Using Stepping Stone Moves to Work Toward Your Dreams Right Now
Today I'm walking you through how I accidentally started Hustle Sanely and how you can use the same method that I did to make some serious progress on your dream, too...even if you're not quite sure what it is yet.
Keep reading this post to learn:
⋒ How to use STEPPING STONE MOVES to make progress on your dreams right now
Can I tell you something that you might find surprising coming out of my mouth? One of the biggest things that I think gets in the way of making progress toward our dreams is over-planning. UM HELLO, JESS, you design planners for a living and coach people in being productive??? TRUE. But I think there is a fine line between planning and over-planning.
Having a plan in place is wise. It positions you to use your time and energy wisely. To achieve your goals without sacrificing your mental health and relationships. The difference between planning and overplanning is taking action.
It doesn’t matter if you know what the “big dream” is or if you’re not sure yet. Standing still for too long won’t get you any closer to it. And notice I said “for too long” because I do think an amount of stillness is required for clarity and making wisdom-centered moves. So yes, be still, get clear, but then move.
There’s this quote that sums this up nicely:
“Faith is the poetry of our dreams. Action is the builder of our reality.”
Action complements faith. Action is faith lived out. So, enter what I like to call: STEPPING STONE MOVES. Stepping stone moves are things that you can do right now that might not be your FULL ON big dream but that get you a step closer to it.
Think about a 2-story mall. Let’s say the store that has the pair of shoes that you have been saving up for and are so excited to buy is on the second floor. You can’t just jump or fly up there -- you’ve got to walk up all of the stairs. You’re not necessarily excited about each step that makes up the staircase, but you’re not focused on how each step you have to take isn’t the dream because you know that each one is getting you closer to what you’re actually excited about...getting to the store that has your shoes. How ridiculous would it be for you to complain about each step as you had to walk up it to get to the shoe store? “OMG ANOTHER STEP? Why do I have to use these steps anyway? These steps are so ugly who designed them?”
NO! Your energy is focused on the shoe store and you know you need the steps to get you there so even if you’re not excited about the steps, you appreciate them as you walk up them, because you know where they’re taking you. Make sense?
Let’s take a trip down memory lane - I want to walk you through all of the different jobs I’ve had that have led me to Hustle Sanely. I call each of them stepping stone moves. The internet makes it really easy to see what I’ve built over the last almost 3 years and think, “Wow she is so lucky to be living out her dream. It must be nice to know exactly what you want to do and have a plan in place to make it happen.” L O L because that is not my story. It is NOW but I didn’t graduate from high school knowing this is what I would be doing with my life, ya know?
To be honest, I didn’t know Hustle Sanely was my dream until I was doing it. I used stepping stone moves to help me make progress on a dream that I didn’t know existed!
Let’s start with graduating college (the first time, lol).
⇾ I graduated with my bachelor’s in public relations in 2012 after graduating high school in 2008. I thought I wanted to be an event planner, so I took an event planning-type internship right after I graduated. Turns out I hated working 16-20 hours on any given Saturday. I also didn’t super love being micromanaged by people (ahem, Bridezillas) as I did my job. But I did discover that I had a knack for organizing, scheduling, and delegating.
⇾ After that, I went on to become a certified personal trainer because I was passionate about health and fitness and it felt like a good idea at the time. I worked at a local gym with one one one clients and I also taught group fitness classes. While I was working at the gym, I started an online fitness business where I trained virtual clients too. I was also sharing health and fitness tips on Instagram (RIP to @ glistenfit, lol). I learned that I didn’t love having the pressure of my hobby (working out) sustaining my household income. I also learned that I really love working one-on-one with clients and in small group settings and that educating people via social media was a gift of mine.
⇾ Next, I decided to pursue speech-language pathology. I worked as an SLPA in a 1st-12th grade school as I pursued my master’s. During that time, I was creating my own speech resources to use with my students because I couldn’t afford to buy any, and I was also sharing my grad school journey online via Instagram and YouTube. I also ended up creating a digital planner to help me stay organized between my 2 jobs and grad school that was the catalyst for Hustle Sanely. People saw me talking about my planner on Instagram and asked if I could sell it on Etsy...so I did. I needed a name for my Etsy shop and “Hustle Sanely” was what popped into my mind. My SLP journey taught me how to be flexible with planning and scheduling, how to be resourceful and create my own digital products, and how to share my story online with people in a valuable way.
Hustle Sanely started out as a digital planner shop on Etsy and has morphed into what it is today: a community-centered productivity education platform! Y’all know what Hustle Sanely is: a monthly membership with group coaching, the podcast, courses, paper products, and YES still digital planners, too!
Do you see how all of these other jobs ended up being stepping stone moves for Hustle Sanely? If you pay close attention, you can see how I pulled skills and knowledge from each experience to bring with me into what I do today. I made progress on my dream before I even knew it was my dream because I was open to learning as I took steps. I wasn’t panicking about having everything figured out before making a move. I let one step lead me to the next one -- and you can do that too!
Wanna know a secret? Creating digital planners isn’t my favorite thing to do. It’s very tedious, to be honest, but I love teaching people how to use the planners to live a peacefully productive life. And the income that the digital planners brought in, funded dreams that I wanted to make happen like starting a podcast (I needed money to buy the equipment) or starting a paper planner line. The digital planners are still and will most likely always be part of Hustle Sanely but they are no longer the main event. They were a stepping stone move to help me create what Hustle Sanely is today!
Think of stepping stone moves as bridges between dreaming and doing. Stepping stone moves are prepping you for the big dream -- even if you aren’t clear on it yet.
If you enjoyed this post, tune into episode 092 of The Hustle Sanely Podcast to listen into this topic:
