A little tripod, a smartphone camera and two yoga ladies talking on a dock in Lake Sammamish, sounds like a perfect spot to talk about dreams & goals to me! This week I performed live music during Karli Lindor's lakeside yoga class at sunset and I arrived early so we could take 30 minutes to video ourselves sharing our dreams, and discussing how we're making them a reality. What is the difference between goals & dreams? How do you figure out your dream? What do you do when the path towards your dreams becomes overwhelming and you want to stop? In this blog post, you'll find the entire transcript of our conversation, including my favorite quotes, time-stamps to help you navigate through the video, Karli's morning ritual routine, a couple book recommendations & the difference between believing in a magic pill vs believing in yourself! Here we go!
TRANSCRIPT
0:00 | INTRO
Following dreams and pursuing goals have become such a huge obsession in my life, it has guided the lifestyle that I've created for myself and I after a couple years of hiding in a cave (figuratively) figuring out what I want to do with my life and how I'm going to go after it, I'm excited to start talking to other people about their dreams and goals and how they're putting it into action and changing their lives. What do all the dream chasers have in common and what are they doing differently based on their specific dreams? What are the universal commonalities in beliefs & practices of people who are going after their dreams? What are the daily actions we take to manifest our dreams into reality?
1:00 | FIGURING OUT YOUR DREAM
"You have to plan on going away for a couple years, and getting really focused on what you love, on what is important to you and driving it." (Karli) If you're not clear about what you dream is, you can't drive it. Even an idea of what you want isn't good enough. You have to be super specific on what your dream is so you know exactly what actions you need to take. As yoga teachers, we have an over arching theme of being excited to help people. Karli focuses in on the health & fitness aspect and Cha focuses in on the creativity and musical side but we share a similar intention. You have to figure out which specific lane you want to go down.
2:44 | OUR DREAM PATHS & HOW WE GOT TO WHERE WE ARE TODAY
"You learn by going down the wrong path and figuring out how to get back onto the right one." (Karli) "Or going down the right path until it's not the right path anymore and then you switch." (Cha) "And being able to be okay to switch instead of driving yourself into the wall." (Karli)
CHA'S STORY | A couple years ago I was passionately teaching yoga full time (15 classes a week) and gradually my passion faded and I showed up to class without any stories to tell, no inspiration to offer. I realized the only part of the class I was actually excited about what the very end when I would sing to my students in Savasana. I finally accepted that I was really just excited about the music and everything else was in my way. I needed to start steering directly to music.
KARLI'S STORY | Karli was also teaching yoga full time (15 classes a week) and she realized that she had greater potential for helping more people 'outside the walls' of the yoga studio. So she changed direction and started coaching fitness online. Instead of spending most of her day driving around alone in her car between yoga studios (not the yoga teacher dream she'd imagined) she was now connecting with people all day long through social media and her fitness groups so she could help them in their everyday life. Karli started building her social media platform, driven by her desire to have relationships with people and connect with them.
OUR TIP FOR FIGURING OUT YOUR DREAM PATH | To figure out your dream, listen to the feedback you get from other people. What are you doing that is resonating with people? Only add in things that are going to serve you. Instead of focusing on making money, focus on what you're excited about and where the creativity is flowing! Look for the theme, the common thread, the thing that you're still excited about, to help you figure out what direction you're supposed to head in.
07:31 | "You gotta keep focused on I'm here to serve people, I'm here to help people outside of the classroom; that's why I need to build this platform or that's why you need to pursue music, you want to inspire people on that creative side, you know, what really speaks to the. You know people love you because of your music and your talent and people love me because of my ability to connect with them and help them on a holistic level not just in a fitness class."
08:55 | DO YOU THINK THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOALS & DREAMS?
"Yah! Goals you work at everyday, dreams are in your head. For me, I always had the dream to be an entrepreneur, I always had the dream to be able to travel and do whatever I wanted, I always had the dream to not have to go into a corporate job and sit in a cubicle but none of that started happening until I put goals in front of me. I set daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals and yearly goals. I always my clients, [set a goal, write it down & tape it on your mirror. Place it somewhere where you're reminded of it every single day.] Goals really encourage you to take action and do the small things verses dreams are overarching and it's really easy to be like "that's my dream one day" but goals make you put it into action every minute of every day and that's where the change occurs.
