Three Super-Simple Kick Starts to Living Your Dreams – In the Next 15 Minutes
Guest Post by Kathi Lipp, author of
The Me Project: 21 Days to Living the Life You've Always Wanted
Is there a dream that God has given you, but you are waiting until the kids are grown and you have money in the bank before you get started?
You may not be able to enroll in a month long pastry making class or take a week off of work to get started on your novel, but today you can take three little baby steps to making your dream a day-to-day reality.
1. Go Public with It
It’s a little scary to tell the world what you want to do when you grow up—but this is one little step could get you closer to living your dream than almost any other. Plus—it takes very little time and you don’t have to raid your kid’s college fund to make it happen.
When you gather up all your courage and tell your best friend, “I want to learn how to paint,” suddenly she remembers an old art book she has laying around she would love to give you, or her friend from church who teaches art classes. The people you know and love want to be a resource. Give them the privilege of being a part of making your dream happen.
2. Join an Online Group
This is one of the simplest—and cheapest—ways to start exploring your passion. Find out who else is talking about restoring antiques and listen to their conversation. Start by Googling your interest along with the term “online groups.” You will be amazed with the number of people who want to talk about the proper way to care for 1950’s lunchboxes as much as you do.
3. Don’t be Afraid to Pray
I remember the first time I put an offer in on a house—I wanted it more than I had wanted almost anything else in my life. While I knew that I had dozens of other people praying on my behalf, I was too scared to pray.
I didn’t want God to tell me no. I was afraid to pray until my co-worker Kim asked me (in a loving, kind way), why I didn’t believe that God wanted His best for me. Don’t be afraid to pray—as with anything amazing in my life, the path is never what I expected, but it has always been obvious that God’s hand has been on it the whole way.
Labels: goals, priorities
Friday, February 25, 2011
The Me Project: 21 Days to Living the Life You've Always Wanted
I’ve spent a lot of time this year planning, considering, and trying to balance my goals and priorities for the year. Seems that the older I get, the harder it is to know where to focus my priorities. I thought my time was not my own when I was raising and home schooling my son, but that was a piece of cake compared to an aging mom, a husband and a sister with multiple health issues, plus my own health problems, grad school, and running a business. Whew! That’s why I enjoyed Kathi Lipp’s The Me Project: 21 Days to Living the Life You’ve Always Wanted. According to Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, taking small steps every day will not only help you stay committed to your goal, ¨but will also help you ultimately achieve that goal when obstacles come up. Kathi’s book is helping me do just that. She wants you and your friends to live out those dreams—and have some fun along the way.
It’s easy for women to forget the goals and dreams of our younger years. The busyness of everyday life gets in the way. To-do lists and crises replace goals. The Me Project provides women with fun and creative ways to bring back the sense of purpose and vitality that comes with living out the plans and dreams God has planted in our hearts. Kathi’s warm tone and laugh-out-loud humor motivates women to take daily steps toward intentional goals. The end result? We get back our lives and enjoy living in the confidence of a purposeful life in spite of our chaotic schedules.
This handy guide coaches women to do one simple thing toward achieving our goals each day for three weeks. A woman experiencing the exhilaration of a rediscovered life offers more as a wife, mother, friend, volunteer, career woman and daughter. I have had the privilege of being Kathi's friend and colleague. We were in the same writers' group for several years. This is Kathi's third "project" book. The others are The Husband Project and The Marriage Project. I felt those were a little young for my audience, but The Me Project scratches right where we itch.
To motivate you, Kathi is offering a great drawing. Leave a comment here, with your email address, and Kathi will enter your name in a drawing for an incredible Starbucks basket.
Grand Prize Giveaway:
Deluxe Starbucks Coffee Gift Basket
• Three 2.5-oz. bags of Starbucks coffee
(Sumatra, House Blend, and French Roast)
• Tazo black tea
• Starbucks marshmallow cocoa
• Almond roca
• Almond roca buttercrunch toffee cookies
• White chocolate and raspberry cookies
• 2 Starbucks mugs
• Keepsake black bamboo basket
Labels: book review, goals