Just like Dr. King said, it all starts with a dream. If you don’t
have a vision in which you want your life to move, you will never achieve any
intentional positive movement toward it. You have to have a general idea of what
is important to you and what you’d like to see happen in your life, or you will
never even know when you’re headed in the right direction.
A few steps to get you started:
1. What does your perfect day look like?
If you’re waking up going into an office job every day, but you dream of being
a stay-at-home mom, you know that your actual day and your dream day are
totally different. Take a few minutes and describe, in one paragraph, what a
dream day-in-the-life of you would look like.
Mine would look a little something
like this: I’d wake up in my naturally lit apartment and spend an hour or so
doing yoga. I’d have a healthy, locally grown breakfast on my patio overlooking
the Eiffel Tower, or maybe the Hudson River, depending on which of my home
cities I chose to wake up in that day. Then I’d do some reading and writing,
maybe have a few business meetings, of which I own many. I’d call and chat with
family, or lounge around with my husband, and maybe go for a run in the
evening. Then I’d have dinner with good friends at one of the restaurants I
own, or perhaps another hip place in town before calling it a night.
For those of you who know me, my average
day is quite different than this dream day, and yours may also be very
different than the one you envision. But I guarantee, you will get no closer to
making your dreams a reality until you first have a vision for what you want. Start
with just a dream day so that you can narrow down exactly what is important to
you. A dream life is much more difficult to capture, but a day? You can surely
envision and make happen!
2. Do Not Get Analysis Paralysis. For a
lot of us—I am guilty of this myself—we think we need to have all the nitty
gritty details nailed down in order to begin to create our dream life. We think
that all the odds and ends need to be sorted out before we set out, otherwise
we will never be able to take into account all the possible difficulties that
we may encounter and how to avoid or overcome them. And then, what if we change
our mind about what we want? We must also take that into account! Wrong.
I can assure you of a two things.
Firstly, you will never, no matter how hard you try, be able to envision your
perfect dream life from the start. You cannot possibly imagine what the
40-year-old you will hope for when you’re merely 25. And that is alright! To
get started, you need only to envision the life you wish you were living today,
and then get started on it now. Your dream will evolve along the way, but you
will be closer to it every day if you start now. Otherwise, every day that
passes will take you further from any dream you wish to accomplish.
Secondly, you will not be able to
imagine now all of the difficulties you may face in the future. And you surely
won’t be able to imagine all of the creative, inventive, and practical ways the
future you will overcome them! Do not get bogged down in details. Create your
current dream now, make it vague, yet actionable; you can always add and edit
later!
3. Compare and Contrast. What are three
(or so) obvious things that are different in your dream day than in your real
day? List these differences, especially the one that you know you need to
change. For example, for someone who is bogged down in debt who dreams of one
day being debt free and able to purchase a home, their list would look
something like this:
·
Credit Card Debt
·
No Money in Savings
·
Renting instead of Owning
Once you have your list, turn these
main differences into action items and list them in order of attack! For
example:
·
Pay off Credit Cards
·
Save 10% for a down payment
·
Buy my first home
4. Take it One Day at Time. So I’ll admit,
it’s no easy feat to make your dream day become your real day, but nothing in
life is easy! What you can do, is make the first item on your list of
differences into a reality. In the case of the wannabe homeowner above, they
know their first goal, and I bet they can envision a few ways to move toward
that goal. And I bet you can think of a few ways to do the same with your
goals!
Every single day, list and DO one
thing to make the items on your list a reality. If your first item is to pay
off your credit cards, stop charging money on them! If your first item is to
become a writer, start a blog or freelance! If your first item is to be a stay
at home mom, brainstorm careers that will allow you to do that and start to try
them on for size! You get the idea.
In the big scheme of life, it’s the little things we do day
to day that make us who we are and that accumulate into the realities that we
live. If you want to be one day closer to your dream life, envision your dream,
and then do the little things every day that help you turn that dream into
reality. No item is too small, and none too big. But one thing is certain,
today is the day to start!
Sweet dreams!
J.
Sweet dreams!
J.