Reading: Big Dreams, Daily Joys
Title: Big Dreams, Daily Joys
Author: Elise Blaha Cripe
From the back:
Big Dreams, Daily Joys is an empowering guide to establishing healthy productivity habits so that it’s east (and fun!) to accomplish your long-term goals. In these pages, you’ll find practical advice, simple techniques, and inspiring exercises for tackling projects big and small…
“Try this: Be like a juggler.”
Have you ever watched someone juggle? They don’t throw all the plates in the air at once and hope for the best. They throw one plate. Then two. Then tree. Then, maybe, they add more…
This is how you should add new projects and tasks to your life: one thing at a time.
Big Dreams, Daily Joys
My thoughts:
The back blurb really says it all – Elise has filled this book to the brim with advice, thought exercises, and lines that will stick in your head forever after. I’ve been following Elise for a long time so it was very interesting to read about her experiences and thoughts on her different projects that I myself have witnessed in real time.
The book is separated into these general sections:
Let’s Get Started – Why and how to set goals
Let’s Make Room for Joy – The value of planning and big-picture thinking
Let’s Dream Bigger – Starting on those goals
Let’s Get It Done – Getting through the ups and downs along the way
In each section, she tackles every challenge, thought, and concern you may have about goal-setting and goal-getting. Each section isn’t long and includes only what you really need to hear. While I read this book all the way through, from start to finish, I know for sure that I will be flipping to different spots in the book for when I am facing those specific challenges.
“The only thing you can control is that you keep showing up.”
“I hear people talk about their FOMO a lot. I hope I suffer from the much-less-catchy “FOFSED.” Fear of following someone else’s dreams.”
Elise’s approach to helping the reader shape their lives is one of openness and firmness. Her advice applies to any season of life you’re living and is inclusive of the many different paths we are all on. Because of this, it’s hard to ignore any of her wisdom. You’ll see in the highlights sprinkled in this post: this book is concrete.
“There are three reasons why you don’t get your to-do-list items accomplished: lack of time, lack of communication, or lack of interest.”
Who I recommend this for:
People who already plan or are interested in looking to set goals for their life. I could really say this is for everyone, but I know that this book would make a greater impact if you already have some familiarity with thinking about your life from a macro level. Elise writes with a caring and supportive tone that will support you when your ready (and also remind you that you’ll never be fully ready).
You get to be scared. Doing new things is scary.
Big Dreams, Daily Joys
