January is usually a weird month for me. We’re in that post Christmas funk, taking down all the decorations and lights and getting back into our regular routines. I don’t know about you, but my house feels so bare now that it’s back to normal.

Back to normal. If you think about it, that is a really odd phrase.

What is normal anyway? I definitely know normal for me probably isn’t the same as normal for you.

What I realized when I was thinking about the idea of normal, is that "normal" changes every day as we grow and change.

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If you want to achieve your goals, you first have to have them.

About a year ago a very smart business woman asked me, “How are you going to get where you want to go if you don’t know where that is?” That question has stuck with me and now is one of the very first questions I ask my clients when working with them on creating and mapping out their Big Vision Road Map.

After all, how will you know what actions to take if you don’t have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish?

How do you know your short-term goals will help you move forward and toward your big, long-term goals?

The answer to all of these questions starts with the exploration and creation of your Big Vision Road Map, which not only outlines where your journey will end, but how you are going to get there and what possible stops you may make along the way.

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How are you going to get where you want to go if you don’t know where that is? How will you know what actions to take if you don’t have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish? How do you know your short-term goals will help you move forward and toward your big, long-term goals?

The answer to all of these questions starts with your Big Vision Road Map.

Your big vision isn’t just a guide to knowing when to say to say no, make a change, or say yes. It is also a fantastic tool to help you stay motivated and track your continual progress.

Simply breaking your high-level vision down into several smaller, incremental steps, can help you change your mindset from “How am I ever going to accomplish all that?” to “I can totally do that!”

Think of it like the game of Sorry.

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Just a quick message today! Yesterday it was my birthday (Yes, I’m now 30!) and today I am celebrating my 10 YEAR wedding anniversary. Yes, I got married the day after I turned 20 and now I ask myself, “What was I thinking?” I really should have spread the two apart, but back then all I cared about was getting married, the church had only one day available, and I didn’t want to wait.

For me, I approach my business in sort of the same way. I decide what I want to achieve, I set a date of completion, and I jump right into the planning and implementation needed to make it happen. Ten years ago, I never would have guessed that I would be running my own business and loving every second of it – It took me a while to figure out I was an entrepreneur.

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday with a fabulous lunch at the Bistro 33 restaurant inside the brand new Mercedes dealership in my home town. It was delicious and I highly recommend it if you’re local. With a giant water feature in the shape of the Mercedes logo pouring down from the ceiling of the second story into a planter on the ground floor, the beautiful cars to check out, and the shop and car lot on the roof of the building (not visible from the street, this dealership definitely lives up to the Mercedes standard.

During our long lunch, I had a chance to reflect on the past year and talk with my husband about all of the changes that we have gone through in my business since my last birthday.

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This past weekend, I attended the eWomenNetwork International Conference in Dallas, Texas. To the right is one of the photos snapped of my friends Heather Atherton, Kristi LeGue, and I at the Gala celebration on the first night.

From speakers, to breakout sessions, to networking, this year I truly felt like a powerful underlying message was being communicated – THINK BIG and Invest in Yourself.

Thinking big isn’t just about setting a goal. It is about opening your mind and heart to the possibilities that lay ahead. It is about opening your arms to the universe and saying, “I accept.” Now, what is meant to happen for you may not come at the time you think it should, or in the way you think it should, but it will come when you are ready for it, and when the world is ready for it.

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10. You Hired Your Friend’s Kid.

You’ve heard all about how he is great with computers and is a tech genius. He took a design class in high school or maybe a couple courses at the local community college and he has done a couple websites. Your friend mentions this a few times and you see a chance to get your website done and save some money. At first you’re excited, and then you start to realize that developing a professional polished website that works isn’t as easy as you thought. Soon you’ve spent hundred of dollars and you’re unhappy. You don’t even want to tell people your have a website because you’re embarrassed. So not only did you waste your money, but you wasted your valuable, billable time and lost out of some potential new business.

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Growing up is hard to do! Or at least that is always what I heard when I was growing up. What I didn’t realize when I started my business is that it grows up too! And growing a business is hard to do!

As I grew up, from child to teen, from teen to young adult, and from young adult to mature adult (am I a mature adult – OMG!), I changed. My outlook and approach to life changed. How I dealt with challenges changed. My dreams and goals changed.

Isn’t this true with our businesses too? I know my vision for Bourn Creative today is drastically different from my vision at the start of my solopreneur journey. My business has grown in some areas more than others and my focus has changed as I pursue my passions and dreams.

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