EP 237 ✔️The Journey To Achieving My Bold Goal
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast for anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in.
Sara Mayer: Hello, bold goal crushers. Back here for another episode of the bold goal crusher podcast. And today we're going to talk about my journey towards crushing not one, but two bold goals. We talk a lot about goals, and many times goals are written down, they are not written [00:01:00] down, they're all over the place, and I, just like you, have been through a journey just trying to set and crush bold goals.
Sara Mayer: But I learned a long time ago that the number one way that we actually set and achieve our goals is by writing them down. So I have in the front of my journal every year, every theme that I've done for every year. And then my goals, 3, 5, 10, 12 year goals. And I specifically write, this happens to be my journal right now.
Sara Mayer: I speci specifically write, if you're watching on YouTube, I should say, you can see my journal. If you're not watching on YouTube, you should check us out on YouTube. You can see my wild hair. Anyway, I specifically write in my journal about my goals and what I'm working on. And many years ago, actually in 2007, I guess it was 2007.
Sara Mayer: I had the opportunity to travel to South Africa and we visited a place called [00:02:00] Soweto, which was. At the time, very impoverished, they didn't have a lot of they didn't have running water. They didn't have electricity and there was a large group of people living in pretty much metal shacks that they had constructed off of out of pieces of metal.
Sara Mayer: And 1 of the things when I was there that. Was really expressed to me is that education is one of the biggest challenges that women living in these villages have there. They're not able to go get education. There's not a way for them to do that. And so they're literally study under trees, reading books under trees and learning everything they can, but they're the primary caregivers for their family.
Sara Mayer: And I knew I wanted to do something right then. I didn't know what it would look like. And that's why we're going to stop right there, because that's why it's so important that when we set goals that we toss out this idea of smart goals. [00:03:00] And I know many people teach us to be very specific in our actual goal setting.
Sara Mayer: I think you need to be very specific in your objective setting, like how you're going to achieve the goal that keeps the momentum. But when you set goals, and then you have all these dreams and have these ideas and you try and make them realistic or put a timeframe on them. Oftentimes they get tossed away because when that time frame ends, like if I had actually put in here what my goal was, which I'll talk about in a minute, I had actually put in here what my goal was in a very specific form.
Sara Mayer: It did not happen. It didn't happen in that time frame. I would have been defeated and I would have felt like I was making no traction and I probably would have tossed that goal to the side. So anyway, way back when I knew that I wanted to do something about education and I knew [00:04:00] that someday I wanted to help people in less fortunate situations by building schools.
Sara Mayer: And I know, I knew that education really was what was lacking and that the more education these women had. The better off they would be able to do. And then that actually is a snowball that helps their family. And many people will say stuff like they need to learn to do it themselves or and yes, I get you, I've had people when I say I want to build a school and another country.
Sara Mayer: I've had people say to me, we shouldn't have to do all this and. We do have to do all this because we need to help other people out. And so anyway, I know there's some backlash to that, but we're going to push those people aside. And with any goal, there are people out there that say, you can't do that, or it's going to cost a lot of money or, Maybe that's not what they want [00:05:00] or how, who do you think you are to do this?
Sara Mayer: Because, whatever. And that happened along this journey. I came back and told people that someday I truly wanted to help build schools in other countries. Did I have any idea how I was going to do it? No. And maybe I'll quote Taylor Swift. There's like these invisible strings that. Guide our lives, I think, and there were experiences that came about that later.
Sara Mayer: I realized where, oh, bringing me back to that experience in with those kids and those families. Fast forward. I read the book half the sky. So it's probably it's an older book. I read it. I've read it three times now and I'll read it probably much more. And that book talks about how women should be holding up half the sky, but they don't have that opportunity.
Sara Mayer: And so if we educate more women, [00:06:00] then that changes everything for them. So I read that book a couple of times, but then I read it again with some really great friends. And what's really cool is that this goal has been in my journal since 2007, and it's 2024 folks. So how many years is that? A lot. It's been in here a lot of years and I didn't know how I was going to do it.
Sara Mayer: And I didn't know if I ever would, but I knew that as I took steps and I did research and I've been researching for years of how to do it, that someday something would happen. And then in 2015, which is almost 10 years ago, a group of friends and I. We were all talking about the impact we want to make in the world.
Sara Mayer: And we were at a restaurant, Joyride Tacos in Phoenix, and we were maybe had a little to [00:07:00] drink. And we were talking about how many nonprofits truly. Need money to do what they need to do that. We would probably have a care for cancer if we threw more money in it. And actually, cobit, 19 vaccine is a prime example.
Sara Mayer: Many of the research companies and the people doing research weren't allowed to do research unless it was on cobit. And so they put all a lot of energy and a lot of manpower and a lot and they threw a lot of money. Into finding a vaccine for COVID 19. And so because of that, we found a vaccine. And so anyway, we were all sitting around talking about the fact that what nonprofits really need is money.
Sara Mayer: And because of that, they need the money to make the impact and that, yeah, they love the volunteer hours and don't get me wrong. You should absolutely volunteer for a nonprofit, but if they had the option, they would take. [00:08:00] They would need more money to complete their mission for organizations that are fiscally sound.
Sara Mayer: And I don't know how it came about, but somebody said we had just come from an event and somebody said, wouldn't it be great when they asked for a certain amount of money, we could raise our paddle and say, I'll give you 50, 000. And it was a joke because honestly, none of us had 50, 000, but one of the smart people at the room in the room or at the dinner added it up and said, actually, we've given 50, 000.
Sara Mayer: If you add up our, the money that we've given throughout all the years, or not all the year, all this year, we have given 50, 000.
