Have you ever looked around and asked yourself how other people seem to have accomplished so much? Would you feel complete if you finally acted on some long-held dreams? There is a secret to reaching your dreams, and it’s simpler than you might think.
Few Reach Their Dreams
Everybody has dreams in life, but a minority reach them. So many people settle for less because their dreams can seem unrealistic. They may even believe that they don’t deserve to reach their dreams because of something they’re lacking.
The biggest obstacle is the scope of the dream itself. A dream is something that seems out of reach to you in your current circumstances. You can’t reach your dreams in a day or with one action. If it were that easy, then you wouldn’t consider it a dream.
Since the scope of the dream is so large and out of reach, you might set it aside to work on later. Eventually, later becomes never.
Discover the Secret to Reaching Your Dreams
There are a few people who don’t settle for “later”, who don’t let it become “never”. This minority knows the secret.
They know that the secret to reaching your dreams is lowering your short-term expectations. I’m not talking about lowering your expectations on the outcome of your goal. I’m talking about lowering your expectations on how much work it will take to get there.
I know that sounds counterintuitive. We want to dream big, but I believe that the biggest dreams are the ones furthest from reality. And those big dreams often lead us to disappointment and failure because they’re so far away from our current reality. The lower your expectations on how much work it will take, the more likely you are to start working on it right now.
In order to be successful at achieving your goals, it’s important to realize that making progress towards them doesn’t happen overnight — it takes time & persistence!
Living the Life of Your Dreams
You know it takes time and persistence. But what does this actually look like in practice? How do you lower your short-term expectations?
You focus on a dream and then break it down into small steps that are achievable in a relatively short period of time (days or weeks). It’s much less daunting to consider a dream a compilation of smaller steps. The best way to get something done is by doing it one step at a time and one day at a time!
- Don’t think about the book you want to write. Think about the page you want to write today.
- Don’t think about the business you want to start. Think about the email you need to send today.
- Don’t think about how much weight you want to lose. Think about how many calories you need to burn today.
Take These Concrete Steps
1. Isolate a dream that matters to you.
You’re not going to work on something that you don’t really care about. This needs to be something that gives you energy to work on. It can’t be something you dread spending time on every day.
A few months ago, I decided to get serious about writing a book. I chose a positive school culture as a topic because it was energizing. And I was right! I loved thinking about my past experiences as a school leader and what worked well.
2. Make a list of all the things that you need to reach your dream.
It should be everything you can think of. This will be the checklist you use to keep track of your progress. As you come up with additional tasks, you can add them to the list.
Having a list of all the things I need to finish my book helps keep me organized. It also provides me with perspective as I make progress. When I didn’t have a list, I was never too sure how close I was to reaching the finish line.
3. Decide how much time you can dedicate to reaching your dreams every day.
I recommend spending anywhere between 15 minutes to 1 hour. Instead of trying to get tasks done, focus on spending time on a task every day. It’s ok if it takes you a day, a week, or a month to complete a task. What matters is that you consistently spend time on a dream-related task every day.
I used to focus on tasks instead of time. But then I’d be disappointed in myself when I didn’t complete a task. I learned that I wasn’t a good judge of how much time something will take. Focusing on time instead of tasks was a game changer.
4. Execute on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
Reaching your dreams isn’t something you can do by working hard for a day. You need to put in the work on a regular basis to make visible progress toward your dreams. This takes commitment, but it’s a lot more manageable when you take it one day at a time.
I’ve learned that I’m much more creative and productive on projects when I work on them first thing in the morning. I’ve made so much progress by prioritizing the work needed to reach my dreams and getting small things done every day.
Reaching Your Dreams
Your dreams are out of reach when you think about all the work it’ll take to reach them. But they are well within reach when you think about the actions you can take each day.
What dreams do you want to reach? How can the strategy in this article help you reach them?
