How to dream Smarter not Bigger–

I am a huge proponent of pursuing your dreams and passion.

But too often we confuse “Dream” with “Fantasy “. Fantasies by their very definition are unrealistic.

Dreams, on the other hand, should be something you aspire to and are even willing to sacrifice to achieve.

Unfortunately, we often get overwhelmed trying to get from vision to mission.

Something happens when we come to the realization that the daydreaming we did staring up at the clouds in our younger years are still exactly that- daydreams.

As the years go by time seems to accelerate at a panic inducing pace if your life dreams are no where near to becoming a reality.

But you don’t have to stay there. Take a deep breath and exhale.

It’s time to start dreaming smarter.

I am going to guide you through 5 easy steps to help you formulate your very own strategic dream plan. Not only will this help you begin to recognize your dreams as achievable, it will also help you visualize your overwhelmingly big dreams in smaller action steps that motivate you to finally move forward.

1. Distinguish between pursuing your hearts passion and trendy “pipedreams”. There are dreams that contain pieces of our heart that we would lose if they weren’t fulfilled. And then there are those crazy desires that spontaneously come and go when we watch an intriguing show or compare ourselves with someone else’s life or adventure. Be clear on what you want to pursue and what you can live without.

2. Once you determine which dreams you are going to seriously launch create SMART goals for each one. (I actually prefer Michael Hyatt’s SMARTER version). Set Specific, Measurable, Action oriented, Realistic, Time bound, Exciting, Relevant goals.

3. Now is the time to evaluate what you have on your calendar. I don’t care who you are it is virtually impossible to accomplish absolutely everything we want to do every single day.

So take a good look at the goals you are working on – how do they look set against your current schedule? I would like to throw out a huge WARNING ⚠️ you need to leave some space, a little margin in your schedule. As much as we’d like to, we can’t do All the Things, All the Time!

This will also give you breathing room for unexpected things that will inevitably come up. (And prevent your world from crashing down.)

4. Hopefully you now have 2–4 goals that excite you to work with. This is where things start to get real! In your journal or planner write out your goals final destination (we are going to work backwards from there). For example- in 6 months I want to run a marathon.

So, running consistently would definitely be a part of that journey. Now break down the months, weeks, days .

How that looks – Halfway between now and 6 months I would need to be able to run a half marathon. (Write down that step). And keep dividing until you get to a manageable goal. Ex. I will start running 3 miles 3X per week. Then put those action steps on the calendar. If any of this feels overwhelming at any time reevaluate to see if you can stretch the goal out to give you more time to accomplish it. Some goals will have a hard set end date, and others will be more flexible. It is up to you to determine if you are staying outside your comfort zone or if you are simply postponing out of fear.

5. Finally, start! Pick a date that you are going to Launch and tell someone for accountability. In fact I would love to hear about your dreams and goals. Comment below and let me know how your journey is going. Also, reach out if you have any questions or encounter any challenges.

 

I’m so excited you’ve made it this far – let’s Launch your Dream and crush those Goals together!