I want to give people the help I need for myself.

What I need right now is someone to hold me accountable for my writing goals and motivate me to follow my dream of publishing my memoir. Talking with some of my friends, I realized that they also have dreams or projects and they also need to be motivated and held accountable to move forward.

No matter what our projects are the need is the same. Life can get super busy and it is easy to lose yourself in the routine. Who hasn’t said: I’ll do it tomorrow, or: I can call them tonight or tomorrow night, for example? Then, when Friday comes around the call hasn’t been made or the task hasn’t even been started. And by then it’s too late, so we tell ourselves: Woah! I’m not going to work on the weekend, because I want to spend time with my kids and my partner! I’ll tackle it on Monday, for sure! wink wink

Does it sound familiar? Oh yeah! I think so. We have all been there, we go there often and it’s not our fault, it’s the routine, it’s life, right? What can we really do? it’s out of our control! NO! Life is what you want it to be and if you keep putting off what you want, be it your dream project, or working out more, or talking to your friends more often, etc –whatever your goal is that you are not being able to reach– well, chances are you will not do it at all.

The solution is very simple and very hard at the same time. You can only do one step at a time. But, here is the trick, do not negotiate with yourself! If you say you will call tonight: call tonight! If you say you will read on how to start your website tomorrow morning: read about it in the morning!

So here are some tips to make things happen and tackle those steps one at a time:

1. Break down your goal into small steps: this will help you feel in control and once achieved it will give you the motivation to tackle the next step;
2. Be realistic on when and how much time it will take to do the first step: this on is hard, but not imposible; if you are in doubt, allow for more time than less and when you actually do it, you’ll feel even better for making it happen faster;
3. Tell someone what and when you will tackle the step: what can I say, accountability is a great motivator;
4. Celebrate your first step: and every step after that one until you reach the goal, because: who doesn’t love to celebrate? and of course, celebrate it with you accountability friend!
5. Don’t be scared to reevaluate the steps you need to take: sometimes we don’t really know, and it’s perfectly fine! if you let your miscalculation stop you, the whole project will sink; as you move forward you will have a better idea of the steps required, so just readjust and keep going!

It doesn’t sound so hard after all, right? Remember, we can get anything done and our lives can be the best life we want if we only take sometime each day to appreciate what we have and grow.

Your dreams are your path to happiness and if you don’t take them seriously nobody will.