09:52 | KARLI'S DREAM + GOALS
DREAMS | "I think it changes everyday." (Karli) Giving myself freedom to travel and do yoga teacher trainings while still coaching. Owning my own house one day, maybe on a lake, being able to pour into others while giving myself space to grow; to be able to provide for her own family what her mom & dad provided for her, having a family grow up by the water. "[When I say I want to live by a lake, it's so much more than the lake. It's the family that I want to provide for.] Dreams seem so far away so you have to pull back and focus on the daily goals that are going to get you there." (Karli)
GOALS | Growth of my team & my clients, doing my miracle mornings which include meditation, devotional, yoga practice, workout, little things where I create a structure, choosing to get up a 5am daily and do the little things and showing up on those days continuously
11:10 | WHAT RESULTS HAVE YOU SEEN FROM YOUR GOALS? HOW ARE THEY MOVING YOU TOWARDS YOUR DREAM?
"Slowly. The ability to do the little things that you don't think matter but doing those little things daily do matter because they add up. Five minutes of meditation a day isn't going to change your life in two days. Five minutes of a meditation everyday for 365 days you could become a totally different person. But people see that 5 minute meditation in a 24 hour timeslot and they're like "it's just five minutes, I'll do it tomorrow" but you need to place more importance on those little things."
KARLI'S TIP FOR FOLLOWING GOALS | Break your dream down into small little goals and know that doing those small little goals will add up overtime. It is easier when you break it down but you have to start believing in the compound effect.
"You have to believe in the fact that these little things that you're doing everyday, eventually will compound. But the momentum starts so slow. It's like building the social media platforms. So slow!" (Karli)
KARLI'S MORNING ROUTINE (THE DAILY GOALS)
5am Wakeup
Light a Candle
Braindump in Journal
5 Minute Meditation (she likes doing a guided one on her phone)
10 Minutes of Personal Develop Reading
A Little Bit of Work, Connecting with Her Team
6am Virtual Workout with her Team Online "Press Play"
Celebrate with Coffee!
Worship Music
The Rest of the Day Is Chaos 2hr - 12hrs of Work
There is less conversation around a dream. It's harder to explain to other people. We don't always understand where it comes from or why we want it but we can explain our goals. Goals are more linear, taking you from one point to the next. The dream can be anything.
15:55 | REMEMBER TO REFLECT BACK ON THE GOALS YOU'VE ACCOMPLISHED ALREADY
Remember to look back at where you've come from and appreciate how many dreams you've already realized! You can think about your dreams as the horizon line on the ocean. Your goal is to keep the boat going forward, and the dream is the destination. But the horizon is always moving away from you. The dream is always changing because as you move closer to one dream, it becomes more realized, more normal, and you'll be ready to move onto the next one, on to a bigger dream that builds on the one that came before.
"Your dream is never definite. It's always infinite and it changes as you change." (Karli)
"Dreams are more out of your control. Goals are 'here's what am I going to do daily to make this happen' whereas the dream is 'I don't know why I want this, this is just important to me'. Maybe you can explain it but not having to explain it." (Cha)
"WHY do you get up at 5am. If it was just to make money I probably wouldn't do it. I has to be rooted in something that is so much bigger than myself. But your dream, singing at the Gorge or whatever it is, that will get you out of bed in the mornings. That will make you work that extra hour at night instead of watching Netflix. What propels you forward into doing those little small things that kind of suck sometimes." (Karli)
20:40 | KARLI'S INSTAGRAM ADVICE:
"I don't always feel like waking up and posting on Instagram but I do it anyway...Consistency is definitely key for me and just sharing your story and be really really raw...I talk about my goals and I talk about my dreams and dreams are the heartstring stuff and it always pulls on people so much easier. People just connect with that. Even though they might have no idea what you're talking about they can feel your emotion. For me I'm always like, 'no one's going to understand this' but then they do. People pick up in between the lines."
