Work Backwards to Fulfill Dreams
A dream without expression is a liability. If you can’t grasp a bit of your dream today, it’s a nagging inconvenience.
Big dreams that diminish the value of imperfect progress are burdens.
Dreaming won’t make dreams come true.
7 ways to reach for big dreams:
#1. Distill your dream into the solution you offer. Noble dreams are about people, not buildings and bank accounts. How will you serve people today?
The dream you dream answers your own struggle.
#2. Focus on making a difference now, not changing the world later. Offer small imperfect solutions to the problem that drives your dream now.
Reach for a dream that enlarges your heart, guides decisions, and serve others.
#3. Transpose goals to attitudes, behaviors, and skills. Suppose you aspire to lead a global corporation. Think more about the attitudes, behaviors, and skills of leaders and less about position. Become like the person who achieves your dream.
#4. Dreams by their nature are out of reach. Work backwards from unreachable to reachable. Suppose you aspire to high political office. Become president of a community organization. Make a difference in your region or state. Serve where you can. Seize opportunities now. Waiting destroys dreams.
#5. Believe in the power of small. Big dreams laugh at small beginnings. The sinister whisper of big dreams makes passive hearts shrivel.
#6. Reflect on your journey with coaches and mentors. A dream you can reach on your own is too small. Don’t make choices based on feedback from haters and degraders.
#7. Be grateful for progress. Don’t declare victory too soon. Nurture dissatisfaction. Keep asking what’s next.
Live your dream in imperfect ways today. Dreams without action drag you down.
How might leaders reach for dreams?
Dan, this post is very inspiring because it’s challenging and full of practical advice. Love this: “Focus on making a difference now, not changing the world later. Offer small imperfect solutions to the problem that drives your dream, now.”
Every dream has a first step small enough for us to take. It might make us feel good to think big (and that has great value) but taking a small step towards our dream makes us come alive, gives us more information and emboldens us.
Thanks Alan. “Every dream has a first step small enough for us to take.” You nailed it. A dream without a first step is a stumbling point on the path to emptiness.
Dan, I have something really good to add that fits in with your post today–it’s what you wrote on your “About me” page: “I choose to fix mistakes rather than spend too much time preventing them.”
LOL…yes! There were plenty in this one. They get fixed eventually. 🙂
Well, I didn’t see any mistakes to fix, just plenty of good things to give a lot of thought to and to put into practice.
Oh my! This one was terrible. I think they’re fixed. Thanks for the good word.
Great post Dan. Really in line with what I was hearing at the Global Leadership Summit last week. Thanks.
Thanks Steve. I missed the Summit this year. The lineup looked great.
Super post Dan. Aspirational and yet practical!
Thanks Rashmir. I’m always shooting for that combination. It’s great to read that it worked for you.
“Noble dreams are about people, not buildings and bank accounts. How will you serve people today?”
Dan, i like that words. It is inspiring me to serve people in my country
Thanks “one.” Everyone needs inspiration. I’m glad to be a source of inspiration. Your comment inspires me.
I’m so focused now on my personal growth👍🏼
Thanks Dan for sharing insightful thoughts with action when it comes to our dreams. I have been signing with my signature with Dream Big Always since 1998. Dreams with action haven’t let me down.
Dream Big Always,
Judy
Thanks “My World.” A word of affirmation may help someone who is struggling. Keep reaching high.
From the late Stephen Covey: “Begin with the end in mind.” Cherish your goals and be proactive. Unlike what so many seek to do (develop a detailed plan before engaging – sometimes never engaging since ‘perfection’ rules…), consider options until having a good idea of the initial steps; then begin, self-assessing regularly and revising / planning as will definitely be needed. But those goals are so critical!!!
Thanks John. We definitely share an affinity for Ready, shoot, aim, shoot, aim, shoot, aim. Jim Collins calls this bullets before cannon balls. Shoot some small bullets. When you find your target, bring in the big guns.
Sometimes you hit the nail on the head. I just received my PhD in Nursing Research and I looking at my what my goals should be and how to make it into workable bites.
As a child I didn’t have dreams other than to escape the dysfunctional home and being labeled “stupid.” At age 73, I have just reached two bucket list items that I only had courage to chase in my adult years.
I like to say that “While I function like a snail on valium, the movement is always forward.”
Thank you
What a practical lesson on dreaming! We all tend to dream of health, wealth , fame etc; but do we really think of dreaming about people and how we can serve them? If only we do so the world will be better place to live.
Great post!
“Become like the person who achieves your dream.” Hmm, makes me think…
I loved you quote,’ dreaming won’t make dreams happen’. Nailed it man
I love the last line – “Be grateful for progress. Don’t declare victory too soon. Nurture dissatisfaction. Keep asking what’s next”
WOW.