Hi, my friends, welcome to launch your big dream course.
My name is Jennifer Miller, and this is week three, choose your path.
I am so excited that you are here today and we're ready to jump in.
So this is probably my favorite week of all four weeks.
I am a high strategic thinking, Clifton StrengthsFinder, my number one strength is strategic.
And so it is effortless for me to get an idea or get a dream or even identify a problem
and then quickly roadmap the milestones, the goals, the little mini steps, like exactly
the path to take to achieve a goal or to pursue a dream.
But that can get me in trouble.
You see, Proverbs three, five through six says, trust in the Lord with all of your heart.
Even not on your own understanding and in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will
direct your path.
You see, sometimes when we're naturally gifted as high achievers or the ability to think
big and pursue goals or dreams, we can get ourselves in trouble because we can create
a path or start to take action in our own strength.
And so as we go through this week's lesson and this week's content, I'm excited to just
invite you to partner with God, you know, look at this from a different perspective,
not just your mind, but also your heart and ask God in the Holy Spirit, like, what is
the path you want me to take for my dream?
So the main points that we are going to cover today are number one, map your route.
Number two, set smart goals.
And number three, create many steps.
And then we'll do some exercises.
Okay, so mapping your route.
Mel Robbins has this quote, a dream is a guiding beacon, pulling you towards what you want,
while a goal is the actionable path you take to reach that dream.
Essentially, a dream is the big picture vision and a goal is the concrete step to achieve
it, requiring action to turn the dream into reality.
She also says that the dream is imaginative.
It's a feeling and you can technically just find fulfillment in dreaming.
But if you want to achieve a dream, you actually have to bring yourself into a place of execution
and in the natural, you know, physical abilities, set a goal so that you can achieve it.
And so here's, you know, kind of the path I take in creating my route with God.
First, find your starting place, you know, your starting point.
Where are you today?
You know, one, it's a place of finding your identity.
Like who are you in God?
Start with abundance.
We talked about that.
Like you are a daughter of God.
You have, you are worthy in Him.
You're valuable.
You know, start from a place of significance, but also be honest with your starting point.
You know, do you have clarity?
Do you, you know, have the finances?
Do you, you know, know the timing, like be honest with yourself about where you're starting.
Then define your finish line.
You see, sometimes we don't achieve goals or dreams because we continuously move the
finish line.
And I am notorious for that.
I love to tweak and refine and modify.
I've done that with this own, you know, course creation.
I've probably changed the layout five times.
And yet in order to achieve something, we have to be willing to really define what the
end is so that we can reach it.
Number three, set your divine GPS.
Oh, I love this.
You know, I, for some reason, just love brainstorming while I'm driving or daydreaming.
And I start to just think, you know, in the shower or driving.
And I frequently just pass my, you know, pass the stop that I wanted to take or the
exit.
And so I, even though I might be driving 10 minutes from my house, I have to set the GPS
because if I don't do that, I'm going to end up like 10 miles down away from where I actually
wanted to go.
And so just like that with driving, we can absentmindedly miss the direction God has
for us when we're not inviting him in every step of the way to direct us.
You know, Holy Spirit guide us.
We just talked about in the Proverbs, you know, be the one to light our step, illuminate
the path in front of us, and then confirm your speed.
You know, watch out for the speed limit signs.
They can change and you don't want to get a ticket.
But when you're pursuing your dream, what I mean by that is don't push yourself to go
too fast.
Make sure you're balancing, you know, at a steady pace with God so that you don't burn
yourself out within two weeks of starting your dream journey.
Number, you know, the next step is mark your milestones, number five.
So we'll talk about that in just a moment, but make sure you're clear on what those
as big objectives are in order to reach your dream goal.
And then set specific goals, or SMART goals specifically.
And SMART goals, we'll talk about,
but those are just very clear, time-bound, achievable.
You know, we've all probably set them in our life,
but those help to take the ethereal dream
and bring it into something that you can take action on.
And then last, create mini steps.
Okay, so map your route.
I'm using my own dream right now as an example
to help you so that you know how to do this for your dreams.
And so for me, I'm gonna start with the end in mind,
finish line.
What is the end of this kind of current version
of this dream look like?
Well, for me, my dream is to create a company
and a community that empowers women
to achieve their dreams and prosper with God.
I love helping women achieve dreams,
but I also wanna create a tribe and community
that supports women, gives them friendship
and accountability and encouragement
because pursuing dreams is difficult.