Sara Mayer: And it dawned on us, oh, if we pool our money, we could make a bigger impact. And going back to my journal. So I wanted to build a school. I wanted to make an impact in my community. Those were [00:09:00] always big, bold goals. And there were things underneath them that I did to, that were specific, that were measurable, that were objective and all those things.
Sara Mayer: But in general, those were my bold goals. Those were my real big dreams. And we didn't know what it was called. Then somebody did some research and found out that there was a thing called a giving circle. And so we founded a nonprofit bold goal. Number three, we founded a nonprofit where we would ask our friends to join us like minded people and make an impact by giving out funds and money to people who Truly needed it or organizations that truly needed it.
Sara Mayer: And we designed it so that it was quick and it was fast. And I won't go into all those details. If you're interested in all those details, I do have another podcast called impact unleashed the nonprofit edition, right? Talk all about nonprofit details. And that episode is on there. [00:10:00] Or it might be coming out soon.
Sara Mayer: Shortly. Check out that, that podcast. All right. Brief commercial break. So we as a group of five people, we did found a nonprofit and we really set the stage for how we wanted our nonprofit to be run. Of the 5 founders, 1 of the founders unfortunately passed away from leukemia, Brandy Hunt, and we were founded in 2017, and we gave out our 1st money in 2018 took us from 15 to 18.
Sara Mayer: well, technically 17 is when we started 15 to 17 to get going. So bold goals. Sometimes they cannot be accomplished in a year. When you truly set a bold goal, it can't always be accomplished in a year. That's how, it's bold and we gave out money in 2018 and then Brandy passed away from leukemia shortly after.
Sara Mayer: And ever [00:11:00] since then, we've been recruiting our friends and like minded individuals to join us to. Basically, make an impact, and we're proud to say we've given out 94, 000 dollars in since 2018. So that's less than 10 years, and we made a huge impact on many nonprofits as well as individuals. But what's even cooler is this year, the way that we break up our funds is into three pots I won't get into all that but one of the pots is called dream funds.
Sara Mayer: And it's for us where we take a portion of every year what we've. What we have earned through memberships and we designate it to the dream fund. And then every 10 years we need to give out the dream fund. And this year we started accepting applications for the dream fund, and I went back to my journal.[00:12:00]
Sara Mayer: And like I do every night when I write in it, and I relook at all my bold goals that are out there. Some of them I've made a lot more progress on some of them I'm chugging along. Some of them are more difficult I'm stuck or I need somebody. And I went back and I remembered that I'd done a lot of research on how to build a school in other countries.
Sara Mayer: And so I applied. For the dream funds to partner with pencils of promise to build a school in another country, either Guatemala, Laos, or Ghana, and the members voted and accepted it. And so we are going to build a school in another country, and we're going to decide in a couple of weeks where that will be and now we are on the journey.
Sara Mayer: Of making that happen.
Sara Mayer: And I could not be more proud or excited. [00:13:00] There's really no words. I could not be more proud. That we are going to make an impact on so many people's lives by giving them the infrastructure, the building to have school, the running water with the washrooms at the school and the education that they need in order to do better so they can be better for their kids.
Sara Mayer: And then also the hygiene project product information and women's health information that they are lacking. And this is a big, bold goal. And so here's what I'm here to tell you. It's not about what my goal was. Here's what I'm here to tell you. You have to have a goal. It's got to be bold. It has to be big.
Sara Mayer: It has to be something worth doing. And then you have to take little steps that are outlined, measurable, objective. They can be smart if you want to put them in that format, but they have to have a deadline and you have to take little steps towards achieving them. [00:14:00] And then you have to reflect and you have to review and you have to keep that alive and you have to look for the little invisible strings to quote Taylor Swift that are connecting things together because sometimes there's a hint or a string that you can pick up and pull over here that may not be the way that you thought about it going.
Sara Mayer: But it's going to be the hint or the key to connecting your goal to getting you closer to achieving it. And so that's how you keep your goals alive, even if they seem so far fetched. And also, not every goal. Could I have achieved it faster? Oh, yeah, I could have achieved it faster. But not every goal. Do you need to wait for something to happen in order to get started?
Sara Mayer: There are ways that you can get started. For in reality, I did all the research. I had [00:15:00] all the information and I had to put the pieces together, but had I waited until I knew where the money was going to come from to start thinking of these things or had I waited until everything was perfect or until I could afford it.
Sara Mayer: I could afford to pay to build the school. It wouldn't be happening. And so the things that are really worth achieving many times, you're going to need to bring some other people in and the way you achieve it is going to be different than you imagined when you first started. So I encourage you to set a bold goal.
Sara Mayer: And really keep it at the forefront of your mind and never give up because it may take you 10 years, it may take you five years, but if it's really important and if it's truly your bold goal, when you set and crush it, it's so rewarding. All right. Bold goal crushers. I will keep you updated on the progress of this bold goal because we're not done yet.
Sara Mayer: I forgot [00:16:00] to mention the name of the nonprofit that my friends and I founded is called the Joyride Society, and you are more than welcome to join. We have 3 levels of membership, 1000 per year, 500 per year, or 250 per year, and we do accept payment plans. So you can pay monthly. I'd encourage you to check out the Joyride Society at joyridesociety.
Sara Mayer: org and join us today. So it's time to get to it. Set your bold goals and let's knock them out of the park.
Sara Mayer: Thank you for tuning into the bold goal crusher podcast where we crush goals and everything that gets in the way. I always love to support my community.
Sara Mayer: I look forward to seeing you crush your goals this year.
