This post is a part 4 of 7 of the Create and Conquer Email Series: Original illustrations paired with inspirational messages, giving you the creative confidence to make a plan and get what you want. Click now to subscribe to the email list.

You’ve visualized yourself 5 years from now and you’ve written a plan to get what you want.

Now it’s time to execute.

That’s about the time you get that nagging voice in your head telling you:

This is a bad idea.

I can’t afford it.

I’m going to be embarrassed if this doesn’t work out.

That voice is FEAR incarnate. And I am here to tell you, “Fuck FEAR!”

Don’t get me wrong, (lowercase) fear has its benefits.

It stops you from jumping out of that third floor window.

It reminds you not to put your hand in the live fireplace.

But FEAR has the tendency to keep us inside tiny little boxes. There’s the “easy” box, the “expected” box, and my least favorite, the “this already worked” box.

Comfort zones are meant to be stretched and often times a little bit of anxiety means that you’re leaning in the right direction.

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.” 

― Ambrose Redmoon

This post is a part 3 of 7 of the Create and Conquer Email Series: Original illustrations paired with inspirational messages, giving you the creative confidence to make a plan and get what you want. Click now to subscribe to the email list.

Now I think its time for a little confession.

I went through a similar process earlier this year, focused on making a plan to get what I wanted.

I took three days and buried myself in visions of the future. I plotted out my execution plan for ending goINVADE and starting to think through where I saw myself 5 years from now.

While I didn’t have a specific career goal in mind, there were a few truths that stood out.

1. I finally admitted to myself that I wanted to be a teacher.

2. I decided that I wanted to present at conferences.

3. I wanted to leave the country at least once in 2016.

I wrote it all down on big giant pieces of paper among other loosely fragmented ideas and placed them so every day I saw my big picture goals.

A few weeks later, I got a phone call from the dean of the Communications School at Loyola University. She needed an adjunct professor for Intro to Advertising.

I accepted the position.

One week after that, I got an email from a friend recommending me to speak at a national graphic design conference.

I did not throw up when I spoke to the audience of 2000 people, so I consider it a massive success.

And less than a month after that email, I got an invitation to attend Web Summit, an international conference in Dublin.

I’m leaving for Dublin this Sunday.

If you’ve been following along since week one, I’d love for you to take a picture of the goals you’ve written down and tweet me @justinmadethat.

Even if you don’t believe in magic, ideas become things when you write them down. 

This post is a part 2 of 7 of the Create and Conquer Email Series: Original illustrations paired with inspirational messages, giving you the creative confidence to make a plan and get what you want. Click now to subscribe to the email list.

Now that you have the big picture vision, the next step is to plan.

Yes, its scary putting pen to paper and really thinking about the steps you have to take to get what you want; but there’s magic in writing your intentions down.

Something beautiful happens when you tell the universe what you want.

In general, I’ve found that most goals fit into one of these major buckets: Career, Relationships, Finances, Spirituality, Mind, Body, and Experience. They are the starting point for narrowing down the reality we want to create.

Your assignment today is to take those vague ideas from last week and transform them into actionable goals.

You might have mentioned leaving your day job to pursue a freelance career, getting back in touch with your spirituality, or spending more quality time with your family.

Each of these goals are admirable, but they’re not specific enough to measure the results, which means they probably won’t happen.

What do you need to accomplish before you leave your job?

How do you plan to get in touch with your spirituality?

How often will you have quality time with your family?

The first step in transforming a goal into a reality is to make it quantifiable. Below are examples that use specific time frames to make your goals more actionable.

I will save $5000 by April 2016, so I can leave my full time job without any fear.

I will spend 15 minutes 3 times a week meditating on things that I’m thankful for.

Once a month I will organize a family excursion.

Write it down and make it real.