Achieving Your Dreams

This is an article from Jim Rohn and is newsletter, get on the list her

While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living, a much smaller number seem to have everything going their way. Instead of just earning a living, the smaller group is busily working at building and enjoying a fortune. Everything just seems to work out for them. And here sits the much larger group, wondering how life can be so unfair, so complicated and unjust. What’s the major difference between the little group with so much and the larger group with so little?

Despite all of the factors that affect our lives—like the kind of parents we have, the schools we attended, the part of the country we grew up in—none has as much potential power for affecting our futures as our ability to dream.

Dreams are a projection of the kind of life you want to lead. Dreams can drive you. Dreams can make you skip over obstacles. When you allow your dreams to pull you, they unleash a creative force that can overpower any obstacle in your path. To unleash this power, though, your dreams must be well defined. A fuzzy future has little pulling power. Well-defined dreams are not fuzzy. Wishes are fuzzy. To really achieve your dreams, to really have your future plans pull you forward, your dreams must be vivid.

If you’ve ever hiked a 14,000-foot peak in the Rocky Mountains, one thought has surely come to mind: “How did the settlers of this country do it?” How did they get from the East Coast to the West Coast? Carrying one day’s supply of food and water is hard enough. Can you imagine hauling all of your worldly goods with you… mile after mile, day after day, month after month? These people had big dreams. They had ambition. They didn’t focus on the hardship of getting up the mountain. 

In their minds, they were already on the other side–their bodies just hadn’t gotten them there yet! Despite all of their pains and struggles, all of the births and deaths along the way, those who made it to the other side had a single vision: to reach the land of continuous sunshine and extraordinary wealth. To start over where anything and everything was possible. Their dreams were stronger than the obstacles in their way.

You’ve got to be a dreamer. You’ve got to envision the future. You’ve got to see California while you’re climbing 14,000-foot peaks. You’ve got to see the finish line while you’re running the race. You’ve got to hear the cheers when you’re in the middle of a monster project. And you’ve got to be willing to put yourself through the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable. Because that’s how you realize your dreams.

5 Keys to Develop a Plan for Success

When you look at successful people, you will almost always discover a plan behind their success.  They know what they want, they work out a strategy that will get them where they want to go, and they work that plan.  It is the foundation for success.

So what are some good ideas on developing a plan that will work well and take you to the finish line powerfully and in style?  Here are some major points to keep in mind:

  1. Develop the right plan for you.  Your plan is the one you’ll develop that is unique to you and for you.  Each of us is unique and motivated by different factors and you’ve got to develop one that is right for you and fits you.  Whatever your personality, your strengths and your weaknesses, develop the plan around them.  This is not a one-plan-fits-all proposition.
  1. Keep a journal.  Record the ideas and inspiration that will carry you from where you are to where you want to be.  Take note on the ideas that impact you most.  Brainstorm with yourself on where you are going and what you want to do.  Record your dreams and ambitions.  Your journals are a gathering place for all the valuable information that you will find.
  1. Reflect.  Create time for reflection ‒ a time to go back over, to study again the things you’ve learned and the things you’ve done each day.  Take a few minutes at the end of each day and go back over the day ‒ who’d you talk to, who’d you see, what did they say, what happened, how’d you feel, what went on?  A day is a piece of the mosaic of your life.
  1. Set goals.  Your plan is the roadmap for how you are going to get to your goals so you have to have them.  Setting goals is the greatest influence on a person’s future and the greatest force that will pull a person in the direction that they want to go.  But the future must be planned, well designed, to exert a force that pulls you towards the promise of what can be.
  1. Act on your plan.  What separates the successful from the unsuccessful so many times is that the successful simply do it.  They take action.  They aren’t necessarily smarter than others; they just work the plan.  All disciplines affect each other…. Everything affects everything.  That’s why the smallest action is important ‒ because the value and benefits that you receive from that one little action will inspire you to do the next one and the next one.  So step out and take action on your plan because if the plan is good, then the results can be miraculous.

— Jim Rohn