Self-improvement and business growth are two parts of the same journey.
Over the last year, I’ve quietly lost over 100 pounds behind the scenes. And no, we’re not switching to a weight-loss blog (promise!) but I do want to share the mindset framework I used, because the lessons apply directly to every big goal you are carrying in your business and your life. This is the art of becoming, and these are the five steps that actually work.
Start With the Trigger Goal
When I do my annual goal planning, the same process I walk students through in the Goal Mapping Workshop inside Wanderlust Campus, I always ask people to identify what I call the trigger goal. When you write down your three to five goals for the year, there is always one that stands apart. It is the one you want the most, the one that shows up on the list every single year, and the one you have been avoiding the longest because it is the hardest.
That is the boulder. And here is what I know to be true: when you finally move that boulder, everything else on the path gets easier.
For me, that boulder was my health. For you, it might be finally fixing your marketing, closing more sales, leaving a job that is holding you back, or making a business decision you have been putting off for months. The category does not matter, but what does matter is identifying it honestly and committing to it fully.
Step One: Crystallize the Goal
Self-improvement starts with radical clarity. When I talk about crystallizing a goal, I mean getting so specific about what you want that you can see it, feel it, and measure it.
For me, it was not about hitting a number on a scale. It was about reversing a stat on my Oura Ring that told me my heart health was two and a half years older than my actual age.
That was my wake-up call, and I turned it into a precise target.
For you, crystallizing a goal might mean defining exactly what your business looks like when you have finally cracked marketing, or what your life feels like when you are no longer splitting your energy between a job you tolerate and a business you love. You need an image in your mind and a feeling to anchor to. No vague wishes, but rather, a clear picture of what the result actually looks like day to day.
Step Two: Anchor Into the New Reality
Once the goal is crystallized, the next step is keeping it present every single day. I call this anchoring into the new reality, and it requires asking a consistent question in every moment of temptation or doubt: is this bringing me closer to my goal or further away?
Self improvement stalls when the goal gets written down and then forgotten. It accelerates when you build a daily practice around it, whether that’s a mindset, a ritual, or a check-in that keeps the destination visible even when progress feels slow.
For me, this is also where I made a choice: to stop talking about it and start doing it. To shut up and do the work behind the scenes until the results were real enough to share. My husband always said, “Just do it,” and eventually I listened.
Step Three: The Art of Becoming
The art of becoming is about retraining your brain to allow the new version of yourself to exist. It starts with self-love, genuinely accepting where you are right now, forgiving yourself for past setbacks, and giving yourself the grace to grow without self-criticism. I had to love myself at every single stage of this journey, including the weeks when I went backwards and the hard seasons when I lost both of my parents and found myself reaching for the ice cream instead of the strawberries. I had to love her through it anyway and get back on track the next day.
I love the butterfly analogy here. A caterpillar cannot be helped out of its cocoon. If you cut it open early, the butterfly dies because its wings never became strong enough. The struggle is the whole point. That discomfort, that slow and difficult emergence, that is what builds the strength to fly. Self improvement works exactly the same way, because you cannot skip the cocoon phase and get the wings.
This step also requires shedding old beliefs, the ones that say you do not deserve wealth, or you are not capable of running a bigger business, or that the universe cannot give you something you do not believe you can have. Because here is the truth: the universe cannot give you anything you do not feel you deserve or genuinely believe is possible for you. Both have to align before the big result can come.
Step Four: Stay the Course
This step is simple and hard in equal measure: stop expecting it to be easy and keep showing up anyway. There will be setbacks, slow weeks, moments where it feels like it is taking forever, and times when you question whether you are even moving at all.
And the reality is, that those setbacks are part of the process, not that the efforts aren’t working.
It is not easy for me to manage my health the way it is easy for me to build travel businesses. I have been doing this work in the travel industry for 30 years. I have already made all the mistakes and built the proven systems. I am a fish out of water when it comes to my health journey, but I showed up every day anyway. And that is the point: confidence is not something you build before you start, it is built in the doing. Every day you choose the harder thing, you are growing the wing strength that eventually lets you fly.
Step Five: Celebrate the Win
The final step is allowing yourself to fully receive the result. Don’t minimize it or rush past it to the next goal; celebrate what you have accomplished and let it land.
That moment came for me when Rachel’s post went public, and thousands of messages started coming in.
There is a quietness in your soul that happens when you have done the thing, when the vision you held in your mind for years is finally standing in front of you. It feels like something big is right on the precipice, and everything is about to open up.
Whatever your version of that moment is, it is worth working toward. Self-improvement done with intention, patience, and consistency creates results that compound, in your health, your relationships, and your travel business. And whatever keeps showing up on your goal list year after year, I want you to know: it is on your heart for a reason. It wouldn’t be there if it weren’t meant for you.
If this framework resonates, start with the Goal Mapping Workshop inside Wanderlust Campus. Your free account is waiting.
