~How to Achieve Your Dreams~

Making dreams a reality doesn’t have to be difficult. It only requires a few things:

• Believing in yourself.
• Mapping your dreams.
• And taking small action steps everyday.

In this post, I’ll talk about tools you can use to achieve your dreams. Some of the topics covered include: creating a life list, vision map, and how to start loving life now.

You only get one life. So your choices matter. Pursue what brings you happiness and joy.

1. Create A Life List

“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…” ~Thoreau

Have you ever wanted to take a sabbatical? Work from any location in the world? Or remove yourself from the work-watch-spend treadmill?

Then I would encourage you to start a life list. Write down everything you’ve dreamed of doing in your life. Your life list is a place to record your dreams; a place where you can be accountable to yourself.

Once I created my life list, something magical happened. I started to make my dreams a reality by completing once small task everyday. There is something powerful about the act of writing down your dreams on paper. They feel more tangible and real.

Micro-action: Write down your dreams. Don’t stifle your voice, let all of your dreams flow onto a piece of paper. Once you have your life list in place, start taking a small step everyday to accomplish your dreams.

Think about what you want to do with the short life you’ve been given?

2. Turn Dreams into Reality

“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” ~W.H. Murray

By writing down my dreams, I’ve taken a number of steps towards making them a reality. For instance, since I wrote my life list last year I left my day job, started my own business, moved to Portland, and wrote my first e-book.

Let’s use leaving my day job and starting my own small business as an example. Making such a big moved required getting out of debt and saving more. So I slowly began paying off my debt every month and saved a little bit of extra money too. Re-evaluating my finances was a key part of making that dream a reality.

Anything is possible, you just have to make it a priority.

Micro-action: As you write your life list, think about small steps you can take everyday to achieve your goal. For example, if you want to leave your day job start saving more and spending less. Or if you want to bike across the country, take small weekend trips and see how they go.

3. Make A Vision Map

“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.” ~Eckhart Tolle

A vision map is one way to help define and visualize what you want your future to look like. It’s one way to make your dreams and goals tangible.

Image from Shift It Coach