What Do You Want Next? How to Elevate Your Life
What do you want next?
Maybe you have a big dream you’ve been thinking about for years. Maybe there’s one area of your life you know you want to change. Or maybe you’re in a season where you honestly have no idea what you want next.
In this episode, I’m joined by two of my best friends, Laurie Shopland and Kristin Dabney, for a conversation about dreams, goals, trusting yourself, and what it actually takes to create something you want in your life.
And we have a BIG announcement!
We’re hosting ELEVATE, a one-day retreat for women on Saturday, October 17, 2026, at Kristin’s beautiful lake home in Lynchburg, Virginia.
There are only 20 spots, and registration is now open.
Get all the details and register here: https://simplysquaredaway.com/elevate
The three of us met during our coach certification and have been meeting together regularly since 2018. We’ve walked through business growth, personal challenges, big decisions, changing seasons, and a lot of dreams together.
One of those early dreams was building a $100K business. At the time, it felt almost impossible. Today, all three of us have crossed that line, and we talk about what surprised us about reaching that goal, including why achieving the goal doesn’t necessarily create the feeling you thought it would.
We also talk about another dream we’ve had for years: hosting a retreat together.
This year, we finally stopped talking about it and put a date on the calendar.
But as our conversation unfolds, we realize that “dream” might not even be the right word for what we’re talking about.
Elevating your life doesn’t have to mean climbing Mount Everest, building a six-figure business, giving a TEDx talk, or making some enormous life change.
It might mean having a conversation you’ve been avoiding.
It might mean changing careers, asking for a raise, focusing on your health, improving a relationship, starting a business, organizing your kitchen, or finally giving yourself space to figure out what you want.
And sometimes the first step is simply trusting that the thing that keeps coming up in your heart is worth paying attention to.
In this episode, we talk about:
- What we remember about dreaming of becoming $100K business owners
- Why reaching a goal doesn’t automatically make you feel the way you expected
- What we’ve learned about pursuing goals without all the hustle
- Why some dreams stay with you even when the timing isn’t right
- What finally moved our retreat from “someday” to an actual date on the calendar
- Why your dream doesn’t have to be big to matter
- How to trust yourself when something keeps nudging you
- What to do when you don’t know what you want
- The value of getting out of your normal environment and giving yourself space to think
- Why community and coaching can help you see possibilities you can’t always see on your own
- Everything we’re planning for ELEVATE!
COME TO ELEVATE
ELEVATE is a one-day experience designed to give you the space to step back, look at your life, and decide what you want to elevate next.
You’ll complete a life reflection, choose the ONE area that would make the biggest difference in your life right now, receive coaching and support, and leave with a framework and plan you can use again and again.
You’ll also have time to reflect, walk by the lake, journal, connect with other women, enjoy beautiful food and surroundings, and let someone else take care of YOU for the day.
ELEVATE
Saturday, October 17, 2026
9:30 AM–4:00 PM ET
Lynchburg, Virginia
$297
Only 20 women (now only 15; 5 spots sold immediately, and the others will go fast!)
Registration closes October 5 or when all 20 spots are filled.
Register at simplysquaredaway.com/elevate
You don’t need a big dream to come.
You might come because…
- You already know exactly what you want to elevate.
- Something in your life feels unsettled, and you need space to think.
- You’re ready for connection, coaching, inspiration, or simply a beautiful day away.
And you might come because you have absolutely no idea what you want next.
You don’t have to have a dream to come to ELEVATE. You might come to discover one.
Your Organizing Coach,
Connect with Kristin Dabney and Laurie Shopland
Kristin Dabney: Website | Instagram | LinkedIn
Laurie Shopland: Website | Instagram | LinkedIn
Next Steps
👀 Register for ELEVATE: https://simplysquaredaway.com/elevate
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Organized LIFE Academy (OLA) for women who want to be clutter-free.
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What Do You Want Next? How to Elevate Your Life
What do you want next?
It sounds like such a simple question, but sometimes it is surprisingly difficult to answer. You may have a big dream you have been thinking about for years. Maybe there is one area of your life you know you want to change. Or you might be in a season where everything is technically fine, but you have this little feeling that you want something more.
You might even be thinking, “I have absolutely no idea what I want.”
That is okay, too.
Learning how to elevate your life does not begin with having a perfectly defined dream or a five year plan. Sometimes it begins by giving yourself enough space to notice what has been on your heart.
