Make your Dreams Come True

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” ~ Walt Disney

The start of a new year can be approached in two ways:

With a full zest of life attitude, full of energy in which a person will take the bull by the horns and attempt to do everything they said they were going to do at 100 mph. 

or

Cautiously and with trepidation because a person may feel much less motivated to do what is expected of them as soon as a new year starts. 

One thing is for certain, and that is that every new year brings about reflection, review and forward planning for most of us.

How we manage that comes down to each individual in question; what their beliefs are and how to approach a new year.

The very symbolisation of entering the new year marking new beginnings can as much as motivate one person as it can disillusion another. 

Whilst there are no plans to talk about resolutions or expectations here there is hopefully something far more important to take on board.

Dreams. 

Are they just that?

Some might say a dream is merely a hope, an impossible plan that remains unattainable.  

For those who believe that, they may as well stop reading here.  This is not for you. 

This is for those who are unafraid of dreaming big dreams and want to make their dreams come true. 

There is a ‘Make your Dreams Come True’ awareness day.  I believe it’s in the American calendar and it’s celebrated on 13th January. 

It might be too newfangled for those who don’t believe in dreams (this is a second opportunity for those people to stop reading here) but what I like about this awareness day is that it offers people more than just what it states. 

The first thing that it offers is hope. 

Without hope, life is a much more challenging experience.  It should never be underestimated how far hope can take a person.  

We can often be found hoping for something to happen (or not happen) and hope affords us something poignant when the time in which we wait feels it gives us little else. 

However, people who have hope are not those that sit and do nothing.  They are likely to be doers, problem solvers by nature who seek to take control over their lives. 

Ultimately, it’s that dream that might be fulfilled that provides us with comfort at difficult times. 

Secondly, hope brings motivation. 

Behind any dream, the motivation is significant. 

Most dreams that become a reality are long in the making and take hard work, commitment and much resilience to come to fruition. 

Whatever you dream of, it can bring hope and motivation to fulfil that dream and bring the desired outcome which is likely to be happiness and / or success.  

When you have an aspiration, a dream to fulfil something, you set yourself a journey in which you have a path to take in order to achieve the goals that will lead to the end result. 

The planning in this is also important.  

You may no doubt do things differently to other people and so however you decide to put things in place to achieve what you have set your mind on has to work for you. 

By following the plan that you have set leads to you being accountable and responsible for it and the ownership you take is yours, leading to a feeling of empowerment.

Things aren’t always going to go to plan and so having a contingency plan in place will afford you some leeway to take some pressure off yourself and be able to continue on the path forwards, albeit not in the same way as you might have anticipated. 

Once a physical plan is in place, it takes commitment and discipline (remembering that you are accountable to yourself to make things happen in the way they should). 

The controllable has been set and this allows you to work towards the mini goals set within your plan to achieve the bigger objective. 

The next key thing to focus on is your mindset.  

Your mindset should be strong and your commitment to follow the path set out will take gumption. 

So where do you start in what can feel like a minefield that ebbs and flows as quickly as a rollercoaster that climbs and descends?

A dream can often begin in childhood. 

Children have a knack of fearing little until they are conditioned in becoming more wary. 

By having this strength they don’t worry themselves about the possibility of their dream not coming true. 

This is a good thing to learn. 

If you set your mind on achieving nothing less than what you are aiming for, you are consciously and positively putting things into action.

By conquering your fears or at least putting them aside for the time being, you allow yourself the best opportunity to succeed in whatever it is that you are doing. 

Trusted and practised skills such as visualisation, mindfulness, affirming and reframing can aid the practices you put in place in all that you are doing. 

This is when something unusual takes place. 

With the self-motivation and discipline together with the action taken, the effects that occur psychologically lead to the Law of Attraction. 

It is only when your mindset is right that your dreams can come true. 

I shall never claim to be brilliant at science, however, I do know that when you feel happy, your brain produces the chemicals: Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and Endorphins (DOSE) which leads to positive brain health and feel-good hormones that allow you to do what is needed to be done to progress. 

It is so often the case, in elite athletes, having followed an intense training programme and diet regime, they feel well prepared for their next competition physically and yet their mindset is not at its best. 

This might be for several reasons including: self-doubt, self-inflicted pressure or something beyond your control.  

In order to be at your optimum in a competitive setting, both your physical strength (from the planning stage such as training) and your positive mindset (more challenging to control at times) need to be aligned and working simultaneously with one another. 

It is no different in a non-sporting environment in which your planning and mindset have to be in sync for the sweet spot to be reached.  

Regardless of whether you fulfil your dream or not, the very process of having a dream to work towards leads to strong self development. 

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

In remaining positive, working through challenges and strengthening your resilience, the faith and self-belief you have in yourself to achieve in all that you have set yourself is one of life’s great lessons. 

When this happens, the dreams you have will become much closer to reach.  

If you would like support in achieving your dreams, get in touch. 

Anna

anna@akavirtualassistant.com