Build a Life, Not Just a To-Do List

In this episode of Differently, Carla Reeves explores the idea that life is more than a series of tasks to check off a list. She delves into the importance of having a vision that aligns with your deepest values and how it can help you build a life you don’t have to take a vacation from, starting today.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Power of Vision: Carla shares how having a clear vision for your life can guide your actions and decisions. Whether it’s a big dream or a simple desire, having a direction gives meaning to your everyday choices and helps you align your to-do lists with your long-term goals.
2. Pause and Reflect: Sometimes, it’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of life. Carla encourages listeners to pause, lift their heads, and reflect on whether the motions they’re making are leading to the life they want. Are your actions building the life you envision?
3. Permission to Dream: Carla emphasizes that a vision doesn’t have to be grandiose or world-changing—it just needs to light a fire in you. Whether your vision is about personal joy, career fulfillment, or meaningful relationships, it should inspire action and keep you moving forward.
4. Aligning Your Actions: Once you have a vision, you can begin to make sure your daily tasks are in alignment with it. Carla discusses how small actions—like reaching out to a client or setting aside time for personal reflection—can help create the space and impact you want in your life.
5. Calming the Mind: A well-defined vision can also provide clarity and calm during moments of indecision or doubt. By filtering choices through your vision, you can simplify decision-making and reduce mental overwhelm.
6. Your Invitation to Act: Carla invites listeners to spend 15–30 minutes reflecting on or creating their vision for the future. Once you have your vision, revisit your to-do list and ask yourself: Are these tasks moving me closer to the life I want? Focus on adding tasks that align with your vision and create the feelings you desire in your life.

Resources Mentioned:

• Episode 40: Make Joy Loops with Samantha Brute
• Episode with Joel Stone, where he talks about how writing down goals and intentions helps him stay focused and motivated.

Give It A Try!

• Take 15–30 minutes this week to revisit or create your vision. Align your to-do list with this vision and start taking action today.
• Share this episode with someone who might benefit from it and encourage them to tune in. New episodes drop weekly, so be sure to subscribe and join Carla as she continues to challenge the status quo and inspire action.

Enjoy!

Learn more about Carla:
Website: https:/www.carlareeves.com/
Connect on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reevescarla/
Connect on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@differentlythepodcast

Go to https://www.carlareeves.com/getunstuck.com to download Carla's on demand journaling workshop + exercise to help you stop spinning and start moving forward.

Explore Coaching with Carla: https://bookme.name/carlareeves/lite/explore-coaching

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Thank you for listening!

Chapters

• 0:00 Building a Bold Life Vision
• 4:34 Inspired Life Vision

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I'm Carla Reeves, and this is Differently. Whether you feel stuck in survival, navigating a change, or seeking more for your life, may this podcast be your weekly nudge to take a risk to build a life that is uniquely bold, authentic and in alignment with your deepest values. What if you worried less about the bumps in the road and instead got equipped for the journey? Get ready to rethink what's possible. I know, I know there's a lot to get done. You have a lot on your plate. You're likely managing a business or a job, a family, keeping your marriage afloat and not to mention, if you're like me, managing your own self. On certain days can feel like a full-time job, and you love to-do lists, and they keep you on track, or do they? You've heard me say it I spent half of my life checking boxes that I thought were leading to a so-called happy, successful life, until I realized they weren't. This has seriously lit a fire in me, and it's my mission to help you, remind you, to raise your head from the busyness, to make sure that your list is heading you in the right direction, and by right I mean to the things, experiences and moments that matter most to you. So that's what today's episode is about. Your life is more than a to-do list. To-do lists are awesome I love them too, but let's make sure that they're helping you live more of the life you want, beginning right now.

Speaker 1: 1:49

This episode was inspired by two things. One is conversations I've been having lately with leaders where I have asked them are you surviving your life or building a life? And they both more or less said I haven't stopped to lift my head to see if the motions I'm making are leading to the life I want to be living. And secondly, I just returned from a two plus week working road trip with my husband. Week working road trip with my husband. That was truly the coming to life of a component of a vision that I've been holding for 10 plus years, and I was reminded of the power of having a vision, a direction you're headed for your life, and how sometimes these visions can be long term visions. This certainly was for me, and it was a component of a vision that a lot of it had come to life. But this one component I had to carry for years before it actually got realized, and the pure joy of having that come to life is why I'm here today sharing all of this with you when life is so full and so busy, it's really easy to feel like you're doing all the right things because you're busy and you're working and you're moving things ahead, or so you think. But too often when I'm working with clients, when we pause to really look, we find that that's not the case. And I know how important it is to you to have a life that allows you to build your dream or build work that you love, without sacrificing the other hugely important parts of your life. And may I remind you that that doesn't happen someday, because if you don't know how to create those kinds of moments now, you won't know how to do it then. So what can you do right now to make a shift? First is give yourself permission to pause and lift your head. What are you building? What is your vision? Do you have one? Do you need to? That you need to revisit or refine and just get back in front of you, or maybe it's time to create one? I know that this question can be overwhelming, and it doesn't have to. I want you to know that it doesn't have to be some big mission like solving world hunger. Just has to be something that lights you up that lights a fire inside of you.

