Adrian’s Birthday Challenge

Much like a birthday (challenge), the New Year is a symbol of renewal. It gives us an opportunity to focus - on where we’ve been and where we are going; or, more importantly, where we want to go. Take the time to seize this opportunity. Right now.

This New Year I recommend two things:

1. Set aside 1-2 hours for honest, meaningful reflection.
2. Create a “Dreamline” - don’t make resolutions.

Honest, meaningful reflection.

Reflection comes in many forms. Often times we find ourselves restlessly day dreaming about memories or the future. However, when we harness our mental activity, reflecting becomes an effective tool in helping us refocus and reenergize our lives. Over the next few days, set aside 2 hours to think back through the last 3, 4, even 5 years. Assess your life. What is your daily routine like? What habits have you formed? What choices have you made, good or bad, and why? What are the goals and dreams you’ve achieved? Not achieved? Have you fallen out of touch with family? Friends?

How to reflect:

1. Set aside time - Put it on your schedule. Reserve a room. Do whatever it takes to make sure you do it.
2. Find a quiet place - And I mean quiet. Force yourself to be alone with your thoughts. Go to a room in your house or your favorite spot in the woods.
3. Eliminate distractions - Turn your phone OFF. No bowl games. No music. Ask your significant other or roommates not to disturb you.
4. Bring prompts - A goal of the reflection is to balance between letting your mind wander and accomplishing something. So bring some photos, your journal, last year’s list of goals, and a list of questions similar to the ones above to prompt your mind yet keep you focused.
   • More questions: What makes me happy? Unhappy? What would I like to do more of this year? Less of? Brainstorm some more of your own
5. Answer the questions. - Take the time and effort to write down your answers. Be honest and thoughtful. This simple act will change the course of your 2009 and life.

Now that you’ve taken the time to explore your thoughts, it’s time to put them to good use by developing a dreamline. Get ready to achieve your goals.

Create a Dreamline.

A dreamline is like goal-setting on steroids (HGH if you want to keep them “legal”). I discovered the concept from Tim Ferriss, famed author of The Four Hour Work Week. According to Tim, dreamlining is more effective for three reasons:

1. The goals shift from ambiguous wants to defined steps.
2. The goals have to be unrealistic to be effective.
3. It focuses on activities, not just owning stuff.

How to dreamline (my modified version):

1. State a specific action - Don’t be generic and vague. Those “goals” get lost in the clouds. Make them specific and measurable - and use your answers from the above reflection. Include 3 categories:
   • having - For example, write down “I would like to have my own home by…” or “I would like to save $20,000 for…”
   • being - “I would like to be fluent in Spanish” or “I would like to be a better father and make all of my son’s baseball games.”
   • doing -  “I am going to visit Thailand” or “I am going to do a marathon on my birthday (challenge!)” or “I am going to pose for bikini photo shoot by June.”
2. Become accountable - To keep yourself accountable tell a group of your closest friends and family about your goals. Ask them to hold you to it. Or, if you’re feeling froggy, post it somewhere on the internet for all to see. Since telling everyone about my birthday challenge, it becomes much harder to bail on a planned training run knowing people are counting on me. I have specific goals to hit, so I hit the road, rain or shine.
3. Do your research - Now that you’ve set your goals, dig in to the research. You’ll find that much of the intimidation felt beforehand slowly fades as you become more knowledgeable. For example, my dreamline included extended foreign travel. Quite intimidating, right? How do I do it? How do I pay for it? How do I get around? All of these questions became unveiled after reading Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts and the blog of Chris Guillebeau who’s visited 100 of 197 countries. Long-term travel suddenly became more realistic and now, one year later, I’m off to see the world (the wonderful world of…eh, sorry).
4. List specific action steps - For each of the goals, list 3-4 specific action steps that will lead to completing the goal. Do the first one right now. If a goal is “to rekindle friendships with x, y, and z”, the first action step might be “look up phone numbers for x & y.” Do that immediately. Seriously. Now.

You can download a dreamlining worksheet here: Technotheory.com Dreamline Worksheet. I recommend printing several copies - a few rough drafts and one you put on your wall or mirror so you see it every day. Writing everything down and looking at it everyday is that extra nudge to keep you going.

Tim Ferriss’s dreamlining includes figuring out the cost and how to finance some of the above goals. His concept of a targeted monthly income (TMI) is quite nifty, but I’ll leave that for another time. Plus, I highly recommend picking up the book or reading pages 48-61 in your local bookstore.

Dreamlining is a powerful tool that will help you to stop putting off your dreams. Since creating my first dreamline in early 2008, I’ve left my stagnant & unfulfilling corporate job, started my own company, visited friends and family across the US, found time to begin writing and volunteering as a tutor, and created an opportunity for long-term world travel soon to commence. My goal to climb Mt. Hood was thwarted by weather three times in May, but I’m planning a visit to Portland this January for another shot. My other odd goal to go spearfishing is unmet, but I’m rolling it over to 2009.

Speaking of 2009, Happy New Year! I’m off to begin my 2009 dreamline. You should be, too.