Dreams, Goals, Plans, Effort Built on Values

In today's entry, I wanted to discuss briefly something that is super simple in concept, and it is easy to do when we actually do it. The key is acting on this and actually doing it. I am learning that the concepts discussed here are ultimately the most important basics that cannot be skipped if one wants to maximize one's success mindset.

Learning to Dream

We need to not only have dreams but we need to learn to dream. The process of dreaming stimulates the subconscious mind which is the largest part of our brains. The subconscious is powerful and connects our minds with our souls and is the place in our brains that links us to all things spiritual. We need to be learning to stimulate our subconscious with controlled and directed imaginations which we give it through very specific and detailed things, outcomes, wishes or outcomes we hope to attain or to cause to happen.

In the above video, I cover the very basics of learning to dream.

First and foremost, our dreams need to be written down. We might say that we have a dream, but if we can't write it down, it might only be a fantasy. In the video, I encourage us to make sure that we have a spot in a journal that we read almost every day. On that page, almost like a bucket list, we write out our dreams no matter how big are impossible they may sound.

Dream Big!

Remember this famous quote "whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve". It describes a lot of how I believe we are made by our Creator. Yes, there are limits, but I think you find that those limits are self imposed by belief. For example, I might have a dream to set the world record in the 100m dash, but, when faced with the practical limitations of age, genetics, and physical capability, the belief will not and should not be there. It means that I might conceive it in my mind, but I will be constrained by my lack of true belief. Nevertheless, we want to have the ability to write down dreams that at first conception seem hard to believe, then we focus on reading them every day and seek to see if our belief starts to follow. So, write things down that might be beyond your current capacity to believe and set no real limits. Think about would you write down if you knew no matter what it was, you would get it. Then, write that down.

Nurture Your Dreams

Once you write down your dreams, think about them as seeds. You are planting seeds of your future success. So, you wrote down your dreams, planted your plants, now you need to nurture them. We nurture our dreams by reading over them as often as we can and implementing the practice of visualizing, imagining, and seeing and feeling would it will be like when we attain them. We see ourselves as succeeding and focus on it as if it as already happened even to the point of having a sense of gratitude for having had attained it - in advance. We do this every day. In this process, we are seeing if we get a confirmation of our vision when we are able start to attain the belief that it is a "done deal" and will happen. If we don't develop belief or attain a sense of peace that a dream is going to happen and that it is right for us, then we might want to drop that dream because the belief isn't growing and coming into focus. Once we get that confirmation from belief after a period of time reading over that dream and imagining it as coming to pass, then we should not take it off the list even if we are later fighting doubt. Just because we see it, and we know in our hearts it will come to pass, and we have confirmation and belief doesn't mean it will be instant or there won't be struggle. So, after that, we should not give up on it when there are brief periods of self doubt perhaps caused by struggles or not seeing results. We should have persistent consistent faith and belief through looking at it every day - even in the middle of struggles. We have to keep feeding that dream with faith and belief even when it is hard. This nurtures it and keeps it from dying.

Protect Your Dreams

Don't share your dreams with people who are not in your inner circle and are not likeminded. People have a tendency to be negative. People typically think that by pointing out the ways it won't work that they are helping you. Sometimes people are just jealous of what you aspire to be. If someone who is in your inner circle offers constructive criticism, that is fine and should be welcomed. Just choose those people carefully. Don't share your dreams with everyone.

Write Down Your Goals

The video talks about a goal being "a dream with a date attached". A goal has a date. It isn't always a dream, it could be a milestone on the way to a larger dream. A goal without a date isn't a goal at all. A date brings a goal into focus. Goals are typically broken down into 30, 60 or 90 day segments. Sometimes they can even be as far out as 6 months to a year, but then it often helps to break them up into smaller segments.

Make Some Plans

Since you have a written goal that has a date, you can setup a plan to accomplish it. Without a goal, there is nothing to plan for. We need to know what our plan is. We can't be vague. It is a way to accomplish our goal. One thing about plans is that they can change. Goals if they aren't hit are reset and plans are adjusted. But, we NEVER give up on our dreams. We just revaluate our plans when we aren't hitting our goals, and we keep working our plans.

Effort - Daily Process - Ideal Week

We need to be learning to write out the effort we are willing to make to execute our plan. "I will do _____ blank first thing every morning. I will not miss a ______ any day. " Focusing on effort gets us to focus on our daily process. Our daily process needs to fit into our plan. It is what we execute each day to work our plan. A great way to do this is to draw out a weekly plan for an "ideal week". Take each day - Sun through Saturday - and break it down into timeslots - morning, noon, afternoon and evening and for each day block off what you will be doing during an "ideal week". This is the basis of your daily effort that should fit into your plan.