Never Stop Dreaming! - An Action Plan for Setting and Reaching Your Goals

The American Dream of financial success, Achieving Excellence in a sport or area of interest, Looking for Key Results in personal goals… we’ve all at one point or another hoped and wished for these. Most of us have also had dreams about developing happy, healthy relationships or increasing self discipline. Who hasn’t had Big dreams? But what happens when the dream is nothing more than a bygone wish? Read on to see how you can have those dreams, then set and actually reach your goals! So how do you take those great ambitions and turn them from thoughts into reality? The first step is to shift focus to the idea that life is a thrilling adventure in self-realization and NOT the dream killing, hard knocks, "settle for what you can get" scenario that so many of us have come to believe. Step two is to stop blaming others and take responsibility for getting what you want. Think about these words from Henry Ford, "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." The issue is not who out there is standing in the way of you achieving your dreams... it is that you, yourself get caught up in thinking "I can't do it." What follows is that you never even make an attempt. It all seems just too impossible. Ah... but the reality is that if that were really true, then there would be no advancements, no fresh ideas and no inventor or scientist would discover anything new. Ancient philosophy states that you can only have what you believe is possible. So start dreaming! Believe something IS possible. Believe that you can be successful-remember success is not only the BIG things but also all those little accomplishments along the way that add up to dreams being realized. A Great Place to Start Do you have a dream that you have allowed self-doubt and a lack of confidence to stop you from going forward with? Take a moment and try this exercise.

• On a piece of paper and write down something you want your life.
• Under the heading, Everything Involved With My Dream: make a list of all the things associated with what you want.
• Create a new column and write the heading, Actions I Know I Can Take: write the actions you might be a willing to take toward your dream fulfillment.
• In the final column place the heading, What Seems Impossible Right Now: list the actions that seem impossible for you to take.

Review your Dream once more. For now simply focus on the Actions I Know I Can Take column and commit to taking at least one of these actions on a timely basis set by you, i.e. once a week/once a month, etc. View your list daily, take time to focus your attention on your dream. As you accomplish all the things in the Actions I Know I Can Take column check them off. Once you have checked off this whole column. Celebrate! Wow, look how far you have come! Next it's time to look at the What Seems Impossible Right Now column. Given how far you have come, do all the things on this list still seem impossible? We bet there are a few that can now become part of Actions I Know I Can Take. By focusing on one action at a time you'll be surprised how quickly you move closer and closer toward your goal. You'll notice that items that seemed impossible at the beginning are now actions that can be taken and strangely becomes possible. The key is to never stop dreaming! Don't get stuck in your own imagined limitations. Think BIG and don't give up. Remember to DREAM, then set and reach your goals one action at a time.