Bringing Dreams To Life
How many songs spring to mind that have some version of "Dream" in the title?
Loads! As I'm writing this, I'm singing a fair few of them in my mind.
This really shouldn't cause any surprise, as we all love to dream... It doesn't matter if t's about those gorgeous shoes you've just spotted, a house by the sea, a wild adventure around the globe, beautiful new clients queuing at your doors, or just the great guy next door....
Dreams are truly powerful. Especially when we combine them with powerful visualisations and emotions.
But, the question is, how do we turn our dreams in to reality?
I am truly privileged to work with some utterly fabulous females in business. Quite often the passion they feel for their dreams is totally intoxicating. I sometimes feel a bit cruel when I have to bring back back down to earth for awhile to mix that potion that brings them to life.
You might hear lots of people say that you don't need a plan. You just need the right mindset.
However, if you want to get results in the quickest, most efficient way, then you need a combination of mindset and a solid plan.
Without a plan you'll be getting nowhere too fast!
Yo'll be going round and round the same circle instead of moving straight forward to your destination. You'll hit dead-ends, where it looked to be the right route but leads to nothing.... Oh and you'll be so distracted by everything that pops up unexpectedly along the way.... How can you resist that new shiny thing?
Most of us wouldn't consider travelling to a new destination without a satnav. So why on earth would we risk developing the life and business of our dreams without a solid plan?
A plan doesn't need to be complicated (unless you are wanting to raise a ton of money to get started or grow). It can be simple and easy to follow - so long as you choose to see it as a priority. So here's what I recommend:
- Set out your vision - what do you want to achieve - be specific. How will you know when you've achieved it? - what will you have? When will you achieve it by?
- What do you need (resources, skills etc) to help you get there without delay?
- What challenges do you think you might come up against along the way? Think about how you might overcome these....
- Check, is anything else you are doing going to conflict with this plan? Work out how you'll deal with any conflicting priorities
- If your dream life is for say 10 years time, what will that mean your life will look like in 5 years, 3 years, the end of this year?
- In order to get to the end of this year, what does that mean you need to do this month? This week? Today?
- Make a "choose-to-do" list, so you stay on track. Focus short periods of time each day, where you don't allow yourself yourself to get distracted, and get one small task done, complete, out of the way.
- Celebrate each time you complete a task - this will help create a feeling of momentum, success and confidence.
- Regularly analyse and review your performance. Check if you need to make any adjustments. Are your activities efficient? effective? valuable? Is the time and money spent in line with expectations and outcome?
- Journal about your dreams. Keep them close in your mind so they stay a priority and don't get lost in all the other "stuff" floating around and bombarding you for attention.
- Believe you can do it. The more you believe, the more action you will take. The more action you take, the greater your potential success. The more success you create, the more self belief you will have, the more self belief you have the more action you will take, and so on.....
At the end of the day, we all get to choose how we spend out time and the action we take. Sometimes we may choose to do just the things that light us up and put off those yucky hard tasks we least enjoy. But when you truly get in touch with your passion and purpose you'll find yourself taking all the actions you need, because you'll be so drive, so committed.
Using the above framework will help you get the success you deserve. Don't settle for less.
