BACKGROUND: Mary was bemoaning the fact that she needed money and asked for my advice.
PROBLEM: How do you go about organizing a plan to meet a goal you have, whether it be for attaining money, finding balance, finding love, tackling a project, improving your health or any other current objective? Here is one easy technique to use.
SOLUTION: Grab a piece of paper and draw a circle in the center. In the middle of the circle write your goal. That is the head of the spider. A spider has eight legs. But your spider can have as many as you need. So Mary would write, “Attain Money” in the center, then draw legs, labeling each with a strategy to reach that goal. Some of those strategies might be to get a job, get a loan, sell items she owns, reduce costs, lower expenses, and increase her visibility in the job market, for examples. Next, some of these legs turn into little spiders themselves. These baby spiders take one strategy (e.g. “get a job”) and their legs become the steps to meet that strategy. So the legs might be to contact a previous employer, network with people in your field, volunteer to increase your visibility in job markets, apply for jobs, take a side job, take a temporary job, increase your social media presence for your work, or give a presentation to advertise your skills and availability. After creating all the baby spiders you need, look at what you have written then create a timeline for working each aspect.
TIP: Tell someone what you are doing. Create a support system, which can help you be accountable to meet your goal.
SUMMARY: Visualizing success is easier if you break a problem into small chunks. Use a spider image to state your goal and develop strategies to meet your goal. Create baby spiders to work each strategy.
NOTE: The Native American dreamcatcher depicts a spider web that lets the bad dreams pass through and catches the good dreams. May your spiders and spiderlings (baby spiders) weave webs that catch your good dreams and help spin them into silk.