can be anything. It can fit into any amount of time on any day of the week. It doesn’t need to cost anything. It can be a phone call to a friend, going to bed early, a babysitter on a Wednesday afternoon, five minutes of stretching in the morning, clothes that fit you perfectly. Self-care is about filling your cup, doing what you need to be nourished, strong, happy.

• Self-care is a practice

Giving yourself some me-time when you’re about to give up or break down is always a good idea. It will help recharge your batteries, and pick you up so you can keep going. But to reap the long-term benefits of self-care, so it can help you achieve your biggest dreams, it needs to be a practice. Something you do regularly, if possible every day.

Over time, five minutes of self-care every day will be life-changing. It will bring you closer to yourself, help you identify your needs, figure out how you operate from the inside out. You’ll learn to recognize when it’s time to focus on yourself, and have plenty of options to choose from.

If you want more Dream Bigger Tips, I’ve got great news for you! This tip is part of a series, you can find all entries here.

How Carolien became the go-to event planner creative entrepreneurs

Carolien is a vibrant, inspiring, and creative woman. Her love and passion for connecting people through unique experiences led her to start her own event planning business. With more than 100 business events under her belt, Carolien clearly has become the go-to event planner for coaching and creative entrepreneurs around the world. Here’s how she achieved her dream.

What was your big dream, and what inspired you to go after it?

When I was 14 or 15, I dreamt that I would get up every day and never feel unhappy to go to my job. I wanted a job that inspired me and that would keep me interested and excited about what I did every single day. When I grew older, after I went to university and I had my first jobs, I realized that my dream was to create my own company so that I could be location independent. I didn’t want to be tied down to one location but instead I wanted to travel. That’s exactly what I did. I’m building my own event planning agency and I’m traveling around Europe, US and the world to host in-person events for my clients, and to help them create their own events from scratch.

Did you always had this dream?

As I mentioned before, it grew on me when I was 14 or 15. I even wrote on my bedroom wall: “I have to create myself”, as Sartre said (L’existence précède l’essence – Existence precedes essence). This quote is the red thread in my career choices. I chose for myself, and made it work.

I opted for Ancient History rather than Medicine at university. I remember feeling confident that I would find my way in the adult world after uni, even if I didn’t choose a topic that typically let to an outlined career path. I picked the subject I liked the most, and had great fun and academic success along the way.

Then the time came to find my first job. I headed to the The European Art Fair in Maastricht, one of the top art salons in the world of fine arts. I had a couple of printed resumes with me, and presented myself in all the booths with Archeological Objects. I got one interview on the spot with an art auction house from Brussels, and they hired me! There I learned about organizing auctions and events.

After 2 years at the gallery, I wanted to get into meeting and event planning, and I got a job at an event planning agency. I was in charge of the logistical planning, and for running for conferences and meetings for the European Commission and other high profile clients. I loved the project cycle of putting together a live event where people could connect and transform together. What was missing for me at the agency was the freedom to travel and to choose my own clients in the industries I loved, like the online education industry. I wanted to work with clients at shaping the event concept, and I also wanted to offer full marketing and communication services to sell tickets. That’s why I founded my own event planning business in late 2015.

What was one of the first thing you did to get you started?

I took a course about freelancing, to learn more about what it is to run a business, and how to do it. This was back in 2013. Then I started getting clients on the side as a freelance translator, along my day job at the auction house. I picked translation because it matched with my skill set and it’s a service you can operate completely location-free. I missed the human contact I had when organizing events, so I eventually moved into event planning instead.

What were the biggest challenges you faced in working toward achieving your dream?

The biggest challenge was to find a clear focus. I was asking myself a lot of questions: “Should I build a business, or should I find another job, or maybe stay at my job? What kind of business should I build? Should I go full-time or not?”

I wanted to be flexible and location-independent. I first tried translation, but this didn’t fit so well with my own desire to meet people and see my clients reactions at the end of the project. Again, one of the reasons why I went with event planning. It’s daunting to leave the security of a full-time job for a new project. I had no guarantees, but I felt a big urge to go for it. To make the transition, I started out in a startup incubator first, where coaches helped me find my way with market research, my first sales calls and my first clients. I actually landed my former employer, the event agency, as a first client with their help.

What do you wish you would have done differently? What would you warn others about?

I wish I would have worked on my mindset earlier. I let myself be held back because of fears I had. Doing mindset work really helped me reach next levels in my business.

Would you say you’ve achieved your big dream yet?

I’m on my way, every day. I’m building my company.

What do you think helped you achieve it?

Support, both hired and from my circle of friends, business buddies and family. I regularly chat on Skype with other entrepreneurs that I meet during networking events or online, to check in with each other, and to hold each other accountable.

