Now that we’ve covered everything that’s likely to be going on in your head, we’ve arrived at the doing part of the book. This is where you start to think out loud and commit your dreams to paper; create tangible goals; and plan the actions you need to take in order to make it all happen.

The first step is to decide what results you want your actions to give you. If you were living a life you had designed, what would it look like? If this is not something you daydream about, spend some time doing so. Let your imagination run wild.

• Who would you be?
• Where would you go?
• What would you do?
• Where would you live?
• Who would you live and/or spend time with?
• Who would you help?
• What would give you fulfilment and joy?
• What would you want to create?
• What legacy would you like to leave?

This is possibly the most important step in the process. The vision of what your dream life looks like and how much that excites and inspires you is what will get and keep you moving towards your goal until you reach it (or a version of it that you’re thrilled with).

This bit can be really fun, but it may also be confronting. Many people are uncomfortable creating a vision or goals without knowing how they will achieve them.

Note: If the goal you create in this next step does not strike some fear in your belly then your goal is probably too small to be life-changing. If this is you, think bigger!

There is of course nothing wrong with creating small goals, but if it’s a fundamental life change you’re after, you’ll need to create big, ground-shaking goals. So it is time to think big.

It’s important to note that it is an inherent trait of our human nature to play safe and aim for the things we know we will succeed at; in other words, to create small goals. The problem is that the resulting change in your life will directly correlate with the size of the goals you have created and the actions you take to fulfil them. To change your life, you need to create life-changing goals.

If you make achievable goals and take the actions required to achieve them, you will have a nice, safe and achievable life — probably the life you have right now.

If you make seemingly unachievable or far-reaching, life-changing goals and take the actions required to achieve them, you will change your life significantly.

You can have your achievable goals too, of course, but it is life-changing goals that we focus on in this book … so here we go!

Create life-changing goals

Life-changing goals are goals that are likely to change your life, whether you succeed or fail in the process. These goals are thrilling, but usually come with a lot of uncertainty because there is a lot to learn, there is a lot riding on the outcome (your dream life!), you may have no idea if you can generate the resources you need and you may risk many things that you would normally avoid risking.

Before embarking on a project such as Five Point Five, most people would ask themselves a number of questions, such as:

• Do we know how to produce mini-documentaries?
• Do we have the equipment to film them?
• Do we understand the editing process?
• Do we know how to find the people we will film?
• Do we speak Spanish?
• Do we have enough time to start a whole new project from scratch?
• Do we have the capital to build this the way we envision?

For most people, if the answer is ‘no’ to any or some of these questions, the show would be over before it starts. For them it would seem impossible.

We answered ‘no’ to every question, but as you will notice throughout this book, we laugh in the face of impossibility! We overcome limitations by turning them into opportunities — by using creativity and persistence and giving ourselves permission to dream big.

So the big questions are, ‘Do you give yourself permission to create a life-altering goal and then take action to achieve it? Are you willing to look at limitations as challenges and opportunities on the path to your potential success?’

If the answers are ‘yes’, let’s proceed … it’s time to design your life!

Set a time frame

This is the important bit. Without a time frame your goal is likely to slip into sometime/never land.

Your goal should have a clear date when it will be achieved or fulfilled. Preferably this should be sooner rather than later. If you are unsure of how long it will take, start with an arbitrary time frame such as three months or, if it is a huge project, 12 months. You can revise your goal at the end of that time, but if you aim high in a short space of time you will be surprised how much you can accomplish.

If your goal is something that will definitely be more than 12 months in the making (such as, for example, publishing a series of books or setting up a charity) then set yourself a 12-month goal that will be an exciting and significant milestone towards achieving your big goal.

If your goal is to travel the world, your 12-month goal could be that you have booked your tickets, saved or made the money to go, and departed your home country; or that you have created an alternative source of income that you can earn while you travel (like we did!).

Create milestones

Milestones are mini-goals that will help keep you on track. They are important: without them you will not be able to objectively assess whether you are on track to achieve what you set out to do.

If you have allowed three months to achieve your goal, set milestones for the end of months 1 and 2.

If you have 12 months to reach your goal, then set milestones for the first three, six and nine months. That way, you know what to focus on at any given time and you can track your progress as you go. In creating milestones, it’s important that they are also specific and measurable so you know you have achieved them.

Crucial elements

Now we will look at the crucial elements of your project.

The crucial elements are the things that are essential for you to achieve each of your milestones and therefore your goal. It is important that you define them, because when you are starting a new project (especially something life-changing) you can get so involved in the minutiae that it is easy to forget the big picture and lose focus on what you need and what it is all likely to cost.

What you have, what you need and the universe in-between

Most people do not pursue their dreams because they can’t see how it would be possible with the resources they have access to — namely, time, money, people, knowledge and experience. For many, creating life-changing goals is so confronting that they avoid doing it altogether. It can be very confronting to have big goals when you have no idea how you will access the resources you need to achieve them. If you are someone who has always struggled financially or who has a very full life already, you may even see the resources required as an insurmountable challenge … impossible, even.

If you have got to this point but you have a nagging voice in your head that is telling you that you can’t achieve your goals because of a lack of resources, take a deep breath and carry on. Later in the book we are going to look at how you can acquire resources that you don’t already have. We will look at how you can find time and money and lead a team of amazing people to fulfil your goal.

Unfortunately there is no fairy godmother; ‘the right time’ may never arrive — the ducks are too happy with their little ‘duck lives’ to line up for you.

Fortunately this means that any time is the imperfectly perfect time to get started.