“A dream becomes a goal when action is taken toward its achievement.” -Bo Bennett. The smallest and biggest dreams will remain dreams unless they are converted into step-by-step goals. We all know there are things we could do if only we were motivated enough, or if we had more time. Smart people ask, “What am I realistically likely to do?” And then they get into action. I have put together some tips that will help you to move from dreaming into achieving.
Turn yourself into a believer
To achieve anything you must first believe in that idea. In order to believe in any idea you need to make sure you believe in it. How do you get to a point where you are fully vested? Research! You have to test to confirm and verify that the idea is worth investing your life into. Ask people that you know what they think about the idea. Many dreams that should have been trashed at the preliminary stages thrive, only to be discontinued after many months of wasted time and money. When you do your research well, you will discover what is realistic and what is not. Be ready to discard ideas quickly while you keep working to get to the main idea.
Set simple but achievable goals
There’s nothing wrong with giving up on certain goals if you discover that they are unattainable or too ambiguous. For example, my goal was to respond to every communication (email, text messages, whatsapp…) within 24 hours — that was a personal goal. After a while, I discovered how difficult it was to achieve this, no matter how hard I tried. And I’ve now officially given up on it. If someone emails me, I’ll get back to him or her as soon as I can. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders.
Set a timeframe for your kick off
You must have a clear time frame in mind when you must have launched out. Many great ideas die in this stage. There are some things that you must put in place before your launch out however you don’t want to wait forever. You will learn as you go. Identify the important steps, do them and kick your project off. Give yourself ample time to research, conceptualize, test drive, implement and review. Set a time line and deadline for each task, but start.
Work on it daily
The more time you invest in a viable idea, the more chances that it will become a reality. For example, if you want to start earning an extra 10,000 monthly you must adjust you schedule to accommodate your goal. You need to spend time on conceptualizing the product/service and marketing. Take time to create some tasks that you can do on a regular basis. An example is to talk to a new potential client daily. You must work on your idea in order to work in it.
You Need Critics
Dreams are usually exciting and most dreamers find it hard to see all the facts. This is why you need good critics that can help you poke all the holes. The fact that they poke holes in your idea does not make it unrealistic, they simply help you identify and possibly solve some problems you would have had along the way. However, you must analyze everything they say carefully. Some people are very good at seeing negative only; no matter what you say they will have a problem with it. Avoid depending on such people’s input completely. Use comments from those that have given you quality advice in the past. It’s hard to see you blind spot, let them help.
Invest in your dream
You must be willing to invest some money to make your dreams work. For example, when you pay for a course, or a book, or a tutor, or a coach, you’re not just paying for the information. You’re paying for their skills, experience and expertise of the person you hired. You are also committing to value you goal more. You will likely not ignore an idea that you have invested in. Though many still invest money but not follow through those are people who didn’t do a good research from the beginning. Another example of investments is to pay someone to do your routine tasks in order to have time to work on your goals.
Achievement of goals is far more than getting the right information. It requires motivation, skills, help and many other factors. We all have things we say we want to do; save more money, earn more, travel…. but never actually DO ANYTHING to get there.
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Till then, Enjoy each day!