And I wanna provide resources and events and services
to be able to support their dream journey.
Going back to my starting place,
I write down my identity statement
that I am a beloved daughter of God.
I am more than enough to achieve this big dream
because I'm empowered by Him, right?
Okay, so the first mile marker for me
on this dream big adventure
was to launch this dream big course.
In doing so, God showed me that He wanted to rebrand.
At the time, I was, you know, my current platform
and website and everything has been Prosper Always,
something that I created back in 2021.
And I felt like in this pursuit of this dream,
God just gave me clarity as I started to take action
that He wanted me to create a new brand and DBA it
and to go create a new platform
and a new brand identity under dream big adventure.
And so now the next steps of this journey
are for me to launch a new social media,
finish my website, redo.
And then with that,
I'm launching a 12 week adventure challenge
that kind of goes into more detail
of how to pursue your dreams with God
in a fun kind of girl's trip adventure way.
And I have two kids, one's 11 and 14.
And so God showed me He wants me
to create a kid's version of this,
kind of the dream big explorers.
So they too can know who they are in God.
After that's done,
God showed me He wanted me to relaunch my podcast,
but more so in a style of dreaming big
with adventures with God.
And then I've started on a book and guide book
and He wants me to finish that.
And then last, I have this dream with God
to actually start hosting dream big adventure trips
for women and that just to build community,
but also a time of refreshing and relaxing
and dreaming big with God.
And so these are the milestones for this year
that I feel like God wants me to take.
Okay, so now that we've mapped our route,
then we actually take those and create SMART goals.
So SMART goals are specific.
You know, you narrow it down and you're detailed.
They're measurable.
You know, when you hit them again,
that's like, what is done look like?
What is the finish line?
They're achievable with God.
And then four, they're relevant,
meaning they support your end goal and dream.
And then last, they're time bound,
meaning you have a specific date and time
of when you actually wanna achieve them.
Tony Robbins says, setting goals is the first step
in turning the invisible into the visible.
Gary Keller, who wrote the One Thing book,
he talks about, you know, hyper-focusing on dominoes
and, you know, figure out what's the first domino
that will then, you know, knock over the next bigger domino
and the next bigger domino.
And, you know, his book is really good,
you know, called The One Thing.
So he quotes, or his quote is,
extraordinary results are directly determined
by how narrow you can make your focus.
When you spread yourself out, you end up spread thin.
And I am guilty of that.
Man, someone who is high with ideation, which is me,
and just always sees possibilities,
I start getting into a dream and all of a sudden I'm like,
oh, I could start that company or what about this?
And I could write these 10 books
or I could create these 10 courses.
And my brain can just, you know,
because I'm in this process of creating with God
and inspiration, I can start getting all of these ideas.
And, you know, this is the time to really narrow in
on what God has for you,
where the territory he wants you to go possess
and to take and to take dominion of,
and to not allow yourself to be distracted
by all the, you know, what if possibilities,
asking for discernment about any of those
that should be, you know, just ignored
or saved for a later day.
And so this process of setting smart goals with God
allows you to narrow down on the roadmap
and the milestones that he wants you to take.
So specifically, you know, these are the questions that are going to be your exercise questions
this week.
But, you know, as for specific, what dream goal does God want you to achieve first?
Measurable.
How will I know when I've reached this goal?
What does done look like?
Last, achievable.
Is this goal achievable with God's help?
Then is it, you know, relatable?
Why is this goal important?
You know, you need to, you don't just do something to do it.
You know, ask God, if you're not clear, Hey, why, why am I supposed to do this goal for
me?
You know, again, I'm like, okay, God, like I just finished, you know, upgrading my website
and launching social media consistently, you know, all of these things under my current,
you know, platform.
God, why do you want me to start over and do all of this?
And he showed me that, you know, I started prosper always back in 2021, right after my
father passed away.
And so even though, you know, it was close to my heart and I've put a lot of effort into
it, there was these roots of, of grief that I haven't, you know, fully been able to kind
of move past, um, in, in this, you know, way of being able to create and to go after this
dream.
And so God said, Hey, I have a new dream for you.
You know, dream big adventure, which, um, is just this fun idea of pursuing our dreams
with God in a light and easy kind of girl strip adventure way.
And he wants me to enter a season of just joy and fun and help the women around me to
do that as well.
