Making Your Dreams a Reality – Start Setting Goals

Everyone has a dream, right? You might dream of owning your home, or making it big from the trenches of freelancing writing. You might dream of being a parent one day, of finally taking that cruise around the world. Any number of things can be your dream. And the good things about dreams, is they are what keeps us grounded in today, and what give us something to look forward to. Nearly every famous person today started out with a simple dream of some sorts, locked deeply into the confines of their mind.

So what is the difference between people who dream and people who are making their dreams a reality? The most significant difference is likely faith.

Dreamers and the people who make their dreams a reality – all start out the same. Like a seedling growing in the mind, the dreamer creates a vision for the future. While one person may be content with envisioning the dream, and watching it replay in their mind – the reality creator has faith. Faith that the dream will eventually come true. And this faith manifests in the form of momentum. The dreamer is till dreaming, but the reality creator is now creating. Dreaming and creating are both verbs, but the latter requires faith.

Faith that you can make a dream come true doesn’t have to come from some metaphysical universal place. It has to come from within. It has to come from the belief that one day, some day – with enough work and with persistence; you cannot just visualize your world as you dream it, but live in it. You have to immerse your dream with commitment and action.

This directly translates into the fact that you must take little steps to make your dream come true. If you spend all your time wishing and dreaming, without commitment and action – your dream will simply remain a dream.

Consider the folks in this world that made it big. There dream started no differently than yours. But they took steps to make their dream come true. They tried to meet the right people, they sang in shady joints for years trying to get their big break. They auditioned for hundreds of commercials before getting their big chance on the big screen. They held seats at local political levels before running for congress. Every success story, starts the same. Even if your dream is as shallow as winning the lottery, you have to take a trip to the store and buy the tickets before you ever have a shot at making it come true.

Once the first steps are taken, weaving a dream into reality takes commitment. Dreamers cannot accept failure. They cannot take the first, “NO,” as evidence that there dream is not going to work. If you are trying to make money off your blog, or write a book – you cannot see the slow progress as failure. Instead, you have to see every new visitor, every new piece of exposure – regardless of how small, as progress. And then commit more of your time, efforts, and faith to the dream.

Perhaps even more important is that you have to give birth to your dream by coming up with a plan. People that are able to spring dreams from the corners of their minds are able to sit down and plot out the dreams destination. You wouldn’t plan a cross-country road trip without a roadmap, so why would you consider planning a dream without one?

What does a dream creation road map look like?

Check out these guidelines that will enable you make your dreams come true.

1. The first step is to be clear about what you are dreaming about. Is it fame, fortune – both? Be as detailed about your dream as possible, and write that down as your destination.
2. Be realistic about your dream. If you dream of being a famous writer but cannot formulate a sentence, your efforts will be stymied. Still, this doesn’t mean that you dream is impossible, just that you will have to enlist the help of others to make it come true. List your strengths and weaknesses in columns and find ways to counter act the aspects of your dream roadmap that could potentially get you lost.
3. Next up, see how much effort you have already put into your dream. If your dream has only existed in your mind up until this point, then so be it. If you have been trying to take initial steps to make your dream come true, decide how well they are working. This helps you decide where to go next.
4. Set realistic goals. Sure, you want to be a famous actor by next year. But that’s not much of a realistic goal. Break your dream down into as many steps as possible, so you can relish in every accomplishment. By experiencing small successes one at a time, you help encourage your faith in yourself.
5. Align yourself with like-minded people. If you are dreaming of a NCAA basketball scholarship, you need to find like-minded folks. This way, you belong to a community that can help you find the right pit stops along the way. This is essential for everyone who has a dream. Take advice from the people who have traveled before you, and ride the wings of the people who have the same destination as you.
6. Visualize the dream as reality. Every time you come closer to dream creation, make sure the picture in your head becomes more and more vivid. This not only helps you to ‘live the dream’ mentally, but also empowers you to make alterations to your course as roadblocks arise.
7. Define yourself by your dream. When people ask you what you do, who you are – etc. make sure that you define yourself by your dream. “I am a writer.” “I am an actor.” “I am a college student.” “I am owner of the most successful website on the internet!” These positive affirmations align you with your dream, which is important in reaching your destination.

Dreams take work to accomplish. But every innovation and invention today, every book written, every website created – everything, started with a dream in someone’s mind. With faith, commitment, and action – your dreams will become a reality. And the time to start is RIGHT NOW.