Goals and Dreams

Once upon a time there were five ducks sitting on an island in the middle of a lake. Three of those ducks decided to go into the water. How many ducks are still on the island? Are there two, one or five?

Answer - Five

Why is this you ask?

The key to this is that Deciding to do something is not DOING something. You start "doing" by taking action and completing that action. How many dreams have you had over the years, and how many of those "dreams" have actually come true?

Dreams are great to have, if you didn't have dreams about where you wanted to live, what you wanted to do, and who you wanted to be with, there would be no reason for you to do much of anything. Dreams are what makes the world go around.

The problem is that if you have dreams but don't turn them into goals and then actions, those dreams will become nothing more than that, just dreams. Dreams are necessary to have, they can be what drives you to greatness. The object though is to really identify what dreams you really want and then once you have focused on some of those dreams, to turn them into very specific goals and then build a plan to achieve those goals.

We have seen many different ways to focus your dreams, we will cover one here tonight. The newest concept I have heard (it is not a new concept, just new to me) is to build what is known as a dream board. A dream board is basically either a board, book or something that you can hang where you can see it daily. What you put on this board is possibly a series of pictures of what you really want to achieve. Originally you would want to list all the dreams that you may want to achieve. Like people, you do not want to pre-judge those dreams. Put all those dreams down on that board.

The dream board is basically designed to help you to visualize those things that motivate and inspire you. These are the dreams that make you get up in the morning and the same dreams that keep you awake at night (no, we are not talking about nightmares...). You identify the things that you long for, the tasks or services that you want to do. These are the dreams that you get really emotional for. These dreams do not have to be items or monetary, they just need to be things that you basically hunger for. These are the dreams that give you direction and drive.

Once you have created your initial dream board (this board will grow and develop with time and achievement) then you should identify which dreams you want to work on first. If this step is not done, then you are like the ducks on the island. Deciding you want something, but DOING nothing to achieve that dream. So, you need to start identifying which dream you want to work on, and turn that dream into a goal.

You need to be very specific about what that goal/dream is. If you want to earn more money, how much more money do you want? When do you want to start earning that extra income? Once you reach that money goal, what are you going to do then? Make sure that after you have been specific about those goals, to develop little steps to get to those goals. Those little steps are what you will measure to see how far you have come to achieving those goals. To have a large, specific goal is great, but if you can't figure out the steps to get there, then you will have problems achieving that particular goal/dream. Once you achieve that one dream, then you move onto your next one and keep going.

You will find that even after achieving some of your dreams, more dreams will come to you. Your dream board should be a living, breathing action so that you never run out of dreams and then goals.

The dream board is one technique that can help you to stay focused on why you are doing what you are doing. Life will always get in the way, having a dream board to look at day in and day out will help you through those tough times and help keep you focused on obtaining your goals/dreams.

If there is a dream you have of starting a small business of your own, perhaps we can be of assistance. Please e-mail us at hawgwash1@yahoo.com or check out our website to see if we can help you begin to achieve your dreams.

Until tomorrow...