I recently sat down with two of my best friends, Laurie Shopland and Kristin Dabney, for a conversation about this very thing. We met when we went through coach certification together and have been meeting regularly since 2018. Over the years, we have coached each other, traveled together, celebrated together, worked through hard things, and watched each other go after some pretty big goals.
Now we are making one of our shared dreams happen.
On October 17, we are hosting ELEVATE, a one day retreat for women at Kristin’s beautiful lake home in Lynchburg, Virginia. We have talked about hosting a retreat together for years. This year, we finally decided to stop talking about it and put it on the calendar.
That got us thinking about what actually makes a dream become real.
When Your Dream Feels Impossible
When the three of us first became coaches, making $100,000 in our businesses felt like THE dream.
I remember looking at other coaches who had done it and thinking that I was not that type of person. Another excuse for me was that I’d never worked in a corporate environment. I had all kinds of evidence in my mind for why other people could build a six-figure business and I probably could not.
Kristin remembered thinking about the most she had ever made as an employee and wondering how she could possibly earn so much more on her own.
Laurie reached that goal before Kristin and me. We watched her cross the stage and celebrated her accomplishment while still wondering if we would ever do the same.
Today, all three of us have built businesses that have crossed the $100,000 mark.
Something that once seemed almost impossible became possible.
That does not mean every goal suddenly feels easy. In fact, I still catch myself coming up with reasons why the next thing might not be possible for me. The difference is that now I have evidence.
I have done something before that I once did not believe I could do.
You probably have evidence like that in your own life, too.
Think about something you are doing today that a previous version of you did not know how to do. You learned, grew, made decisions, and figured things out as you went.
That is important evidence when you are thinking about how to elevate your life now.
Reaching the Goal Is Not the Whole Story
One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was talking about how it actually felt to reach that $100,000 goal.
We tend to believe that reaching the goal will create the feeling we want. We imagine crossing some invisible finish line and suddenly feeling successful, confident, proud, secure, or accomplished.
That is not always what happens.
Laurie shared that when she first reached $100,000, she realized she was not sure she wanted to continue being the version of herself who had created it. There had been a lot of hustle involved. The accomplishment gave her an opportunity to ask a different question.
How could she create success while also being the woman she wanted to be?
That is such an important distinction.
Elevating your life is not just about getting more, doing more, earning more, or accomplishing more. You get to consider who you want to be while you create what you want.
Maybe your next goal is not to make more money. Perhaps you want to have more time. You might want a peaceful home, deeper friendships, a stronger body, more meaningful work, or the courage to have a conversation you have been avoiding.
The goal matters, but so does the person you are becoming as you pursue it.
Your Dream Does Not Have to Be Big
As we talked, we realized that even the word “dream” can make this conversation feel bigger than it needs to be.
A dream does not have to mean climbing Mount Everest, building a six figure business, writing a bestselling book, or standing on a TEDx stage.
Your dream might be an uncluttered kitchen.
Maybe you want to invite people over to your house without feeling embarrassed.
Perhaps you want to change careers, ask for a raise, improve a relationship, start exercising, travel somewhere new, launch a business, or make new friends.
Laurie shared a powerful example from her own life. After her mother had passed away, she knew she needed to ask her dad a difficult question about his wishes for the end of his life. She attended a retreat where she was encouraged to trust herself and identify one thing that would make a difference.
Her one thing was having that conversation with her dad.
It was not a flashy dream or a goal anyone would post on a vision board. However, it mattered deeply to her.
She had the conversation. Her dad passed away six months later, and they had already talked about what he wanted.
One conversation changed so much.
Sometimes learning how to elevate your life means paying attention to the quiet thing that keeps coming up for you.
What If You Do Not Know What You Want?
This might be my favorite part of the whole conversation because I know there are women reading this who genuinely do not know what they want next.
Maybe you have spent years responding to what everyone else needs.
Raising children, working, managing a home, volunteering, caring for parents, supporting a spouse, building a career or a business. You kept life moving.
Then something shifts.
The kids grow up. Your career changes. A relationship changes. You retire. Move. Lose someone. Your business evolves. Your responsibilities look different.
Suddenly there is space to ask, “What do I want?”
And you have no idea.
That does not mean there is something wrong with you. You may simply need space to think.
