What do you want to achieve in life? How do you spend your finite time? What is an hour of your time worth? Are your days spent focused on your priorities or someone else’s?

These are some of the most important questions to consider if you want to lead a purposeful, rewarding life, but few of us take the time to give them critical thought. Instead, it’s easy to retreat to default mode and surrender dreams to the idea that there’s simply not enough time in the day. 

If you’re someone who’s of the belief that there’s not enough time in a day to accomplish something big—be it starting a business, writing a book, or learning a new skill—then you’re correct. There’s not enough time in a day to accomplish something big! These types of things take a long time—many days—to accomplish. 

The problem is that many people get overwhelmed by the enormity of a task and never get started. They overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the impact of making small improvements on a daily basis. Big success doesn’t require massive effort within a short period of time. It requires a clear objective and daily, incremental action.

I woke in a tent, a bit disoriented, and my attention immediately fixated on my feet. It was the morning of day two of what was to be a four-day, 43-mile hike through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. 

Three friends and I had carefully planned the journey. We had enough food, clothing, tents, and supplies to get us through. We had the means to filter the Lake Superior water we’d need to stay hydrated. 

But as is often the case when planning for an outdoor adventure, a small mistake I made had big implications for my comfort level during the trip. At the last minute, I decided to wear a different pair of shoes than I had originally intended. Instead of wearing lightweight trail running shoes, I opted for an old, high-top pair of hiking boots. I have a chronically weak ankle, oft-injured from multiple sprains over the years, and I was worried about rolling it while hiking the trail and being a burden to my friends. There’s no easy way out of the trail if you get injured. 

The hiking boots provided good ankle support but they did a number on my feet. After clambering out of the tent that morning I surveyed the damage.

Four years ago, shortly after launching the Life and Whim blog, we decided that it would be fun to host a community event in our hometown Traverse City, Michigan that blended several things that we’re passionate about: creativity, family, and the great outdoors. Because our daughters were obsessed (and still are) with fairies, we thought it would be fun to recruit people to build whimsical, tiny fairy houses made from all-natural materials, and place them on a hiking trail near our home. Our first event was great—over 200 people showed up, which was way beyond our expectations.

Four years later, Fairy Fest has evolved in big and magical ways. In early June, we hosted our fourth annual event, which preserved the core element—fairy houses—of our first event, but also incorporated live music, dancers, food trucks, face painting, and lots of other free, family friendly activities. And the community responded in an incredible fashion. More than 2,500 people turned out to celebrate the coming of summer and explore more than 50 artist built fairy houses on the trails near the Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park in Traverse City. 

We were, and still are, blown away by how Fairy Fest has grown and been embraced by people who traveled from all over Michigan, and beyond, to be part of the day’s festivities. We would like to thank everyone who helped make the event extra special this year, especially those who spent time creating incredible fairy houses for kids (and kids at heart) to explore and discover on the trails. We also want to thank the many people who visited our shop and purchased Life and Whim gear at the event—your support is what allows us to continue to plan and host free events like Fairy Fest throughout the year. If you missed the event but want to check out our newly released summertime collection of capes, bucket hats, t-shirts, and tote bags, all inspired by the majesty of northern Michigan, you can check it out here.

Check out the photos of the fairy houses and other highlights from the event below. And if you’re up this way, make sure to visit the Fairy Trails in person—the trails are open and free for all to enjoy!

If I was to offer you $100 today or $120 a week from now, which would you choose? If you’re like most people you’d choose the hundred bucks now. That’s the conclusion of a classic study which found that, when it comes to decision-making, most of us opt for immediate gratification.

Why does this matter? Well, making progress toward one’s goals is all about balancing short-term and long-term rewards, and prioritizing time and attention in congruence with one’s personal objectives.

For example, most people understand the benefits of long-term investing. By leveraging compounding returns, like Warren Buffett, it’s possible to build wealth, even if each incremental investment is small. In most cases, the rational thing to do is to adopt a slow and steady approach to investing.

Of course, no one is purely rational, which is why so many of us (myself certainly included) make suboptimal decisions—across many different domains, not merely investing. We’re all affected by cognitive biases that lead us astray. While we all prefer big rewards over smaller ones, most of us have an even stronger preference for present rewards over future ones—even when the future ones are much bigger. This concept, or cognitive bias, is called “hyperbolic discounting.” In short, the farther away a reward is in the future, the smaller the immediate motivation to achieve it. 

Because it’s hard to stay focused on the long-term, objectives and transformations that take long periods of time to cultivate often remain out of reach.

We all have hopes and dreams. When we dial-in on them a little closer, we may even call them goals. This is a good thing. It’s important to have a sense of direction and purpose.

Too often, however, hopes and dreams, even when reduced to goals, go unrealized. We either bite off more than we can chew (e.g., a list of 10 New Year’s resolutions) or the transformation we seek is too vague or too distant to reduce to daily action.

“I want to lose weight” is a worthy goal but it’s not a plan. And that’s the rub when it comes to behavior change. We are not what we hope to become. We are what we repeatedly do.

Most people want the same things, including health, happiness, good relationships, and financial security. Those that achieve these things take consistent, daily action that brings them closer to their goals. Others meander aimlessly through life and are surprised when they never get anywhere. As anyone who has gotten really serious about behavior change knows, life is nothing more than the sum of one’s habits.

Change your habits and, yes, you’ll change your life.