What do you want to change? Your waist size? Your nightly ice cream habit? Or your whole lifestyle (as in, you have McDonald’s on speed dial)?

So why aren’t you doing it? Because knowing what you want isn’t enough. If you want to make change, you actually have to change something.

In other words, once you have the “what,” you have to keep asking “how.” And I mean keep asking.

Every year, my coach, Elizabeth Waterstraat–whom I call BC (Beloved Coach)–runs all of her coach-ees through the exercise of figuring out what we want. Then–and this is the key–we also have to write down what we’re going to have to do in order to get that.

We’re still not done. We then have to say how we’re going to get THAT done. (See what I mean about keep asking?)

Here’s how it works, with just one of many possible goals.

My Goal: Eat More Vegetables
How: Eat at least one more vegetable at lunch and dinner than I do now

How to do that:
1. Shop for vegetables on Monday so I have them available all week
How: Get to work early that day so I can fit the grocery store into my schedule

2. Find vegetable recipes I like
How: Spend 30 minutes Sunday morning finding recipes I like. Or just put olive oil on baby eggplant slices and put them in the oven like I did here.

See? Keep asking “how,” and you’ve turned a wish into a plan. And that’s what gets you what you really want. Go for it now.