What’s the best advice you have for others who want to follow their big dreams?

Don’t let fear hold you back. You can figure out a way to get there. When I first started I was terrified of being visible online, on social media, and of doing sales conversations. I was afraid people would judge me, and I didn’t want that. But I realized there would be no business if no-one knew about me or if I didn’t sell anything… So I worked on my mindset and developed ways to get over my fears.

Carolien hosting one of her signature event planning workshops

More about Carolien – carolienmertens.com

Carolien Mertens is the go-to event planner for coaches and creative entrepreneurs. She planned over 100 business events and welcomed more than 10.000 participants. She’s a regular a contributor for the Huffington Post and Thrive Global on live event topics.

Carolien gives her clients the opportunity to focus and thrive at their live event through her signature flexible planning strategy, that ensures smooth event flow & intense participant experience.

Use her 5-step guide to start planning your own live event.

Watch Carolien’s Event Experts interviews on her Facebook Page. The last edition is all about branding your event.

Carolien’s favorite quote:

I have to create myself
– Jean-Paul Sartre

Carolien’s big dream for the world:

More access to education and opportunities for everyone.

If you want more inspiring stories I’ve got great news for you! This story is part of an interview series, you can find all entries here.

How to get enough sleep during the night to achieve more during the day

When you’re working on your dreams, it’s easy to get stuck in action mode. This might come as a surprise, especially since procrastination is one of the main reasons clients seek out my help to achieve their goals, but too much doing can keep you from getting what you want.

Too much of anything is never a great formula. With the exception of love. I don’t think you can ever get enough of that. But when it comes to working toward your goals, being in action too much, wanting it too much, thinking about it too much can produce the adverse effect. The way this “too muchness” will show up is different for everyone.

What I’ve found – in my own life as well as that of many of my clients – is that it often translates into not enough sleep. We get so excited about our new idea that we slay at it for hours on end, or it keeps us up at night. We fall in the trap of thinking we have to be first, so we keep on going. Relentlessly. As we do, we stop listening to our body, we neglect it. The result? We become less productive, our creativity takes a hit, eventually we end up exhausted.

None of this is good for your dreams. It makes it harder to stay on track, to enjoy the process, and even to believe in them.

So make sure you get enough sleep. A rested body, and a replenished mind are your best tools to achieve your goals. It’s an illusion to think you’ll get there faster if you only push yourself hard enough. Achieving big dreams is a marathon, not a sprint. Small steps over time will yield more results than unsustainable burst of too much action.

How to get enough sleep?

• Listen to your body

Our bodies are incredibly complex systems with even more intricate operating systems. Not a computer in the world can do what our bodies can. Our bodies will tell us when something’s wrong. Because our minds have such powerful processing power too it’s easy to discard the signs. Mind of matter is a thing, and a good one for many reasons. But not when sleep is concerned. In order to function optimally, to be happy and feel good in our bodies, we need to sleep.

You might feel tired, experience some aches and pains, become more irritable, have trouble organizing your thoughts. These could all be signs that it’s time to stop and get some rest.

• Remember you’ve got plenty of time

Most of us overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can do in a month. The same goes for longer period of times. It’s easy to overestimate where we’ll be in a year, and underestimate what we can actually accomplish in five. When you’re working toward big dreams it’s important to remember you’ve got plenty of time. It might feel like you have to do it now because you want it so badly, but you do have time.

I see it so often: it’s the small steps over time that produce the most results. Creating something new is a process that can’t be rushed. The journey is part of it. When we start it’s easy to think there’s no journey, just a destination. That’s when we rush into things, demand too much of ourselves, neglect to sleep. It’s unsustainable and simply doesn’t work.

When it’s 11pm at night and you find yourself yawning more than you’re thinking… remember you’ve got plenty of time. And go to sleep.

• Visualize your dreams as you fall asleep

One of the things I love to do when I fall asleep is to visualize my dreams. As I close my eyes, and rest my head on my pillow I imagine I already have everything I’m working toward. I do this for two reasons.

First, I believe in the power of visualization. Whatever we focus our energy on will eventually manifest itself. Not because elves and fairies will magically make it true but if it stays on our mind we’ll think about it more, come up with creative solutions for the challenges we encounter, and eventually believe it can happen.

Second, because there’s no better way to fall asleep. Focusing on your dreams in a positive way pushes away worries, and negative thoughts that can keep you up at night. When I do it I’m gone to lalaland in a few minutes, with a big smile on my face!

If you want more tips to get unstuck, I’ve got great news for you! This tip is part of a series, you can find all entries here.