I have learned many things in the last 10 years of my career, but I think the most valuable lesson has been that setting goals and a making plan to achieve them works. Shit gets done. It is very simple. This is how our business runs.

This may be another one of those obvious truths that other people have always known, but for me it has been a revelation. I always kinda flew by the seat of my pants, living in the moment and taking life one day at a time. Working in show biz (the first 10 years of my career) is very deadline driven, but the deadlines are hours, days or maybe weeks away. Nothing is long-term. Truthfully, I was very happy to live that way. It was exciting and fresh and fun.

BUT… when you are ambitious, and you want to make progress, and living hand to mouth starts to get stressful because you have babies- you need something to work towards that is a bit more substantive than curtain up at 8.

I made my first five-year plan in 2007. Actually, it was more like a shadow of a hope of a plan, but still, it worked. It was simple. Buy a house, live there for 5 years, buy a better house. Somewhere into year two of this plan I went to a corporate offsite business strategy session where we were encouraged to envision what our life could look like in 5 years. It was a surprising exercise. I saw myself sitting in the sun on a dock. I had a nice manicure. We had to draw a picture. I did. We had to stand up and say it, I did. Then… I did nothing.

Flash forward to Jan of 2014. I am packing my bedroom because we are moving to a better house. I am going through my notebooks and binders and folders and purging all of the business documents I really don’t need. I find my drawing. My vision of the future… and my eyes almost pop out of my head as I look at the page clutched between my polished fingers. Because… our new better house is steps from the lake. And we have access to a private dock and beach. And we pretty much live in paradise (for 4 month of the year at least, fuck you every season but summer). My vision became reality…and I didn’t even make a plan. I just saw it and drew it and said it. I believe that subconsciously every choice I made after that point led me to today. To making my vision a reality.

And now I wonder to myself … what can I accomplish if I am consciously making choices to achieve a vision?

I kinda went here on a really surface level in my first blog post, but the other day I decided to do some real soul-searching… which sounds so heavy and labourious, but really all it took was to ask myself these questions: How do I want to spend my time? How do I want to feel? What do I want to see?

In less than 20 minutes  I got this:

Short Term (next 18 months)

1. Spend more quality time with my husband
2. Spend more quality time with my children
3. Space to decompress, re-energize and truly consider my career aspirations in an unbiased and objective manner
4. Healthy and fit body, mind and soul
5. Comfortable attire at all times!! Make up for special occasions only!
6. Cultivate my creativity
7. Have more sex
8. Travel with the kids as much as humanely possible while they still will.

1. Location independent career, or in a location I love, accountable to self.
2. Find my tribe – live surrounded by people I love where friendship is a priority
3. Continue to live in a beautiful home on or near water. (In a forest with a pool is ok too)
4. Flexibility with schedule to allow for Doula work
5. Kids continue to get a good education and have meaningful friendships
6. Give a Ted Talk (I know, super weird right?!)
7. Drive a Tesla or other equally awesome maching
8. Date night once a week at a min (double or group dates are acceptable)
9. Travel! 2 trips a year at least

Long term (5 years and beyond)

1. Retire!
2. Overwinter or live somewhere warm
3. Expend energy making a positive difference for people
4. Travel!
5. Own and operate a retirement community for my friends and loved ones