Your dreams do not expire.

Your goals don’t have any end dates except for the arbitrary ones you put on them.

Your vision — that has staying power.

And yet. Sometimes, they get pushed aside. Or stuck. Sometimes life intervenes. Or we don’t know how to get to our next level. Sometimes, we’re just focused on getting life done and ignoring what we know we want, need and crave. For now.

Those desires are still there. And any time that you want to pick them up and get moving towards them, you can.

To do that means making a choice. Taking ownership. Listening to yourself. Prioritizing and investing in yourself.

(It’s like the poet Mary Oliver said about that one precious life. Tell me what you are going to do with it. What is it that matters to you, motivates you, feels right for you?)

Most often, creating what's next for you also means taking a little time to clarify what it is that you really want, to recommit to it, to develop a stronger belief in it (and yourself). You might need to evolve the details so that they better match who you are and where you are in this season of your life. That’s all to the good.

The more time and energy you expend on the essence of what you want to create next, the more you will see it start to take shape.

The philosophy that I use for doing all of this is a simple one, but it takes work. It’s an easy to remember framework that’s equally useful for personal goals, for career objectives, for moving yourself from surviving to thriving. It works for up-leveling your life and your work, for reinventing your reality. Here’s the framework:

First, you dream it.

This is where you re-engage with those goals, plans, dreams you may have put aside or forgotten. It’s also where you push yourself to think beyond that and to imagine a wider field of vision. What would you love to do, who would you love to be in your world? Imagine removing all the limits and just running with this for a bit. If you’re fully confident and you had the all resources, what would you be creating? What would your life or your job look like if you could include the impossible options?

Then, you start designing it.

So, what would it look like if you were to start assembling your dream in real time? What would the first and easiest step be towards your goal? And then what? Design is a process. In this stage, you’ll consider many options and settle on a few to move ahead with. You’ll create the plans, goals, timelines and any other tools that you personally find helpful in bring your creation to life.

You’ll also evaluate the resources you have in place and the resources you still need. Are there places where you already have pieces of the puzzle in place? Usually, the answer here is yes, even if we may not have noticed or appreciated that until now. Since we are the biggest resources we have to start with, you’ll uncover and adjust the thinking, mindsets and practices that need to be adjusted for you to fully engage in creating what’s next for you. (I did say there was work.)

And then, you live it.

Which essentially means that you go out into the world and start taking action. You test out your designs and plans. You try things. You learn and adjust your strategies as you go. You break things down into tangible, achievable steps. Those steps can be small, if need be. They can also be very big stretches. The point is to keep moving forward and stay connected to why you're headed in the direction you're going.

This "living" part is the most fun because it’s where the momentum starts to really kick in. As you create small results, those small results start to add up to big results. The next thing you know, you’re creating, building, shifting, becoming — and starting to dream up your next level.

Have you tried putting this framework into place for the lifestyle, dream, goal or next situation you'd like to create? Try it out and let me know where you need help.