I knew the second the wheels hit the tarmac.

That landing put me on my seventh continent. My husband and I spent two weeks in Australia and New Zealand, working through Sydney and Brisbane before hopping over to Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. But the finish line wasn’t a beach or a harbor view. It was that first moment on the ground in Sydney, the exact second I could check the box: seven continents, done.

I didn’t set out with a spreadsheet or a countdown clock. That goal built itself over years of trips, one country at a time, until I looked up and realized how close I actually was.

Around the same stretch of years, I was chasing a second, smaller goal: visiting all 11 real-world countries represented in World Showcase at EPCOT. Morocco closed that list out, and it happened to be my first trip to the African continent too. I wasn’t sure what to expect walking in. What caught me off guard was how many different backgrounds, faiths, and histories sat side by side there, each one adding to the place instead of competing with it.

Here’s what both of those lists taught me. The world is enormous. Looked at as one giant, undefined “I want to see it all,” it’s big enough to talk yourself out of planning anything. Specific goals fix that. Seven continents. Eleven countries. A lifetime of travel turns into a series of trips you can actually plan for, one at a time, each one a piece of something bigger.

Not every goal on my list is finished, and I think that part matters just as much. Zambia has been sitting on mine since elementary school. My best friend’s family was from there, and one year they invited me to come along on a trip home to see it with them. I couldn’t go. But the idea of it never left. Right now I’m actually planning a trip to Zambia, just not for myself yet. I’m building the itinerary for a client, and along the way I told them the whole story, the friend, the invitation I had to turn down, all of it. It made the planning feel like something we were building together instead of a transaction.

That’s the part people miss about goals like this. Finishing one feels great, standing on the tarmac in Sydney knowing I’d hit all 7 continents. But the ones still in progress are doing just as much work. Zambia keeps me honest about the fact that a goal isn’t a deadline. It’s a direction. I’ll get there eventually, and when I do, it’ll mean more because of how long I carried it.

That’s not a new idea for me, either. It’s the same conversation I have with clients constantly. Someone comes to me overwhelmed by every place they could go, and we don’t try to solve all of it in one trip. We talk about what’s calling to them right now, which destination fits this trip, and which one gets parked for the next one. A goal broken into steps beats a vague wish list every time.

One thing I’d warn you about if you’re setting a goal like this: don’t build it around someone else’s map. It’s tempting to chase a list because it looked incredible on someone’s feed, or because a friend raved about it. My goals worked because they were mine. Figure out what you actually want to see and why, before you decide what counts.

If you want the insider version of how to start: pick the big goal first. Then break it into the smaller trips that get you there, one at a time. That’s the exact process I use with clients turning “I want to see the world” into an actual plan. If you’ve got a goal like that rattling around with no idea where to begin, that’s exactly the kind of conversation I like having.