Articlepedia: 10 Steps to Turning Dreams into Reality!

1. Mindset vs. Knowledge

The first thing that we need to understand about turning dreams into reality is that we will need two distinct attributes. We need to have both the right Knowledge and a positive Mindset. Many people forget about Mindset and consequently are more likely to fail in their attempts to achieve what they want, when they want.

As you can see the act of achieving anything is mostly having the right mindset. In fact it is about ¾ Mindset and ¼ Knowledge.

Having the right Knowledge is pretty straightforward, it is learning the skills and strategies required to carry out the tasks you will set for yourself. The Mindset however is something the many people struggle with.

To have a champion Mindset means that you are highly Motivated and have the Determination and Will Power required to make the sacrifices you will need to make.

2. Finding Your Life Purpose

One of the biggest Barriers holding most people back is that they do not have a clearly defined ideal to strive for in their lives. That is that even though these people may state they want a big house and a Porsche, and even go as far as setting these items as goals, they do not realize their true purpose in life.

To work out you Life Purpose your need to ask yourself some questions. You need to make a list of what you do and do not want in your life. These can be feelings, people, ideas or objects, anything you can think of.

Next make a list of Obstacles that stand in your way of getting these things that you want in your life.

Then think about what you want your family, friends and colleagues to say about your life after you have died. I know that sounds a bit morbid, but thinking about your life in this light can be very motivational.

Finally, write up your Life Purpose as a statement of a few sentences. Print this out, pin it up in a place where you can review it daily.

3. Getting Motivated

One of the great methods I like to use is dream posters. The basic idea of this is to cut out pictures from magazines of houses, cars and boats etc. that you want to have in your life. Then take some time every day to review your poster and Visualize the life you want for yourself.

Another method is to print out Inspirational phrases and Quotes and place them on the walls in your personal workspace.

Take some time to Meditate, just sit quietly with some music that you like and Visualize your life the way you want it to be. See yourself on a holiday in the Bahamas or spending time with your kids in the park, use your imagination.

4. SMART Goals

Before we set any goals it is important that we have an idea of how to write effective goals. We want goals that are Well Defined and are easy to motivate ourselves toward and, ultimately, achieve.

The best framework that I have come across is the SMART philosophy. That is our goals must be:

Specific,

Measurable,

Action-oriented,

Realistic, and

Time/Resource constrained.

So, now that we have a proven framework to base our goals on, we can now start setting some goals.

5. Defining Objectives

We now need to think about an Objective that we want to achieve. This is something which is quite large like owning a house on the waterfront or getting a job as an Engineer.

We will of course break this down into Milestones and then into individual Tasks later to make them more achievable.

However, for now you need to decide on some area that you want to improve and then write it out using the SMART philosophy outlined above.

6. Signposting Milestones

Now we can look at the main Milestones that we need to take in order to achieve our Objective.

Carrying on with the example of getting a job as an Engineer, there are certain major steps we need to take in order to realize this goal. For instance, the most obvious Milestone we need to reach is to complete an Engineering degree.

As you can see, we are progressively breaking our goals down into smaller, more manageable pieces.

7. Setting Tasks

Next we need to break these Milestones down into specific Tasks. These are great because you can effectively set yourself a Task and then check it off your list. It is so easy to check your progress.

To use another example; our Objective this time is to ‘make $1 million from the stock market in 3 months, from an initial investment of $10 000, by investing in stock options,’ notice this is a SMART goal.

Then let’s make our first Milestone to ‘learn how to invest in the stock market,’ we could then proceed to break this down into smaller Tasks.

We would then of course write this up on a checklist, in our Daily Planner or on a wall etc. And check it off when done.

8. Success Credo

You can draw parallels between your Success Credo and the statement of your Life Purpose. However, your Credo is more of a statement of your Beliefs and Promises as to how you will live your life.

It will provide a basis for your decision making and also serve as yet another motivational reminder. Feel free to include some affirmations like ‘I am always calm in a crisis,’ these words will provide some extra motivation.

And if you state and believe these words often enough, with conviction, your behavior will change subconsciously to reflect this.

9. Success Questions

It does not do much good, when you are reviewing your goals every day, to simply say to yourself “well, I think I’m going OK” and that is the end of it.

You need to actually look at your progress and ask yourself Questions along the lines of; ‘How can I be doing this better?’

By asking these questions, answering them and then implementing the solutions you will truly start to make same PHENOMENAL progress.

10. Confidence

The final part of the puzzle all comes down to Confidence. This is the most important part of effective goal setting. Confidence is closely related to having the right Mindset, which we discussed in section 1.

It is crucial to believe in yourself and your ability to achieve your goals or you will never carry through with any of the promises that you write down on paper.

Extra point to remember