The Power of Dreaming Big and Setting Audacious Goals
2024 was quite the year! Both of us have made some pretty significant progress in terms of mindset, in how we view our own emotional and mental health, and how we want to serve our communities.
With 2024 fresh in our minds, we wanted to explore the power of dreaming big, setting audacious goals, and taking responsibility for the role that we play in our own suffering.
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1) Reviewing 2024 Goals
Archita explains that both she and Olivia don’t carry the belief of “new year, new me”.
“It's a consistent and constant process that we engage with.” - Archita Fritz
Archita personally looks at her year from her birthday to her next birthday which is in July.
“Those are the goals I set for myself because it takes the pressure off with everyone just going delulu. [...] And it actually is extremely liberating.” - Archita Fritz
Every six to eight weeks she then reviews these goals and writes down her progress towards them.
“I was looking at my goals and about 70% of them I have not even hit. And like 30% percent of the 70% I'm not even sure how to hit.” - Archita Fritz
What Olivia loves about this statement is that even though Archita doesn't know how she’s going to hit these goals, it isn't scaring her off from listing the goal anyway.
2) The Power of Dreaming Big
Archita explains that when she was in corporate, she only set goals that she knew she could exceed expectations in.
This was partly because she was managing a team and she wanted them to be successful.
“One of the things I think I failed at as a leader was to put a goal that was out there [...] and create a space for my team to fail on it.” - Archita Fritz
She imagines that a lot of brilliance may have come from that.
“That is what my learning has been since I left corporate, is taking chances on the most absurd goals to then discover 80 other different things that I'd never considered that enriched my life in ways that helped me grow.” - Archita Fritz
Oliva explains that corporate is not designed for you to dream, rather, it is designed to keep you a worker and to keep you in line so that you make a profit for that organization.
“The corporation's mission is to make money, not to develop you.” - Olivia Cream
One of the biggest costs in corporations is talent turnover so of course they're not going to teach you to dream, to set big goals, and to not be afraid of failure.
“If they teach you those things, they're teaching you things that are working against their own self-interest. [...] Please stop surrendering your power to your organization and realize that you need to be setting goals for yourself.” - Olivia Cream
Another point Olivia makes is that many women don’t put big audacious goals on paper because they then attach their self-worth to them and if they fail, it’s going to be very painful.
“All failure is a lesson.” - Olivia Cream
By failing, you have just learned one way not to hit your goal. There are infinite other channels in which you can reach your goals.
“Stop being afraid of failing and embrace failure as part of the journey. You only truly lose if you don't dust yourself off and try again after you fail.” - Olivia Cream
Take a moment to think about the impact you want to have.
“Forget the world, forget your family, what is the impact you want to leave for yourself? And what does dreaming look like?” - Archita Fritz
Now write down those dreams on a piece of paper. Let these dreams flow and don’t self-sensor yourself.
3) How to Figure Out Your Dream
If you are having trouble dreaming, think about your passions that you may have forgotten over time and your superpowers that you may be hesitant to acknowledge.
“Black women especially have been told since we were young that it's supposed to be hard. And at some point, we have embraced this mindset and we're picking the road more difficult because it's supposed to be hard.” - Olivia Cream
STOP THIS!
Stop with the mindset that it's supposed to be hard and instead shift to the mindset of doing more of the things that come easily to you.
“Instead of building resiliency with the things that kick you in the face every day, how do I do more of what I do well and do with ease?” - Olivia Cream
This dream may be in corporate but it may not be.
Archita emphasizes that you should NOT consider your environment when you do your dreaming.
“Dream first and then figure it out. Do I need to go create a new environment? Do I need to go find a new environment or can I actually do it within my environment?” - Archita Fritz
Archita shares that she didn’t do enough dreaming when she was in corporate and 99% of her goals were about making an impact in her corporate environment.
10 years ago, while Archita and her husband were doing family goal planning, her husband shared that his biggest goal in life was to be the best father to his kids.
“I laughed at him. I was like, what the heck kind of goal is that? I wanted to be the vice president. I had all of these line items, right? But this man's goal was dreaming bigger.” - Archita Fritz
It was only about a year and a half ago that Archita finally clicked on why he chose to dream that big goal.
“Showing up every day is a challenge, but he dreamed something that he had no idea how he was going to go after doing it. And he worked towards it.” - Archita Fritz
Archita challenges us to truly give ourselves permission to dream and stop waiting for the perfect conditions to set those big goals.
“Trust your ability to adapt because you have done this over and over again.” - Archita Fritz
Take the time to write down when you have succeeded when the conditions were not perfect.
“You'd be surprised how often you have chosen confidence over certainty.” - Archita Fritz
4) The Power of Audacity
Olivia often asks this question to her coaching clients:
“If you could take on the personality traits of anyone, who would it be?”
She has a controversial answer to this question herself. Elon Musk.
“Do not judge me here when I say this. [...] Hear me out, Elon Musk's audacity.” - Olivia Cream
Olivia wishes that more of us women would just be audacious.
“Whether you like him, hate him, just let's put aside personal feelings for a second. You cannot dispute the successes he's had over time and the failures.” - Oliva Cream
And while Musk was born into privilege, his audacity is the reason why he's the richest man right now.