And so that's my why, you know, is to lay down in obedience, something that he's asking
me to do, and then to pick up something new, not out of like failure for not doing the
first thing, but because obedience, God rewards that.
And sometimes there could be, you know, goals that you have that you're not seeing the fruit
or God blessing.
And it's because he's wanting you to do something new and let go of the previous season of a
word that he might've given you.
Okay.
Last, what is the timeline for this goal?
You know, ask God, is this a now word?
You know, there have been dreams that God gave me from 10 years ago that I'm just now
starting to step into.
And I tried thinking that, Oh, this is from God.
I need to do it.
And what's funny is I had LOCs that I started in Texas, maybe six or so years ago, and they
didn't go anywhere.
Like I started them.
I'm like, I have this dream from God.
I'm starting these LOCs.
I bought the domain.
I built the website.
And then God's like, Nope, not the right timing.
And so they laid there dormant.
And part of me was frustrated, you know, like, God, what the heck?
Like you gave me this dream and I took action on it.
Nothing's happening.
And now I'm seeing God actually starting to fulfill those words from years ago.
Okay.
Step number three.
So create mini steps.
Greg McCohen wrote a book called Essentialism followed by a book called Effortless.
If you haven't read Effortless out of anything this week, read Effortless.
It is amazing.
And he talks about the fact that so often we try to do things too complicated and too
hard, but in order to achieve great things, how can we make it easy, simple, fun, and
in his book title Effortless.
And so this is his quote.
What if the biggest thing keeping us from doing what matters is the false assumption
that it has to take tremendous effort?
What if instead we consider the possibility that the reason something feels hard is that
we haven't yet found the easier way to do it.
And so reading, rereading his book, you know, this past weekend just reminded me again,
you know, sometimes we make life hard with God.
You know, we just think this lie that, oh, in order to like, you know, be blessed or
to do God's will, it has to be the cost and the pain and that can happen, you know, that
does happen, right?
God says, you know, that like him, we're going to bear cross and we're going to, you know,
be persecuted and there's going to be trials.
So not diminishing that.
But I also think that we in and of ourselves can make things way more difficult because
we're thinking it should be.
And we create, you know, we go from like complexity and chaos and the creative cycle versus flowing
with the Holy Spirit and doing things in an easy, simple way.
So these are some steps from his book, kind of adjusted for my own lingo, but number one
is define what done looks like.
Again, the finish line, where is your end goal?
You know, if you're starting to run a race or a marathon and you keep seeing that end
flag keep moving, you know, the thing that you need to run through that finish line
ribbon.
I mean, that would be so discouraging or, you know, you tell your kids that they need
to do something in their room and do some chores and you keep adding every time they
come back to you and tell you that that chore is done, you know, and you're like, oh, and
another one and another one and another one.
And man, like I'm guilty of doing that occasionally.
And you know, that's so discouraging, right?
For a kid who is excited that they've been able to accomplish something and they think
that they're done.
So don't do that to yourself, right?
You wouldn't want to do that to your kids,
so don't treat yourself that way.
So define what done looks like.
Second, start with the first thing.
This goes back to the other book,
the one thing and that one domino.
So start with the first thing.
So often we don't actually accomplish our goals
because they feel overwhelming.
We're like, oh, all these milestones
and I need to do the website
at the same time of doing the social media
and I need to be writing my book
and I need to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
Like we just create chaos and overwhelm.
But stepping back, like if you don't accomplish
the first thing, what's the point of all the others?
You know, just do the, be faithful.
You know, God says be faithful a little
and he'll give you more.
You know, be faithful with where you're starting.
Do it, you know, well, but don't overdo it.
Finish that thing and then move on to the next thing.
And so that goes back to simplify the process.
What are the minimum number of steps
that you need to take in order to get something achieved?
He has a funny quote in his book, Effortless,
like be willing to birth an ugly baby.
In other words, don't try to have this thing be perfect.
You know, don't have it be so complicated
that it's too difficult for you to, you know, to achieve.
Like have something where it's like not even draft one,
but draft zero, like produce an ugly book,
produce an ugly course, produce an ugly website.
And then you can tweak it,
but it's so much easier to achieve something
if all you're doing is fine tuning and refining
than never actually accomplishing version one.
And then he talks about slow and steady pace.
And we talked about that before, you know,
the Holy Spirit and God, they're not in a hurry.
