If you’ve finally known what you want in life, then, you’re on the right path. The next step is realizing that dream of yours. But how do you do it? What does it take to turn your dream into tangible and concrete steps? In this article, I’ll help you find a solution to that; as well as the motivation that will make us soar our spirits and reach our goals.
Many individuals are stuck between the dream world and the realm of reality. They are hoping that someone or something out there will help them cross to the other side. This approach will make you feel powerless and at the mercy of life circumstances, which will limit you and prevent you from reaching your destination. This article will highlight some of the factors that make people unable to make their dreams a reality.
Creating a Roadmap
You need a plan to achieve your goals. Your plan is what gives you direction. It helps you to know where you are and where you need to be. Your roadmap depends on what you intend to achieve. The plan you have for your career cannot be the same you have for your marriage. Your plan will include milestones and sub-targets that lead to the bigger picture.
It will include the things you need to do and the kind of people you need to make your dream a reality. It is not safe and advisable to start chasing your dreams without a plan. When you don’t have a plan, you’ll wake up every day hoping that circumstances favor you. You should have things you need to do in a day, week, and month. These smaller targets will eventually amount to the main goal.
Therefore, the first thing you need to do to make your dream a reality is to create a plan. Remember that the objective should have all the features we mentioned in the previous blog that makes a goal achievable. After determining your target, how will you reach it? State it out in clear terms to give you the clarity and focus you need to pursue your dreams to achieve them.
Sources of Motivation
You should be self-inspired and self-motivated to achieve your goals. Still, it’s not a crime to have things you think about that drive you to keep your focus. Some people use rejections and the insensitive comments some individuals made about them to fan their flames. Yet, this approach can be dangerous because it can make you live your life trying to prove a point to some people. Instead, you can find reasons to be inspired to attain your desired height through the following sources.
Past Failure
As earlier stated, you shouldn’t live your life with the desire to prove a point to some people. This approach can make you desperate and do things you’ll regret later. Still, you can use your past failures as a source of motivation to succeed this time around. When you have failed in the past, the pressure is less because the expectations will not be as high as the previous times. Some individuals might even write you off. However, you can use the previous pain and disappointment to motivate yourself. The desire to ensure that the situation doesn’t repeat itself can help you focus on the task ahead.
Accountability
Telling your goals to someone you respect and trust can put you on your toes to ensure that you’re not slacking off in any way. For example, you can tell your spouse that you intend to lose weight by sticking to a healthy diet for a certain period. His or her monitoring will help you to retain the discipline to stick to the plan because you don’t want him or her to see you as an unserious person. It doesn’t have to be a spouse. It can be a friend or a mentor. The most important factor is that the person should be someone that can challenge you when you’re not doing enough.
Competition
Competition can lead to strife and envy. Nonetheless, you can use it to jerk you up to start taking concrete actions. For example, if you find yourself getting late to work, you can tell a colleague at work that you owe him or her $10 every time you aren’t punctual. It will be more fun if the person will be the one to pay you when you get to work earlier than the person. You can think about other creative ways you can leverage competition to motivate you to achieve your goals.
Stories of Similar People
It’s satisfying to know that you’re not alone in the unpleasant situation you are experiencing. When you get to the doctor, and he says that no one has suffered from the disease he has diagnosed you with, you will be disturbed. No one likes to be in a uniquely disadvantageous situation. However, when you find out that there are people that had dealt with that issue before and were victorious, it encourages you. So, you can find reasons to get into action and move on by reading the stories of men and women that have had your kind of setback in the past. Their refusal to give up and strive to succeed will motivate you to do the same.
Desire to be an Inspirational Example
You might have read the inspiring stories of some people who were able to become successful despite the odds that were stacked against them. For example, how Ben Carson became a surgeon despite his humble beginning and learning difficulties as a child is a driving force for many people around the world today. Your situation might be different from his own. Still, your success, despite the situation you find yourself in, can motivate other people going through similar issues. You might never meet these individuals but would have given them a reason not to give up on their dreams.
Taking Actions
No matter how motivated you are, you’ll not achieve anything until you take action. Actions are the concrete steps that take you to your destination. They build the bridges you need to cross from the dream world to the realm of reality. Any motivational speech or quote that doesn’t drive you to action has not achieved anything. It is great to have painstakingly drafted plans that will help you to accomplish your objectives. Still, they are mere paper works until you start acting on them.
You might have met some extremely talented people that don’t seem to be achieving anything significant with their abilities. The issue with some of these people is that they think that the world will keep appreciating their potentials and sprinkles of ingenuity. At some point, no one will take them seriously again when they aren’t putting in the hard work that will help them to maximize their undoubted potential. Talent isn’t enough to make you get to the top of your career.
There are so many individuals who don’t seem to have many talents. Yet, they got to the top of their field. For example, in the world of football, Frank Lampard, a former player of Chelsea FC, doesn’t seem to have so much talent. However, he rose to become one of the finest in his generation. He was even voted as one of the top three players in the world at some point in his career. He retired as Chelsea’s all-time goal scorer despite playing as a midfielder! He is a great example of what you can achieve with focus, determination, discipline, and hard work.