How to Get Started on Your 100 Life Dreams List

by: Will Mancini

Recently I launched a 90-day journey to equip and encourage you to develop a 100 Life Dreams List. My inspiration is a special life design experiment that I am conducting by living in Aspen Colorado for 3 months this winter. It just so happens that snowboarding 50 days in one season is one of my life dreams. So while I work and ride and spend some really special time with my family, I am going to be posting all kinds of stuff to help you.

So what’s the first step? I’m glad you asked.

STEP ONE

There are two things I want you to do today to get started. The first step is to calendar block 6 hours between now and Good Friday (April 19, 2019). That is exactly 90-days. You can do that 3 ways or any combination that works best for your rhythm of reflection and planning.

  • 30 minutes a week
  • 2 hours a month
  • one day in the next 90 days

The greatest barrier to doing anything with intentional living is that we don’t calendar block in advance. I use the term “calendar blocking” a lot. It’s just my way to describe scheduling. But I like the emphasis on “blocking out” the most important things in your life. The urgent things in life will always eclipse the important things if we don’t. How can I prove that? How many dreams do you have written down right now?

STEP TWO

Every person has some things already accomplished in their life and some things rumbling around their mind and heart that they want to do. So I want you to get started on your 100 Life Dreams List by creating a much simpler “10-10 List.“ Your 10-10 List is a list of ten things you have previously accomplished in life (think prior bucket list items) and ten things that you have already thought of that you want to do in your lifetime (think bucket list stuff that’s yet to be done.) Think of it as a way to jump start your journey of bigger dreaming. Take 20-30 minutes to create the list.

Your 10-10 List is important for three reasons:

  1. It primes the pump of gratitude as you look back over your life. To establish future dreaming as an act of worship it helps to look back and celebrate God’s known and experienced goodness. What has God enabled you to do? What are you thankful for the most? Who has he brought in your life to inspire or guide you? How has he provided? For example, I was able to become an author in 2004, because my friend and mentor Aubrey Malphurs invited me to co-author the book Building Leaders. I had no platform at all and Aubrey played a crucial role in helping me transition from pastoring to consulting.
  2. It is practice to start writing things down. It’s amazing how the failure to write things down prevents us from experiencing the best opportunities of life. Practice writing. Do so by using your favorite means to record your ideas. Get a fresh journal. Use your favorite app. But whatever you do, write your ideas down. I just purchased a new 90-day journal because the Younique team is still in the development process of creating our own 90-day planner for Younique’s Life Making Cycle. In that journal I have my one 90-day goal and my 4 NOW rhythms (I will be sprinkling in and introducing you to some of the Younique lingo and tools on this journey.)
  3. Realize that as a human being you are by God’s design a dreamer. You remind yourself of this amazing reality by writing down the things that are already in your mind. Where has God already led you? You were born with creativity an imagination as a birthright. So bask in that truth. For further inspiration you can download the first chapter of my God Dreams book at the “Get Now” tab on this page. What are your current aspirations? What kind of person have you wanted to become? What kinds of things have you already planned to do? For example I want to use this next 90 days to capture the stories of 100 people who actually completed writing down 100 life dreams for the first time. That’s a dream of having 10,000 new dreams in the world by Easter. (Will you be one of those 100?) #100Dreams

So those are your two simple steps to get this party started with me. Schedule 6-hours for thinking, reflecting and writing. And start by making your 10-10 List. I will have some downloadable tools as we walk this journey together. But for your 10-10 List, I want you to practice using your own tool for writing stuff down.

Please stay in touch over the course of this 90-days. If you are around Colorado, come on over to Aspen and let’s talk about your dreams over lunch. Follow all of the content that is coming by connecting to me on you favorite social channels.

Before I sign off today to hit the slopes today, if you think you are going to have a role change or significant transition in your vocational calling this year, you might want to check out the free eBook that I just released entitled Clarity Spiral. It’s all about finding your ONE THING in life.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Will Mancini

Will Mancini

Will Mancini wants you and your ministry to experience the benefits of stunning, God-given clarity. As a pastor turned vision coach, Will has worked with an unprecedented variety of churches from growing megachurches and missional communities, to mainline revitalization and church plants. He is the founder of Auxano, creator of VisionRoom.com and the author of God Dreams and Church Unique.

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