Positive Thinking

Make Your Dreams a Reality

Don’t you have dreams, visions or plans about things you’d love to have or accomplish? Having the dream is the easy part. Making it a reality can be more challenging. However, the good news is that there are proven techniques that can get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Follow this process to bring your dreams to fruition:

1. Turn your dream into a goal. When you have a goal, you have a true target. For a greater chance of success, your plan should have a deadline and it must be measureable.

* It has been said that dreams are goals without a deadline. Give yourself the gift of setting a deadline and things will start to happen.

* You want your goal to be measurable because, if you can’t measure it, how will you know when you’ve succeeded?

* For example, this goal is measurable and has a deadline: “On or before June 1, I will weigh 150 lbs. or less.”

* Make your goal as desirable as possible without being unrealistic. If you feel that your goal is unreasonable, it’s much more difficult to encourage yourself to actually pursue it.

2. Prioritize your goal daily. Read and write your goal each day.

* You give instructions to your brain thousands of times a day. Let your mind know that your goal is something more important than, “I feel like eating a ham sandwich,” or “I need to stop at the grocery store on the way home.”

3. Make a list of negative associations. You probably have negative associations with achieving your goal; otherwise you’d already have it. So make a list of all the negative stuff that pops into your mind when you think about achieving your goal.

* Examine that list and think of ways to work around those challenges.

* Each time you notice a new negative association with your goal, add it to your list. Things will tend to change over time, and new challenges will reveal themselves.

4. Make a list of all the positives about reaching your goal. How would it make you feel? How would it change your life? How would it change your perspective of the world and yourself? What would your next goal be?

* Make your goal as attractive as possible. Envision your life after achieving the goal. This will help to keep your motivation levels high.

5. What do you need to make your goal a reality? Do you need to special license? Do you need a laptop? Is there some knowledge you must acquire? Make a list of what you need and figure out how you’re going to get it.

6. Catalog your available resources. Who do you know that could be helpful? What expertise or items do you need that someone else might have?

* Achieving difficult goals can rarely be accomplished alone; you’re likely to need some help and guidance. Look at the list you made in step 5 and see what you already have in your life that could help you on your path.

7. Track your progress. Measure your progress each day.

* Tracking is critical to making continued progress. You can only adjust your approach if you know how you’re doing. Consider making a chart if that’s applicable to your goal.

In many ways, working toward a goal is like baking a cake: if you follow the recipe, you’ll always pull a perfect cake out of the oven. Likewise, if you follow the above steps, you’ll find it much easier to achieve your dreams.

Don’t Be Afraid to Pursue Your Dreams

Have you ever awakened one day and realized that, although your life is going pretty well, there’s just one thing tugging at you? Something inside is telling you that something isn’t quite “right” in your life. Or maybe it feels more like something’s missing.

Perhaps those feelings are trying to let you know you haven’t been pursuing your dreams. For many, dreams about the future started when they were youngsters.

You might’ve grown to admire your uncle who’s a great golfer and wanted to try golfing to emulate him. Or maybe you do golf but there’s that one golf course in Europe that you really want to play.

It could be that your 7th grade English teacher, whom you loved, always told you what a great writer you were. But after high school, you’ve hardly written even a short story. You always thought you’d get back to writing, but just haven’t taken the time or effort.

It’s time to pursue your dreams!

Review these tips about following your bliss. You might realize that – YES! – you can go after your special goals while living your life and “taking care of business.”

1. Ask yourself, “Is there something I’ve wanted to do for a long time?” If so, what is it?

2. Write down your goals for the future. Obtain a spiral notebook and devote it to your dreams.

* Take your Dream Notebook and pen to the park or front porch. Then, ponder your dream. Write everything that comes to mind. Record your dreams on a small bit of paper and affix them to your bathroom mirror.

* Each day, when you see that message to yourself about what you want to do, it will inspire you.

3. Pledge to do just one thing each day or week to chase after your dream goal. Maintain your momentum toward following your bliss.