21:27 | CHASING YOUR DREAMS CHANGES WHO YOU ARE
"Going after your dreams forces you to become a new version of yourself...If someone call me tonight and asked me to sing at the Gorge tomorrow I would obviously say yes, but it wouldn't be satisfying. It's not just that I want to sing on that stage, it's that I want to become the woman who got to that stage. Who I am today is in the past and the person that walks onto the stage, however long it takes, has exponentially high music skill than I do, has connections, has overcome fears and obstacles." (Cha) "It's so much more about the journey." (Karli) "It really is, because stepping on that stage, what makes it exciting is to step onto it and be like, "I did all that" (Cha) "I got there, by my own work, by showing up in those goals and those days when it was hard." (Karli) "It's not just the hardwork but what it did to me. When you have the discipline, when you have to face your fears, it turns you into a stronger person...outside of music, now I can handle other things. I envision that have to become the best version of myself to be able to accomplish that dream, because I have to become everything that is demanded of me." (Cha)
"You're never at the point where you're done, where you've made it. Have fun on the journey. That's what's really going to inspire you and encourage you to continue moving forward. And those days that you look back on are going to be the fun days....You have to learn to love yourself in the days that build up to it because that's where you find the most character. That's where you really find out things about yourself." (Karli)
23:45 | INSPIRE PEOPLE TO FOLLOW THEIR DREAMS
"There are lots of goals, people losing weight everywhere, but how often do you run into people that are like "I'm following my dream! And a lot of times, people have given up on their dreams and that's where we see bitterness come in....People discourage others from following their dreams when they're not following theirs." (Cha)
"We need to be reminded that it's hard...If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Hello! It's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be really really hard." (Karli)
"How can we remember that it's hard but at the same time, how can we get more people to do it?" (Cha) "It has a lot to do with self belief. People put a lot of limiting beliefs on themselves, we listen to the media, and we listen to 'go to college, graduate, go to a corporate job', if I listened to what everyone told me to do, I would be working at Starbucks corporate living in an apartment in downtown Seattle and designing coffee mugs; which would be awesome, I love coffee but I don't love it that much and I love what I'm doing now way more. You know, the amount of people who told me don't do it, don't move into that tinyhome in a mobile home park, don't do that. I'm living that dream because I decided to set those limiting beliefs that I had of myself and people had of me and my choices aside...And knowing that there is so much room for growth. There is so much room for people to follow their dreams because most people don't. There is so much opportunity for the people that do want to follow their dreams to follow them and succeed and hit those goals because most people fail. And sit with that and realize that it's actually really cool that most people don't follow their dreams because that gives me more room for success. Which isn't selfish, just know you're able to go after whatever you want to do because most people won't do it...A lot of people start but not a lot of people finish. All you have to do is show up and work harder. You don't have to be any more talented. You don't have to be any more special. You just have to be that person that doesn't quit. Stop looking at it like you need this magic potion. People think they're not qualified enough but no, you just have to have belief. You just have to work hard."
"You have to start, you have to keep going, you have to finish and when other people don't, that's when you do." (Cha) "It's such a simple recipe and people think that there's these magic pills and it's like NO, you just have to keep going when everybody else doesn't or everybody else tells you not to." (Karli)
28:05 | THE MAGIC PILL VS SELF BELIEF
"Everyone thinks it's a magic pill. There's the diet and there's the workout and that's only 20%. The other 80% is you believing that it's actually going to work. It can be the best weight loss solution, it can be the best diet plan ever but none of that is going to work if you don't believe in yourself that it's going to work and you don't put it into action. 80% of it is about your beliefs, and are you actually going to show up and are you actually going to do it?" (Karli)
28: 35 | WHAT HELPS YOU KEEP GOING AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
"Personal develop, diving into stuff that's going to encourage me and learning from people that have already done it...Diving into things, you're never there. You never know everything. Setting your ego aside and learning more." (Karli)
FOLLOW KARLI
Karli Lindor
Yoga Teacher + Virtual Fitness Coach with Team Beachbody
Instagram: @karlindor
Facebook: Karli Lindor
MENTIONS
1) Shakti Vinyasa Yoga
2) The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson [Book]
3) Big Magic by Liz Gilbert [Book]