Our everyday lives are not always designed for reflection. We move from one thing to the next. There is laundry to do, work to finish, appointments to make, texts to answer, groceries to buy, and people who need something from us.
Sometimes you need to step outside your normal environment before you can hear yourself think.
That is one of the reasons we created ELEVATE.
How to Elevate Your Life One Area at a Time
One thing I know about myself is that I want an outcome. If I am going to spend my time doing something, I want to know what I am walking away with.
That became really important as we designed ELEVATE.
We are not going to ask women to evaluate their entire lives and then send them home with 27 things they need to fix. That sounds exhausting.
Instead, we are going to start with a life evaluation. You will look at the different areas of your life and notice what comes up for you.
What is working?
Where do you feel stuck?
What have you been thinking about?
What feels unsettled?
Where would a change make the biggest difference?
Then you will choose ONE area to elevate.
That one area could be your health, home, career, business, relationship, finances, friendships, personal growth, or something completely different.
From there, we can help you figure out what you actually want and create a plan for moving forward.
This is something you can do on your own, too.
Instead of asking, “How do I fix my whole life?” ask yourself, “What is one area I would love to elevate right now?”
Notice how different those questions feel.
Sometimes You Need to Get in the Room
Kristin told us a story during the podcast about seeing a one day event that caught her attention. She did not know anyone who was going. In fact, she had to travel, get a hotel room, and invest in the experience.
She went anyway.
There is something powerful about following that little nudge that says, “I want to do this.”
Sometimes we immediately talk ourselves out of those nudges. We decide it is too expensive, too inconvenient, too far away, or too indulgent. We wonder who we think we are to take an entire day for ourselves.
What if you trusted yourself instead?
Getting into a different room can expose you to new ideas, new people, and new possibilities. You may learn something from the content, but you can also learn from the experience itself.
Kristin has hosted retreats. Laurie has hosted retreats. I have hosted retreats. Now we get to combine our different gifts and create one together.
Maybe you have a dream of hosting your own event someday. Come experience ours and notice what you love.
Perhaps you simply need to be around women who are thinking about their lives in a new way.
That is reason enough to get in the room.
Three Different Ways to Experience ELEVATE
One of the funniest moments in our planning happened when we realized how differently the three of us think about the retreat.
I am focused on the outcome. I want you to leave knowing what you want to elevate and what you are going to do next.
Laurie is thinking about the people. She cannot wait to meet the women in the room, hear their stories, create connections, and watch what happens when women support each other.
Kristin thinks about the experience. She loves creating beautiful spaces where people feel comfortable, cared for, and able to slow down. She is thinking about the setting, the food, the journaling, the lake, and the feeling of having an entire day where you do not have to answer to anyone.
Together, those three things are exactly what we want ELEVATE to be.
Clarity.
Connection.
Care.
You will have time for coaching and conversation. There will also be time to think, journal, walk by the lake, enjoy the beautiful surroundings, eat delicious food, and simply be.
What Do You Want Next?
You do not need to have your answer before you come.
In fact, you do not even need to have a dream.
Maybe your life is going really well and you are excited about making it even better.
Perhaps you are in a season of disruption and cannot imagine dreaming about anything right now. You simply want to feel like you can think clearly again.
Both women belong in the room.
You may arrive knowing exactly what you want to elevate. Another woman may arrive with absolutely no idea.
There is room for both.
Learning how to elevate your life starts by giving yourself permission to pay attention to what you want, what you need, and what keeps coming up for you.
Then you can choose one thing.
You can trust yourself.
You can take the next step.
Come Join Us at ELEVATE
ELEVATE is happening Saturday, October 17, 2026, at Kristin Dabney’s lake home in Lynchburg, Virginia.
We will begin at 9:30 AM and spend the day together until 4:00 PM. Your $297 registration includes the full retreat experience, breakfast, lunch, your journal, time with three coaches, reflection, connection, coaching, and a framework you can continue using to elevate different areas of your life.
We are intentionally limiting ELEVATE to only 20 women.
Registration closes October 5 or as soon as those 20 spots are filled.
You can get all the details and register at simplysquaredaway.com/elevate.
This retreat was once something the three of us kept saying we wanted to do someday.
Now there is a date on the calendar.
Soon there will be 20 women gathering with us around Kristin’s beautiful home and lake, thinking about what they want next.
Maybe one of those women is you.
You do not have to have a dream to come.
You might come to discover one.
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Until next week, have a fantastic day!
