“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
What does it mean to have a dream? What is a dream (not the one you have at night while sleeping)?
I looked it up and it is defined as: a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal.
So if you are following along, we are on a path here. We went over PURPOSE (your why) and CALLING (your what) and now we are on DREAMS. Next is GOALS. We are taking an expansive, over-arching, umbrella like, divinely crafted PURPOSE and then getting smaller with each step so we can live with intention and have impact and influence.
What is your dream?
Before we get too lofty, I’m going to stop us. Let’s stay on the path. We are differentiating between Purpose, Calling, Dreams and Goals. So let’s use an example.
PURPOSE: Share God’s Love with people.
CALLING: Build a platform so I can use my gifts, words and my voice to share God’s love with people. (Maybe you feel called to this because you didn’t understand God’s love until recently and it has transformed your life. Maybe God is calling you to talk about God outside of church so you can reach people who would not set foot in a church – which was you!)
DREAM: Start a podcast. (Or write a book or speak from stages or start a Facebook group.) YOU WILL HAVE MANY DREAMS. The question is, WHAT IS YOUR DREAM RIGHT NOW? (Life is long and you have enough time. Don’t limit your dreams but in order to take action (GOALS!) you need to focus on the ONE THING you DREAM of doing NOW.
GOALS:
>Launch by December 1st.
>Do one thing each day to work toward launch.
- get recording equipment
- talk to other podcasters
- figure out what platform I want to use
- practice recording
- plan what type of podcast – just me? or with guests?
- figure out how to get my podcast on several platforms
- create cover art
- come up with name
- plan out calendar
It’s like a funnel. We start with the purpose which is the widest and most expansive part and we get it down to GOALS so we can say, “Okay, so what do I do TODAY that will serve my ultimate purpose.”
Let’s go over another example:
PURPOSE: Be a healthy, loving influence to guide my family and help them be their best selves.
CALLING: Be fully present for my family and create a loving home filled with peace and joy. (This calling may be born out of your own experience as a child. Maybe you did not have a home filled with peace and joy and you found that later in life and you feel called to stop the cycle and say, “The buck stops here with me and I will be the change agent in this family!”)
DREAM: Lose 20 pounds so I can travel and play on the ground and bike and swim and be an example of health and wellness to my family. (Remember, this is only ONE dream. There are many dreams that will come out of this calling and purpose. Another dream here could be to read every day to my children or to make sure they have an excellent education or to be an example of faith. You can take each one of these and break it down into SMART goals for that dream. This is how we make dreams come true!)
Goals:
- One pound at a time
- I will lose one pound this week
- I will drink more water
- I will walk every day
- I will choose to eat real foods
- I will thank God every day for my body, my breath and my life.
See, if we think, “Oh my gosh, I have to be healthy and loving and always have a perfect home and body and I have to lose 20 pounds this month!!! And I have to grow all my own food and eat perfectly clean and never slip or I am a bad example/mom/person.” Well then we go nuts and quit. Let’s not do that.
One thing at a time. One day at a time. And before you know it, your dreams have come true! It’s not fairytale stuff, it’s real and possible for you TODAY.
“Dreams don’t work unless you take action. The surest way to make your dreams come true is to live them.” ― Roy T. Bennett
So I know I jumped ahead to GOALS. But for the sake of illustration I think it’s important. Maybe you take some time to write out all your DREAMS that relate to the PURPOSE and CALLING on your life.
Dream BIG and then decide to say YES to that dream. If you can dream it, you can do it!
P.S. We build our confidence muscle by trying things and succeeding. It’s okay to pick a dream that is smaller to start. Then we can accordingly pick goals that get you to reach that dream faster. Then you build up confidence and you start to dream bigger. One yes leads to another yes and so on. Can you have several dreams at once? Yes. But my job as a coach is to get you to take action and that’s hard to do when you are biting off more than you can chew. We can get confused and flustered and distracted. This whole process is to help you stay focused and aligned.