I’ve recently begun seeing a life coach, he suggested coming up with a plan, a goal if you will. Anything you want to achieve in life, and we will spend 3 months working to achieve this goal. The thought of endless possibilities made me feel like a kid in a candy store, what do I want to achieve? You mean I can have anything I want, just by working with a coach? The first meeting we had, he introduced a concept to me; a game he plays: 100% Integrity. I loved this concept. It was giving your all, keeping your word and doing your best the way you know it to be done.

With a world of possibilities at your fingertips, and accountability buddies to help you follow through to boot. It can be a bit overwhelming, where do you start? I say this because you know there are things you want and things you should do. Things that you think are impossible dreams, but you have always wanted it for yourself. Then there are things that you think are tangible, a small goal you think will be easy to achieve if you just stay focused. When faced with these options, what do you choose? Do you choose the smaller milestone that can be easily executed just to test your ability to follow through? If my readers have any thoughts I’d love some input. The only thing I would say is, just take action to map it all out.  This brings me to a topic I discovered shortly before my life coaching began, the concept of “Dreamlining”.

The author Tim Ferris talks about doing this as a means to clearly see a path to your goals. Its a technique for achieving one’s personal dreams based on writing them down and performing time and cost calculations. It starts by defining dreams in the categories of:

• having
• being
• doing

You want to push yourself to fulfill these dream/goals within a 3 or 6-month period, so it pressures you to begin acting now. So from what I gathered from meeting with my coach and the information contained in Tim Ferris’s book it was figuring out a goal and working on it backward. envision it first, what does it look like, once you see it and imagine it, you have to think about how you would have to be (being determined, charismatic or focused) to achieve it. Then you have to map out how you will do it step by step. I think the real reason for my lack of follow through all these years has been not clearly defining my goals and getting about the business of fighting like hell to see them through. the three goals I have set for myself are to every day:

1. to be a global citizen
2. to be connected with people discovering how to be present and engaged
3. discovering what is possible by pushing my limits

So to fully expand on these concepts, definitions are needed. Being a global citizen is my mantra, mission, and my guiding principle. This is working towards establishing an institution focused on global education programs for youth. every day I have to add a little to my progress in Russian and Chinese language learning, I have to take steps toward seeing more of the world and I have to do at least one thing that will bring Linglobal global education to my target clients. These goals all help me reach the goal of being connected to people and being present. But I also discover what is possible by pushing my limits. When I’m going through some tough stuff, I don’t say I’m having a hard time, I say its building character. Trust me, these few weeks have been some “character building” weeks indeed.

Pushing my limits also forces me to work towards improvement and self-actualization, this means going for my dream of being a writer to engender intellectual curiosity in my community and the world. I’ll stop there. these may seem ambitious, but they are clear definitions of how I will be and the sense of accomplishment I hope to have. But what does that mean I have to do? Next steps are a mapped out plan presented to the public via this blog to keep me on track.

So here’s to the new journey of bravely following through, showing up and continuing down the path of being consistent. Because it takes a great coach to turn unfocused talent into the truly exceptional.