Dreams give our lives purpose, and help us look forward to the days to come. Everyone has a dream or dreams just waiting to be realized. Maybe you want to be debt free, or travel to another country. Maybe your dream is to help an orphan child find good parents or maybe it’s to find your own birth parents. Maybe you are dreaming about something more practical like losing weight, finally getting that big promotion, or having the cash to invest in a larger home. Whatever your dream is, and however big or small the size of it, it has a much better chance of becoming reality if you have the right skills to convert the dream into goals. Goals can bring a dream to life!
Here are a few tips for converting dreams into goals:
1. Make time. You have to make time to dream, and make time to envision possibilities. This is best done at the time of day when you feel most refreshed. If you are an early bird, then dream big in the morning. If you are a night owl, then block off some time in the evening to think about what you want out of life.
2. Clarity. Ask yourself what you really want to do. You may have visions of sugar plum fairies in your head, but you need to be able to explain in a one sentence what you want to do and why. Your “what” becomes your laser vision purpose and your “why” becomes your fuel to achieve your goal.
3. Ask yourself what’s the right next step? If you feel like you are wanting to become a ballerina, but you have never taken dance, and you are somewhat out of shape, then maybe just start with a less formal barre class. You’ll get to feel like a ballerina, get into better shape, and you can decide from there if you are ready to take on the Nutcracker. If you are trying to get out of debt or save for a down payment for a house, you may need to contact a finance professional or do some research on your own.
4. Put a timeline on the goal, and be really generous with your timeline. You may not want to set a goal to be out of debt within one year if you owe a large amount on credit cards. Look at the numbers, break it down, write it down, and just put a time stamp on it. Your brain will start working on how to accomplish your goal as soon as you write it down and put a date on it.
So hopefully with these tips you can take your dream and at least put it onto paper. That’s the first step, and from there, your dreams are only limited by how much hard work you are willing to do, and how focused you decide to be. Happy dreaming!
