One Brick at a Time
🟢 Big goals have a way of feeling impossible until you stop looking at the whole mountain.
On January 1, 2021, I had $73,000 left on my mortgage. I set a goal to clear it within a year. Rather than staring at that number and hoping for the best, I opened my bullet journal and drew a simple brick house. Each brick represented $250. Every two weeks, as I made a payment, I colored in the bricks. Sometimes I’d round up my payment just to fill another row.
Slowly, the house filled in.
🧭 Small wins are more powerful than we give them credit for.
There’s something that happens when progress becomes visible. It stops being abstract. Each colored brick was a small win, a quiet confirmation that the goal was real and that I was moving toward it. The momentum that built from those small wins is what carried me to the last brick — and the feeling when I colored it in wasn’t just financial relief. It was proof that discipline and visibility work.
This wasn’t my first brick house either. I used the same approach in my twenties to pay off my student loan. I share this story in my book Designing Your Second Act because I think it illustrates something important — big goals are rarely achieved in one dramatic leap. They’re achieved through small, consistent, visible steps taken over time.
🌱 The same approach works beyond finances.
As you approach retirement, the goals that matter most aren’t always financial. Maybe you want to strengthen a relationship that’s drifted. Build a new daily rhythm before the structure of work disappears. Explore something you’ve always wanted to learn. Start a health habit that will carry you through your go-go years.
These goals can feel just as overwhelming as a $73,000 mortgage balance — maybe more so, because they’re harder to measure. But they respond to the same approach. Break the goal into visible pieces. Make progress tangible. Celebrate the small wins along the way.
💡 Try it this week.
You don’t need a bullet journal. A piece of paper works just fine. Think of one goal that matters to you right now — financial, personal, or otherwise. Draw a simple shape and divide it into sections. Assign a small, achievable action to each one. Then start colouring.
You might be surprised how quickly a wall of bricks becomes a house.
✍️ A question for you:
What’s one goal in your life right now that you’ve been staring at like a mountain — and what would the first brick look like?
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