Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to live the life you have always dreamed about? Most people have a Wish List for their future, but many of them never quite live their dream. Why is it so hard to reach the very thing you long for?
Life dreams are nebulous like clouds and fog. They do not have a definite shape. You can’t hold onto your dream any more than you can hold on to fog.
For your dream to ever become reality, it has to be transformed into something much more tangible—an actual goal.
Setting your Life Goal is the First Step toward making your life’s dream come true. Write down exactly what it is that you want to do with your life. What do you want to accomplish? Is it a career goal, like owning your own business or making partner in your law firm? Maybe it is a personal goal, such as vacationing abroad, retiring financially secure, moving to your dream location, or even writing a novel. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to make a difference in your community by volunteering or being a mentor. Having your dream written down in detail solidifies it for you so that you can start aiming for it.
Step Two is figuring out what specific things you need to do in order to reach your Life Goal. Any time we tackle a large project, whether at work or at home, we need to break it down into manageable tasks. Each individual task moves us closer to completing the project. If we are painting a room in our house, we have to buy the paint and supplies, get a ladder, cover the floor, prep the walls and tape around the woodwork—all before we can start painting. When aiming for your life’s dream, you must decide which specific actions you need to take and in what order they need to be done. These actions may include rearranging your schedule to free up time and exploring ways to start funding your dream.
Step Three is preparing yourself to reach your Goal. Unlike painting a room, however, the actions you take toward your goal may be spread out over months or even years. Understand that reaching your goal could be a long process. This will help you to be more patient with yourself and the circumstances you face. If you stick with your plan, however, every conscious action you take will move you along the road to your life’s dream. Besides being patient and persistent, you also need to constantly remind yourself of your goal. It is easy to lose sight of your target when you are on the ground grappling with daily issues. Come up for air every once in a while and reorient your life to your goal. This will put your daily responsibilities back into perspective. Everything you do should be re-evaluated in terms of your life’s dream. Adjust your priorities, get rid of activities that bog you down and constantly be on the lookout for new opportunities that will boost you toward your goal faster.
