The pressure of figuring it all out on your own from scratch can kill a goal before it even takes its first breath.
Welcome to Project Manage Your Life (PMYL), the system that helps you treat your goals like projects and actually finish what you start.
Each post gives you a behind-the-scenes coaching boost: real stories, success strategies, and practical tools to help you take control of your goals and your future.
Let’s crush some goals together.
Ready for a dad joke?
Consider this a lighthearted amuse-bouche for your brain before we get serious. Sure, it might be groan-worthy—but hey, at least you’re getting your money’s worth, right? 😆
🎃 Halloween Humor Season 🎃
Did you hear about the cult that's hard to get into?
Turns out it's a "Difficult."
Your Journey, Your Way
Happy October… my favorite month of the year!
This month, every Operation Melt blog is built around one truth:
Your journey doesn’t have to look like anybody else’s.
After more than a decade of coaching and mentoring people, I’ve learned something important. No two goal journeys are the same. Even when two people are chasing the “same” goal, their why is different. Their circumstances are different. Their journey will always be unique.
And yet, when the path feels hard or uncertain, that’s when most of us start talking shit about our own goals:
- “This is dumb.”
- “It doesn’t matter.”
- “It’ll never work.”
That’s not honesty. That’s fear, trying to sabotage you.
So when that voice shows up, remind yourself of the truth: your goal matters because it matters to you. Nobody else has to get it. Nobody else has to approve.
Your job is simple: own your path, do the work, and prove yourself right.
All month long, you’ll hear stories, lessons, and tools to remind you that the only path worth following is the one that belongs to you.
Be the Tailor of Your Dreams
Today’s PMYL Pro Tip might sound like it contradicts what I have been saying all month, but stay with me. This is not a contradiction. It is a strategy.
So far this October, you have heard me say:
- Your journey and your timeline do not have to look like anybody else’s.
- The most powerful stories are the ones that are unique.
- Goal-crushers do not copy someone else’s version of success. They get clear on what they want and build a plan that fits.
I stand by every word. Trying to follow someone else’s plan step for step is a fast track to frustration. If it is not your plan, it will not work.
But here is the asterisk.
As an author, a project manager, and a goal-crusher, I know one truth better than most. Few things feel heavier than a blank page.
The pressure of figuring it all out on your own from scratch is often enough to make people quit before they start. That early uncertainty can kill a goal before it even takes its first breath.
Let’s not let that happen.
Off the Rack with Alterations
I have a friend who will be getting married soon.
After a lot of searching, she found the perfect wedding dress for her big day. Right after she “said yes to the dress,” she met with someone to get alterations.
When you buy something off the rack, whether a suit, a dress, or anything that really matters, it almost never fits perfectly right away. Every body is different. Every situation is unique. That is why tailors exist.
Tailoring takes something that exists today and makes it perfectly fit your needs.
Notice that I said “tailor,” not dressmaker.
You do not need to make the dress from scratch.
You just need to make it fit.
The same goes for your goals.
Time To Be The Tailor… Of Your Dreams
Why start fresh when someone else has already done the work to get you started?
This doesn’t mean copying someone else’s “off-the-rack” plan. I’m simply suggesting learning from it, borrowing from it, and using it as a jumping off point.
Other people’s journeys can inspire you.
They can give you ideas, courage, and even permission to dream bigger.
Most of all, they can give you a starting point, serving as a template you can adapt.
If that borrowed outline gets you past the fear of a blank page, use it.
Then grab your tailor’s scissors and start adjusting.
What fits? What does not?
What needs hemmed, stretched, swapped, or removed?
Their version got you moving. Your version is what will get you there.
Losing The Weight of the Blank Page
As I explained, few things are as intimidating or feel as heavy as starting at a blank page and trying to plan your goal-crushing journey. Losing the weight of that blank page requires a combination of diet and exercise.
Diet
If you want to learn from other people’s stories, you need to feast on them.
Feed yourself a steady stream of goal-crushing stories.
Read interviews. Study playbooks. Learn how others have done it.
That inspiration becomes raw material.
I recommend starting with my monthly Interview with a Goal-Crusher series.
Exercise
No matter how many inspirational goal-crushing stories you consume, nothing happens until you take the first step with your goal.
Pick one story that hits close to home… you have plenty to choose from since you’re feasting on them.
Break it down.
Study the steps.
Then use their journey as a rough outline and revise it to fit your life.
Remember: as helpful a starting point as it may be, their plan is not the right plan for you. Only YOUR plan is right for you.
Here’s Your Tailoring Toolbox
Good news… you do not have to figure this out alone.
That is why I created Project Manage Your Life (PMYL). It is a system that helps you commit to meaningful goals, build a custom-tailored plan, and stay consistent until the work is done.
PMYL brings together everything I use with my coaching clients and packages it into three connected tools:
📘 Project Manage Your Life teaches the complete six-step PMYL framework for turning goals into accomplishments
📝 PMYL Workbook helps you apply the framework with exercises, templates, and coaching prompts.
🎯 PMYL Coaching provides accountability, clarity, and one-on-one guidance to keep you moving.
The best way to begin is with the PMYL Starter Kit. It bundles the book, the workbook, and a guided mini course so you can start writing your next chapter today.
Not quite ready for the full kit? You can still grab the free PMYL eBook and start learning the framework today.
💥 You never have to start with a blank page…
Start with inspiration.
Tailor it to fit.
Use the right tools to make it yours.
✨ I believe in you. Let me help YOU believe in you!
Meet Coach Tony
Tony Weaver is a master life coach, technologist, consultant, writer, and founder of Operation Melt.
He helps project managers and other left-brained high-achievers pursue their biggest goals.
Through free resources, personalized coaching, and his proven Project Manage Your Life system, Tony empowers clients to move their dreams from “someday” to success… one step at a time.
Learn more about Project Manage Your Life, the system my clients and I use to crush our goals, at OperationMelt.com/PMYL/
Meet Coach Tony