I mean, you look at the stories in the Bible
and they give someone a, you know, a calling
or, you know, anoint David King,
or, you know, call someone into, you know, Moses.
And they're like, and there's a process, right?
And so remembering that this whole journey with God
to pursue your dreams is about your faith
and your relationship with him and refining your character.
And so there are times where there's going to be delays
and setbacks and struggles, or God tells you just like,
hey, you know what, the next few weeks seek me,
you know, stop, we're gonna just like pause.
And so being sensitive to the cadence of the Holy Spirit,
but also not pushing yourself.
So, you know, Greg McCohen talks about
setting mins and maxes.
Like I will at least put in 10 minutes a day of effort.
And at the maximum, I'm gonna put in two hours of effort,
or I'm gonna write this book
and I'm gonna do 500 words minimum and 1000 words maximum.
Because what you don't wanna do is put all your effort in,
like work a 12 hour day,
and then you have to take the rest of the week off.
And when you create these weird cadences
of like tons of effort, no effort, tons of effort,
the odds are you're not going to actually achieve your goal.
You need to actually be that turtle,
the slow and steady pace.
And then we talked about this with the ugly baby,
but progress, not perfection, like stop tinkering.
And I do this all the time, right?
I'll start to write a book or create a course or a product.
And I'm constantly refining, oh, the hex codes
and the colors and the fonts.
And what if I could add a different picture here?
Like just stop, hands off, like make this, you know, finish.
And I actually did that today and hurt myself.
Like I was making soup and it tasted absolutely amazing.
And then I started to think,
hmm, I was making some keto gumbo, like healthy gumbo.
And I was like, I could just add a smidge more,
you know, chicken, you know, stock to this.
And it would probably be like perfect, right?
It was like 99% there.
So I go and I open the jar and I'm like trying to go stir it.
And all of a sudden I realized I put my hands
on the left burner that had just been on.
And I burnt my two fingers like really bad.
And I was laughing at like the direct correlation
to what I'm creating in this course.
And that we can get burned when we constantly
try to keep tinkering versus letting something be done at,
you know, the 80-20 rule or 90% good enough.
Like just stop there.
Like don't keep trying for perfection
because often going for perfection ruins the thing
that you're creating.
Now my soup's not ruined, thankfully.
It's delicious and yummy.
But I do have like two fingers that really hurt right now.
And it's a really good lesson for me to learn
of like stop while you're ahead.
And then last, set those clear and easy steps.
And we're gonna talk about this next.
But going back to what does 10 or 15 minutes look like?
And if you can't achieve something in 10 or 15 minutes,
then the step is too big.
Meaning if it's gonna take you an hour to do that,
then you actually need to rewrite that step
into a 10 or 15 minute chunk.
And they should be like microbursts or mini steps
and think about like what is the next step you need to take?
So I came up with this little saying, you know,
map it, milestone it, mini step it.
You know, you can kind of add some like groovy music to it, and that just gets in my mind of
like how you're going to achieve your goals and your dreams with God. So on the left, you know,
the dream is the big end, you know, destination, that finish line. The milestone are the six to
eight or however many God says of those milestones that you need to take, the big deliverables.
And then the smart goals are underneath each of those milestones. So for example, on the right,
we're going to go through my next milestone. And then you create simple mini steps that should be
able to be done in about 10 or 15 minutes. So if my big goal, again, is to create a company and
community empowers women to achieve their dreams and prosper, then, you know, now that I've
accomplished this course, my next milestone is launching my new social media platform.
So then to make it a smart goal, well, I'm going to launch my social media platform on March 10,
and start to post once daily. So going to simple mini steps, there's nine of them, you know, number
one would be finalize the branding to create a social media content, three, set up new social
media accounts, and you can read the rest of it. But then underneath number one, you actually start
to break those out. And those become your, you know, from steps to mini steps. So I need to
confirm the look and the feel, which I've done, you can kind of see it here in some of this branding,
selecting the colors, fonts, and icons basically done, design my logo variations. So you should
have like three logo variations with your, you know, favorite con and the little icons.
