How to Be Ready for YOUR Next Big Thing

If I could turn back time and go back to my very first day of work at my very first real job, I’d tell myself, “This too shall pass.”

I was 21, three credits short of my college degree, married, and—let’s face it—poor. I needed the paycheck, even if the job didn’t feel like the work I was meant to do.

I can’t turn back time, but the words remain.

This too shall pass.

When you feel stuck, you think you’ll be stuck FOREVER, and forever is a really, really, really long time.

I blame it on humans’ woefully incompetent ability to measure time with any real accuracy.

I mean, we didn’t even have standard time until 1878, when it was invented by Sir Sanford Fleming, who thought it would be a good idea to synchronize all the clocks within a geographical area to a single time standard. Easier for weather forecasting and train travel, he reasoned. The geographical areas weren’t evenly spaced into time zones until the 20th century. The 20th century! Since I was born in the 20th century, I feel like it was a very short time ago.

So yeah, apparently we’re still learning.

Bill Gates spoke to business people when he said “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”

And then Gretchen Rubin came along and told all the moms, “The days are long, but the years are short.”

But my all-time favorite is the message the late Andy Rooney had for all of us when he said, “I've learned that life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.”

That’ll preach.

But seriously, time is just WEIRD.

And maybe that’s why I continue to go back to this verse from the Psalmist:

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

— Psalms 90:12

To number something means to count it, to keep track, to pay attention.

Remember when your mom said, “Young lady, your days are numbered!”

You knew she meant business.

That’s why your “SOMEDAY” dreams are so important.

Someday we’ll be here before we know it. And if we haven’t been numbering our days we’ll look back and wonder what happened to them all. It’s time to take back time—and I mean business, young lady!

Here’s a simple plan for making sure your someday dreams happen:

1) Clarify what it is you actually want. (Do you want to launch a nonprofit, start a coaching business, or quit your full time job and stay home with your kids? Whatever it is, be very clear about the big picture goal.)

2) Then get very specific, not only about what you want to accomplish but about the time frame in which every step will be done. (Here, it’s helpful to make a step-by-step list of things to do, sort of like a recipe. For example, first, I need to research nonprofit business plans, next I need to contact an attorney who can help file my tax exempt status and on and on and on. Checking things off a to-do list can be very rewarding, especially when every check is like a virtual mile marker on the way to your final destination)

3) Identify the cues that will signal you’re on the right track. (Do you need to have a certain amount of money in the bank? A certain number of addresses on your email list? How will know you’re moving in the right direction? Attach a success metric to each step of your detailed plan.)

4) Write everything down! (This last one is the most important. I tell you this because I’m getting old and my memory isn’t like it used to be. It’s October, and I just now remembered that I made a beautiful powerpoint in January and titled it “Big Picture Goals 2019.” Guess what? I haven’t looked at it since about the middle of February, and only just now remembered that I saved it because I had a meeting with my accountability partner last week and she asked me a question about the life I really wanted—the one I keep saying is important to me. “I don’t know,” I stammered. “I need to go back and take a look at my Big Picture Goals and see if I’m on track to do what I said I was going to do.” As I looked back over those goals, I realized that I had said to myself over and over again, “I’ll do that tomorrow” or “I’ll research that next week” or “I need to ask so-and-so to help me with that, and I’m not sure how to do that yet.” After a while, I forgot about tomorrow as TODAY exercised its power over me.)

5) And finally, what is the story you want to tell? My first job felt like a disappointment, but that first job was only the first in a long string of derailments and delusions. I’m older and wiser, and now I know that none of it was a waste, but rather a proving ground for preparing me for the work I was meant to do. Your story belongs to you, and when you look at it—especially from the vantage point of time—you’ll see interesting patterns begin to emerge. Pay attention. They are clues to who you are and who you’re ultimately becoming.

This too shall pass.

Will you be ready for what’s next?

Want to take it to the next level?