The man who has no imagination has no wings.  Muhammad Ali

It’s amazing how many people ridicule people who have dreams.  However, if there were no dreamers, we wouldn’t have the modern technology we have today.  Dreams are important and limitless.  They provide us with a vision for the future and the direction we have to to take.  Dreams inspire us, give us hope and help us to make decisions on how we want to live our lives.  Dreams are all about our perfect purpose for being on this planet anyway.  Do you dare to dream?  Many of us don’t as we’re too scared.  We let society and what other people think, limit us.  We don’t want to be thought of as fools, so we stifle our dreams and bury them somewhere deep inside us. 

    I always dreamed of being a writer one day, but so many people tried to put me off by telling me how one can’t get published, raising their eyebrows or just dismissing my dream out of hand.  So, I buried my dream, every now and then it would resurface, but other people always managed to bury it again with their negative comments.  Now, I am not trying to blame others for me burying my dreams, it was I who buried it – not them.  I was so concerned with what other people thought of me and their opinions, that I buried myself along with my dreams.  Sometimes, it takes something life-threatening like a brush with Cancer, to make you forget about what other people think, and be prepared to follow your dreams. 

    There is a popular misconception you have to change in your mind.  Dreams are not goals.  They are not the same thing at all.  Goals grow out of dreams.  In fact, goals are what get you your dreams.

Tip:  Write down your dreams and paste them up on your fridge.  Don't put a limit on your dreams.

Sometimes, we get so focused on our goals, that we lose sight of our dreams.  Our goal is to lose 2kg in a week.  We do it and it’s like – wow, I succeeded.  Now, let me reward myself with that huge slice of passion fruit cheesecake I saw in that Café…It shouldn’t end when you succeed and achieve a goal, but often that is where we end it.  We can’t see beyond the goal post.  Now, I’m not dismissing goals here, what I’m trying to say, is don’t let them restrict you in your thinking.  Look on goals as small steps towards achieving your dreams.  Don’t get so caught up in your goals, that you let your dream vanish into Never-Never Land somewhere.

    Goals help us to achieve more, they can improve our performance, they can even enhance our motivation, they create pride and satisfaction in our accomplishments.  They can completely eliminate self-defeating attitudes and our desire to ‘give-up’ when the going gets tough,  With all of this, you will also find a huge improvement in your self-confidence which will in turn, raise  your self-esteem.  Goals are mega-important as they can be life-changing.  If you fear change, leave it in my piggy-bank.  Jokes aside, as goal setting is so important, you need to be able to set goals properly. 

Tip:  Try and start off with one goal in each area of your life.

• Make sure the goal you are working for is something you really want, and not just something that sounds good and will impress others.
• Set goals in each area of your life to maintain balance.  I don’t want you to go all lop-sided on me!
• Make sure the goals you set are consistent with your values.
• Make sure your goal is high enough but still realistic.  Easy goals make us lose interest.  Unrealistic goals make us give up.
• Write down your goals in complete detail, focusing on the positive – what you want, not on the negative – what you want to leave behind.  The more information we can feed into our subconscious minds, the easier it will be able to process it.  So, the clearer the final outcome will become.
• Don’t be tempted to share your goals with others.  It’s human nature to be ‘supportive’ by pointing out all the pit-falls and telling you stories how other people tried and failed.  They’ll just discourage you and make you give-up.
• Think about all the things that can stand in your way and stop you from achieving your goals.  Think of ways that you will counteract the hurdles.
• Think about what steps need to be taken and what else you’ll need to help you achieve your goal.
• Visualise your goal.  Close your eyes and see what it’ll be like when you’ve achieved it.
• Read through your goals when you wake up in the morning, and again before you go to bed.  This must be done on a daily basis.
• Whenever you are faced with a decision, and don’t know what to do – ask yourself, “If I do this, will it bring me closer or further away from a goal.”  If it’s going to take you further away, you know what your decision must be.
• Stay focused.

MY GOALS:

OBSTACLES THAT CAN  STOP OR SLOW ME DOWN:

WAYS I CAN OVER COME THE OBSTACLES:

DATE I’D LIKE THIS GOAL ACHIEVE BY:

WHAT I NEED TO HELP ME ACHIEVE THIS GOAL:

POSITIVE RESULTS/BY-PRODUCTS OF ME ACHIEVING THIS GOAL:

 You’ve written down your dreams, set your goals, you’re on your way!  Remember not to let reality kill off the possibilities of your dreams.  Reality limits you, so you only bring in reality when you start strategising and setting your goals. 

    It’s okay to give up on dreams that no longer suit you, fulfill you or make you happy.  It’s pointless hanging onto a dream that makes you miserable.  Get rid of old dreams.  It’s rather like a grocery cupboard.  You can’t find room to pack away your new groceries if the cupboard is jam-packed full of old groceries that are half-eaten or you decided you don’t like.  Clean out the clutter and make room for your new dreams.