* Make your dreams a priority in life.
* Avoid allowing anyone or anything to get in the way of pursuing your dreams.
* Who knows what can happen when you “keep your eyes on the prize?”

4. It’s rare to accomplish dreams in a short period of time. Accept that you’ll be following your most cherished wishes for the long haul.

5. Think about ways to divide your path to your dreams into “chunks.” For example, if you’ve always wanted to travel to France to see the Eiffel Tower, you could separate your dreams into sections like:

* Read everything you can about France and the Eiffel Tower.
* Explore the subjects on the web.
* Become an “expert” about the topics of your dreams.
* Even though you might struggle financially to make ends meet, set up a separate bank account for your “dream” trip to Europe and make regular deposits (at least monthly), no matter how small.
* Regardless of what your dreams are, think of a way to move toward them somehow.
* Vow to keep your momentum going so you can achieve your dreams.

6. It’s okay to re-vamp or even totally overhaul your dreams. You can let go of a dream you had for a while if you discover you really aren’t interested in that goal anymore.

* As you grow and mature, it’s not unusual to develop new interests and dreams.
* You can feel comfortable transitioning into a new goal to pursue.
* Give yourself permission to let go of an old dream, alter it, or even add a new goal.

7. Avoid thinking of your dreams as impossible for you to accomplish. Dreams keep you moving forward in life.

* Tell yourself it’s entirely within the realm of your life to pursue and fulfill your dreams.
* You truly deserve to have goals and dreams, no matter what your situation.

Following your bliss will enrich your life in so many ways. Allow yourself the opportunity to fulfill your special goals in life. Pursue your dreams because you’re worth it.

Self-Talk Can Improve Your Life

Self-talk is an integral constant in your life. You start talking to yourself when you wake up in the morning and don’t stop until you fall asleep at night. Who would’ve thought you had so much to say? Right? But you do!

When self-talk is positive and helpful, amazing things can happen. When self-talk is negative, life can be much more challenging than it has to be.

Like much of who you are, your style of self-talk is a habit that has been molded by your experiences and environment. Imagine how your life could change for the better if you were able to alter your self-talk into something more supporting and encouraging.

You can start living that life today! Just follow these simple steps to get started:

1. Make a list of your negative self-talk phrases and attitudes. For 24 hours, record everything you say to yourself that isn’t supportive, regardless of whether or not you think it’s true. Here are a few examples to get you thinking:

* “He would never want to talk to me.”
* “I’m not good enough for that.”
* “I could never do that.”
* “Things will never get better.”

2. Prioritize your list. Which items have the greatest negative impact on your life and your sense of happiness? Put the list in order, from greatest negative impact to least.

* Prioritizing is important because it will naturally force you to spend your time on the most important items.

3. Create a new list. Now that you’ve made your list, you’re going to improve it. Convert at least the first 10 items on your list into positive thoughts. If you’re feeling motivated, you can rewrite as many more as you like.

* Even if you don’t believe the new, positive idea, just change it into a positive version. For example, “I could never do that” changes to, “I can do anything I set my mind to.”

4. Change your thinking. Now, for the challenging part. Each time you catch yourself engaging in self-talk matching an item from your list, substitute the new self-talk expression.

* Be diligent at all times. Considering how many times you may have said the negative item to yourself, this new practice will require a lot of attention. The good news is that over time, the positive things you say to yourself will become a habit, too!

5. Move further down the list. After you’ve conquered the 10 most negative items, look at the list and consider how it would improve your life to change those remaining negative self-talk items. You may have formed such positive habits with your first 10 items that the rest of them might not really be applicable anymore!

Self-talk will always be there, so it will benefit you to exercise some control over it. Anything you hear over and over again, you start to believe. That’s the way our minds work.

The first step to gaining that control is to monitor your thoughts and feelings. Then the necessary steps can be taken to change it for the better. As with all habits, these self-talk patterns can be challenging to change, but doing so will really boost your happiness. Get started today!