5 Daily Actions for Living Your Dream
As part of my 2019 120 Day Challenge, I am constantly reading and researching ways to stay motivated, take action, and make progress on reaching my goals. What I’ve learned is that living your dream is a daily action. It’s a #mood, to borrow an experession from the youth. Living your dream is an intentional state of being where your actions, words, and thoughts are all in support of your dream. Each day is an opportunity to live your dream and be the best version of yourself.
I have found that taking 5 simple actions each day gets me closer to living on purpose and reaching my goals.
- See the dream
- Make a plan
- Tell the world
- Take a leap
- Celebrate tiny victories
See the Dream
“Keep your eye on the prize.”
Unknown
Seeing the dream is about defining, visualizing, and documenting your dream. You have to see you dream everyday for two reasons: 1) So you can align your actions with your dream and 2) so you can know when you are living your dream. Seeing truly is believing and believing leads to doing. Post your dream in as many places as possible. Make a vision board, write it on your bathroom mirror, or post a picture of it on the fridge. Put a reminder of your dream everywhere in your car, wallet, phone screensaver, office, and bathroom so will never loose sight of it.
Make a Plan
“A dream without a plan is just a wish.”
Katherine Paterson
Making a plan is obvious, but what isn’t as obvious is that you have to consistently plan. Having a plan allows you to be intentional with your time. Start by making a high level long term plan and then each start each week, day, and hour with refining your plan. One way to think about it is as setting micro goals. Micro goals are the tiny results you are aiming for within small chuck of time. Micro goals are the tiny “bites” needed to “eat the elephant.
The other important part of making a plan, is keeping it simple. Don’t plan to do a lot. I say that because everything always takes longer than you think and there are always more interruptions than you can ever expect. I know it sounds a little like setting the bar low, but actually about being hyper focused. I’d rather do one thing really well each day, rather than 30 things mediocre. I’d also rather do one thing that moves me closer to my goal than 30 things that have nothing to do with my goal.
Plan your day. Don’t plan to do a lot. Do what you plan.
Keep in mind that sometimes the best use of your time is relaxing, recharging, having fun, or connecting. Living your dream, no matter what you’re dreaming of, must always include living in balance.
Tell the World
“Our words have creative power. With our words we speak blessings over our future.”
Joel Osteen
When I looked for quotes on telling the world about your dream, every single one warned against it. The most common advice was to not tell anyone or to be careful who you share your dreams with. I disagree. It takes courage to be vulnerable enough to share and speak our dreams into reality. While there may be naysayers or people who want to deter you, I’ve found that to be rare. Whenever I’ve shared my dream, in most cases, I’ve received support and increased my accountability. If we keep our dreams to ourselves we won’t have the opportunity to have others pour into them.
Take a Leap
“If you don’t move forward, you’ll always be in the same space.”
“Take a Leap” is taking action and executing your plan. When I think of taking a leap, I imagine a leap frog jumping from one lily pad to another. There’s an element of risk that she may fall in the pond, but there’s a greater chance that she will land on beautiful lily pad. I equate this to taking a leap outside your comfort zone to getting closer to your dream or goal. When we take leaps, we try new things and learn a ton along the way. Taking a leap requires us to focus on just one lily pad at a time; not on the entire pond nor the shore. When we take leaps we don’t need any extra equipment just a few positive thoughts and little bit of courage. Take a leap everyday. It is as simple as that.
Celebrate Tiny Victories
“The more you celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate!”
Oprah Winfrey
I can’t stress enough that we have to celebrate our progress and blessings because they give us life and motivation to keep going. Find a reason to celebrate everyday, if not every week. It is an act of gratitude that is a down payment on your happiness.