“Now, I think the way he treats employees is terrible. I find him to be a bit of a bigot, but the audacity is a common thread in successful people. I just happened to pick someone who is a controversial figure just to make this spicy, but the point is still the same.” - Olivia Cream
If you're trying to reach success, you have got to get to the point where you stop caring about what other people think of you, the limitations holding you back, and the failures you make along the way.
“I've been studying people over time that have reached massive levels of success. They all have that one common trait, the audacity.” - Olivia Cream
5) Watering Flowers, Not Weeds
Oftentimes in life, we water the weeds instead of the flowers. For example, you focus on what you can’t do, on your failures, or something negative someone said about you.
“We water what I call the weeds a lot. But instead, if you have the audacity to feed your curiosity and not your fears, you will start watering the flowers.” - Archita Fritz
This is something Oliva resonates with.
“I think a lot of black women can probably resonate with this. You pick these good fights and you go on these missions and then you hit roadblock after roadblock after idiot after idiot. And it beats you down to the point where all you can see are the struggles. You're ignoring all of the beautiful things that are happening in your life as well.” - Olivia Cream
When you're operating from a space of fear, hate, desperation, and aggravation you are not activating the full capacity of your brain.
Your brain is in threat detection mode and it is not being creative or innovative. You're not problem-solving to your highest degree.” - Olivia Cream
Olivia explains that from a spiritual perspective, if you're putting out this energy of fear and chaos, you're going to attract more of those negative things.
“Focus on the gratitude. Focus on the good things. This didn't work, but these five things did and intentionally divert your attention to the positive things. So it keeps you in a frame of mind that is valuable to you on your journey. Paying attention to the weeds does nothing for you.” - Olivia Cream
We need to take responsibility for the things that we spend our time on.
“You have written down your dream. Now write one weed that you are watering that's going to keep you from fulfilling this dream that you wrote out and one flower in your life that you're going to start watering more.” - Archita Fritz
Stop draining yourself by spending time on garbage activities like doom scrolling. Take action to stop feeding those weeds.
“You have to take responsibility for the part you play in your own suffering.” - Oliva Cream
We all play the largest role in our own suffering because of what we give our attention to.
“How many times can you go through the same cycle, the same loop, learn the same lesson, and keep doing the same thing, ladies?” - Olivia Cream
6) Introducing ‘My Sister’s Shoulders’ Community
Last year Olivia went on a life-changing trip with a group of women and she realized that women of color need a space where they can breathe, that is free of microaggressions, and where they are surrounded by like-minded women with similar intersections going through the same thing.
And while Oliva loves women like Brené Brown and Mel Robbins, their advice often doesn’t work for women of color because they have not taken cultural implications into account.
“There are all these things that I think women of color and black women need that are a little bit different than our majority sisters.” - Olivia Cream
If you're paying attention to social media, black women are taking a break. They are done fighting everybody’s battles.
“I’ve got to take care of myself because the years of chronic stress have taken a toll on my mind, on my body, on my home life. And what do I have to show for all of this pain?” - Olivia Cream
From these feelings, the My Sister's Shoulders community was born.
“Especially for women of color, we tend to try to go about life alone. We don't form these communities where we can support, thrive, and tackle some of these issues together.” - Olivia Cream
This community will allow women of color to come in and take a collective breath with other sisters, talk about how to rest in an impactful way and talk about how to dream in an impactful way.
“Let's rediscover ourselves together and figure out how we thrive in authenticity instead of what we've been doing, which is fighting everybody else's causes.” - Olivia Cream
Olivia is currently curating a retreat in Florida in April with a central focus on healing and rest. Learn more about this here - http://www.mysistersshoulders.com.
If you enjoyed this conversation, here are a few more episodes you might like:
Episode 78: Finding Alignment, Understanding Priorities & Taking Control of Your Goals
Episode 69: It’s Time to Take Control of Your Fear
Episode 44: Start where you are with Coach Brandi Thompson
To hear the full conversation, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 81.
About The Hosts: Archita And Olivia
ARCHITA
Archita Sivakumar Fritz is the Host and Producer of the Embracing Only Podcast. Archita is a MedTech and Life Science Strategist. She is a LinkedIn Top Voice for her insights into product strategy and nonprofit management, and the creation of inclusive cultures that champion a 'speak up' philosophy.
Following a successful 19+ year corporate career she now helps C Suite across organizations as a Fractional Product Marketing Leader through her company Ready Set Bold.
She works with individuals with 10+ years of corporate experience to find new paths away from toxic or underappreciative environments, enabling both personal fulfillment and broader organizational impact.
→ Grab your FREE resource to build your career transition here: https://embracingonly.com/cubicle-escape-blueprint
→ If you want to work with Archita you can reach out to her here: www.readysetb.
→ Book her as a speaker, moderator, or coach for your next company event or workshop.
OLIVIA
Olivia Grant Cream is the host and producer of the Embracing Only podcast. Nothing makes her happier than providing a platform to women who are changing the world.
Olivia is a proud US Veteran and HR Leader who is passionate about changing the face of corporate America by helping underrepresented people reclaim their power and live the life of their dreams.
She is an advocate for transitioning military members seeking second careers in the corporate landscape.
Olivia is a proud Jamaican and enjoys mentoring, coaching, classic cars, and nature. The way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
→ You can work with Olivia here: www.oliviacre
→ Book her as a keynote speaker or moderator for your next ERG or company event.