Do you have big, audacious and perhaps seemingly impossible dreams? Do you have a secret desire to achieve a certain goal in your personal or professional life?
Almost everyone carries one or more ‘desires of the heart’ within them that they hope to see realized someday. Very few people however, proceed to actually writing down their dreams and fashioning a plan to make them a reality. In fact, according to a study conducted at Harvard Business School, this represents only 3% of the population!
As you go through your daily routine, how much time do YOU actually invest in cultivating your dream?
Some of us dream ‘occasionally’ when something in our environment reminds us that we are (still) not where we want to be in life. Others may spend more time visualizing their dreams, yet without active pursuit.
Try this simple exercise to see how you are tracking toward your goals: take a piece of paper and create four columns. In the first column, list your top 10 wants, desires, goals. In the second column, take honest inventory of how recently you took an active step (no matter how small) toward the achievement of your goal. In the third column, note what stands in the way of progress. Finally, in the fourth column, list your next step to get you unstuck. Then take action!
|
Goal |
Last Action Taken |
My Greatest Obstacle |
My Next Step |
|
Blog once a week |
2 weeks ago |
Finding time to create content |
Get up 30 minutes earlier once a week to write a blog article |
|
Start Online Business |
None |
Not sure where to start |
Contact Chamber for Commerce business starter resources |
|
Read 1 new book every month |
4 days ago |
No time to read |
Read two pages in bed every night instead of watching TV |
Yogi Berra said: “If you don’t know where you’re going you might wind up somewhere else”, but wouldn’t you also agree that “if you don’t go at all, you wind up where you have always been?”
Herein lays the secret to achieving your goals! In order to see your dreams come true, you must cultivate them with consistency, much like you would nurture a seed after it has been planted. Think about it – you wouldn’t just stick a seed in barren ground, walk away and expect a beautiful apple tree to sprout forth, would you?
No, you would instead carefully prepare the ground by removing rocks and sifting the dirt. Next you would select the best variety of apple seed, plant it, water it, and nurture it again and again with water, sun, and fertilizer until you are able to enjoy the fruit of your labor. You would also be careful not to let any weeds (aka obstacles) choke out your seedling.
Realizing your dreams works surprisingly similar. You decide what kind of fruit you wish to harvest (your goal) and then set out to prepare yourself and your environment to support the implementation of your goal. Each step is equally important and must not be neglected – we can neither short-cut the preparation nor can we rush the growth process or expect a bountiful harvest without properly nurturing our efforts.
The key to staying motivated and experiencing progress on your journey toward the achievement of your dream is to break down your goals into smaller increments. Remember our seed analogy:
…Prepare, Sow, Water, Feed, Weed, Grow, Harvest, Repeat!
Let’s imagine for a moment that your dream is to become a professional golfer. You wouldn’t just sign up for a national championship, play without preparation, loose and then give up your dream…right? Instead, you would make a plan to continually improve your game!
This may consist of setting “quick win” goals rather than big milestones. Focus on incremental progress and continuous improvement and don’t forget to celebrate your achievements along the way. This will help you develop the faith and confidence to see yourself as having already attained your goals. Before you know it, you will!
If your dream is to start or grow a successful business, allow me to invite you to schedule a complimentary business strategy session with me. Let’s make your big goals a reality!