What are your dreams?
This is an open-ended question I hear people ask all the time. How do you respond? We each have our dreams, those aspirations and ideas that are fragile whispers of a hopeful future. Some dreams give you goosebumps. Others make you so nervous you want to vomit.
I have dreams that make me feel both sensations: inspired excitement, and white-knuckling, toilet-hugging nerves. What’s helped turn my dreams into reality is defining my dreams in very specific details. Now I have an action plan for what steps to take to achieve my dreams. Building S.M.A.R.T. goals attached to abstract dreams is what takes away some of the intimidation. Seeing your dreams become reality starts with defining your dreams.
Why you should define your dreams
A dream isn’t a dream if it’s within our capacity. That’s playing it safe. And boring. And predictable. It’s the vanilla flavor of living. A dream starts with knowing that where we are doesn’t encompass where we hope to be someday. By defining our dreams it gives us a future to target.
If you have a dream of opening your own coffee shop, you need to define what that looks like. What’s your shop’s name? Where would you like to be located? Where’s a good place to open a coffee shop? What type of coffee and other products will you offer? Creating a written business plan is a great way to start defining your coffee shop dream. Building a website to share your new coffee shop’s story, even if you don’t have an address yet, continues defining your coffee shop dream. The more you can define and refine your dream, the easier it will be to share your dream with the right people (more on that tomorrow).
Start with defining your dream. Put details to your hopes and aspirations. Create S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) goals and attach them to different parts of your dream. The better you understand your dreams, the more easily you will achieve them.
Reblogged this on purviii.
Thanks for sharing. I’m honored.
Hey are you on Quora? Would love to read your answers. 🙂
I’m not currently on Quora. On my to-do list.:)
Reblogged this on Dream Big, Dream Often and commented:
Great article on putting substance to your dreams…
Thanks for sharing!
Reblogged this on ArmsaKimbo Blog and commented:
Really great practical advice (said the one who is currently putting together a business plan to follow her dream…)
Thanks for sharing. Exciting to hear you’re putting together a business plan. Keep me posted on your progress!
Thanks, Jon. I will.
Another idea I’ve heard of to help manifest dreams is by creating a vision board/collage with images of what your dream would look like – an alternative for the writing/visualizing in the head challenged.
That’s a great idea. It would help you picture what you’re targeting, a powerful psychological aid. Thanks for sharing.