What did you do with your Dreams?
When I firststarted to get into goal setting I thought Great! This is easy! All I have todo is set some targets, write them down, read them daily, take some action andI’m there! Magic!
And I did justthat, however, in order to continue the momentum of achievement, once you haverealised that first set of goals and you’re now moving on to the second orthird set of goals I realised that they were all short term, they were alldo-able and they were all a bit ordinary.
Someone said tome that I should set longer term goals and that I should dream bigger. And atmy fist attempt I realised that not only did I find it hard to envision furtherthan 1 year ahead, but I had the blankest mind ever when it came to dreamingbig!
Then a few dayslater whilst on a shopping trip I found out why I’d lost my ability to dreambig. I heard a little girl in the store asking for this toy, and that book, anda trampoline and a fish pond and a swimming pool and a chess set and on and onand on. And then I heard her dad say – For goodness sake! You can’t haveeverything! Just stop asking.
Aha! How manytimes as a child do we have our desires squashed, our imagination mocked andour dreams kicked into touch? No wonder as we grow up we learn not to dream anymore! I realised there and then that in order to get past my goal setting blockI needed to learn to dream like a child again. To go back to the age that I putmy dreams on the shelf where the Get Real adults had forced me to put them takethem down, open them up and play again!
It was a littlestrange at first but once I found the memories of how I dreamed as a child itgot easier and easier. Pretty soon my dreams were unbelievable, totally unrealisticand very EXCITING!! Yay! Those are the kind of goals to have!! That’s when thereal magic begins to happen and you realise that you can live life on yourterms and have whatever you want in it!
So where did youleave your dreams? Go back into the child inside you and find the excitementthat you had as a child before Christmas or your birthday, dreaming of all theamazing things you have on your list of present. Nurture your imagination,remove all boundaries, take off the shackles of realism and just let yourimagination run riot! That’s the way to set goals!
Date: Jun 19 2007 7:53PM
Category: BUSINESS EDITORIAL