And then I need to export the logos and then create templates for social media. So to be honest,
the only part I still need to do is D and E of this step. And that to me feels way overwhelming,
then I need to launch social media by March 10. And so doing this really gives you traction and
empowers you to be able to take clear, concise action. And then from here, you actually put it
on a calendar. You know, you write, I do a lot of things in Excel. So I create 30 day Excel calendar
templates. And I put, you know, the date and the day of the week. And I go and like, this is the
one thing, the one thing that I need to accomplish that day. What often happens is by saying I only
have to accomplish one thing, I end up accomplishing a lot more. But if I were to write that I was going
to do all 10 of these steps in a day or in a week, I probably wouldn't take any action because
it would feel too overwhelming. But taking the first action step, open up the door for you to
actually take more. And again, all of this do an alignment with your heart, with how you're feeling,
you know, as a woman, man, my creative cycle, I have to align with my, you know, period cycle,
like, maybe a little TMI. But I know that the first part of my cycle, wow, I am like high energy,
motivated, you know, can clearly hear God, like I am in a good place. So I purposely try to align
kind of big bursts of creativity around that time, close to when I'm about to start my period,
I am tired, I'm grumpy, you know, I'm hungry, like, that is not the time to try to launch
something, you know, at the very end of my cycle. And so as a woman, like, be aware of that, like,
honor your body, honor your hormones, like, honor how God made you. And then look at your family,
you know, their needs come first, like, you make sure that you're aligning all of this in
accordance to, you know, who God created you to be the priorities of your family, and then also
your body and take time to rest. Okay, so that concludes, you know, for the most part, what we
just talked through. Again, here's some book recommendations. Effortless, we talked about the
one thing, and then obviously a classic Atomic Habits, you know, setting those little habits
connected to rituals to make them easier for you to do. I love Ziegler, he has amazing books,
the one he has on goals that kind of helps you identify how to achieve things. And then Mel Robbins,
I talked, I had one of her quotes at the beginning, she wrote a book called Five Second Rule.
And, you know, this book, if you haven't read it, you know, her new book, Let Them Theory,
has come out. But this book talks about if you feel immobilized by fear or, you know, resistance
or taking action, just start to count down from, like, five, four, three, two, one, and take action.
And she has the whole science backed by it, but that's a fun book, too, to just help you, like,
push past, you know, the inertia and actually start taking action. Okay, so the exercises for
this week, I'm incredibly excited for you guys to do these exercises, they're in your workbook.
So start on it, starting on the left is the map your route, take time with God,
go through, you know, define your finish line, what done looks like, write down a sentence of
your starting place, and then go through, you know, you can write this on paper, do it in Excel,
use this, you know, template if you want to go through and list at least, you know,
four to six different milestones that you're going to achieve that
going to help you get to your dream goal and dream destination. Okay, then take the first one
and then create a smart action goal around that, you know, and make it time bound. Like what date
are you going to get this first thing done and why is it important? You know, is it attainable
or achievable with God? How do I measure what done looks like not just in the big, you know,
dream destination finish but specifically that first milestone? And then you have a 30-day
mini action plan. You know, it can be the first day of the month, the first, you know, starting
today, whatever day you want to use this and map out like, hey, what is one thing I'm going to do?
Now, you should be taking one day a week, preferably Sunday, Saturday, whatever day,
and having a Sabbath and day with God where you're not taking action on your dream. But that day,
your action goal can be, I'm going to rest, I'm going to journal with God, I'm going to read my
Bible, you know, I'm going to go to church, I'm going to connect with a friend. Like spending
time resting is action. It's, you know, making sure that you're prioritizing your well-being,
going to the gym, like all these things are important, not just the tangible checklist
that you're achieving towards your dream. And so make sure you're encompassing date nights or,
you know, time with friends or time to slow down and honor your body and God and your spirit.
But also put in here a goal every day for 30 days of what you're going to take action on.
Okay, my friends, I am so excited for you to be starting to take action and starting to,
you know, clarify your dream and put things down for goals. Next week, we're going to talk about
courageously taking action and taking everything that we have done here and putting it into action
with God and co-creating with the Holy Spirit. So I want to pray for you before we go and just
to bless you. And so God, I bless my friends right now in the name of Jesus, Lord, that you would
meet them in the strategic planning phase of their dream. God, that you would give them clear
milestones and the goals that you have for them and the actions that they can take in faith to
move from any place of fear or resistance, God, to taking steps with you and to boldly going after
their dream and the territory and promised land that you have given to them. Lord, I pray for you
to give them creativity, for you to give them peace and show them the easy, effortless, and fun path
that you want them to take in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Bye my friends. See you next week.