Speaker 1: 4:34

I remember years ago reading about a woman and her mission, and her mission was to be a force of good. I have carried that with me for years. I borrowed it from her. I want that too. I want to show up all over my life with that mission. I also have visions that guide different parts of my life Having an extraordinary marriage that has guided the way I show up to my marriage for years and years and years. I have a client who has a vision or a mission to make joy loops. Bringing joy to people's lives fills her up, fills them up, and it ripples on and on. In fact, there's an episode that's episode 40, make Joy Loops with Samantha Brute. That might be a good one to go back and listen to.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Or maybe your vision is just a set of words that remind you of the feelings you want to create more of in your life today, like peace, joy, freedom. There is no right vision and it can change what's calling you forward today. Go with that. So why? Why is this important? It's important so that you can build a life instead of just survive and get things crossed off the list. Yes, a vision is out in the future. It's a future that you want to live into, but the most important part of it is that it guides how you're going to show up today. It guides you, it informs you how you want to think, behave and do right here, in this moment, now. A vision is a guide, not set in stone, but without it we have nothing to align our actions and behaviors to.

Speaker 1: 6:16

For example, I had a vision when I was a new mom. My vision was to I wanted to enjoy being with my kids always, and that really guided how I parented Truly. This came from a fear of not knowing how I would discipline my kids and worry that I wouldn't be good at that, seeing what I didn't want right, which was unruly, disrespectful children. And this vision of my boys being a joy to be with is really what helped me know the how in the moments, how I would love them, how I would communicate with them, how I would set boundaries for them. And, honestly, this has allowed for one of the greatest parts of my life, which is love them, how I would communicate with them, how I would set boundaries for them and, honestly, this is allowed for one of the greatest parts of my life, which is being with my boys. This can also mean and guide you in adding things to your to-do list that move the needle in this direction, even in the smallest of ways. Another example of my vision for my business for the last 10 years was to create a remarkable business that had deep impact for my clients and allowed for a spacious, flexible, mobile lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 7:25

While planning my days, weeks and months over the past years, I'm always looking back to this to see if I'm making motions and decisions that allow for these things to be possible. And on some days it can get as simple as what can I do today that creates impact for my clients or gives me the feeling of space and flexibility in my life? The actions to that could simply be send a spontaneous text to a client, or take my work to the coffee shop this week, or carve out an hour for thinking and writing while I sit outside. The second reason this vision is so important is that it can calm your mind and help you overcome the battle in your mind. It makes decision making easier because you can filter choices through the vision. So this can create a lot of calm. It can eliminate a lot of indecision because you can filter your choices and actions through this vision of where you're headed to make sure that it's aligned with your bigger goals and dreams. It will also help you to show up on the days that your mind is bullying you around and making you feel like everything is too hard, it's not going to work or you don't have what it takes Seriously.

Speaker 1: 8:42

It's a vision, or my calling that has me show up and wrestle with my mind. It is what allows me to challenge my thinking, ultimately calm my thinking and get it on board so that I can keep moving forward. This is really real for me. Without these visions in these important areas of my life, I seriously might have resigned in defeat on many things years ago. What can you do now?

Speaker 1: 9:09

This week, I want to invite you to do whatever it takes to carve out 15 to 30 minutes to revisit or create your vision. Honestly, don't overthink this. It's likely already in you and there's no right vision. Remember, I looked up the word vision and it's the state of being able to see, so seeing something that you wanna head towards. The other definition was the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination. So you can make this up, but make sure that it lights a little fire in you and it's going to get you out of bed. And then take a look at your to-do lists for this next week or the coming week. Are the things on your list leading you towards this vision and the life you want to have, and what's one, two or three things that you can add to your list this week that will create more of the feelings you want in your life while you're on your way to that vision? After all, you are building a life and living it now, not someday.

Speaker 1: 10:16

And on the last episode, with Joel Stone, he talks about how writing down his goals and intentions allow him to be dangerous in the best way possible. So go, be dangerous in the best way possible this week. Get your eyes on your vision and start aligning your actions. I can't wait to see what happens. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Differently. It's been an honor to share this conversation with you. You know, one of the keys to living fully is to take action when you're inspired to do so. I hope you found that spark of inspiration today and would you help us spread the word? Did someone you know come to mind while you were listening. If this episode could impact someone you know, please share it and pass it along. New episodes drop weekly, so tap that subscribe button and join us next time as we continue to challenge the status quo and get equipped to live life differently.