I Smell Fire

Have you ever said?

• I don’t have time to do it right now.
• I’m already overwhelmed; I can’t add anything else to my plate.
• There aren’t enough hours in a day.
• One of these days…
• Maybe tomorrow…

These are the words of your dreams waiting to be followed. Not pretty, huh?

What happens is that despite your intention to follow your dreams and create the life and business you want, you get sucked into the day-to-day and end up putting your dreams on hold “until tomorrow”.

I’m sure you have a perfectly “legitimate” reason for putting your dream on the back burner but let’s face it…none of us have forever and if you don’t start acting on your dream it will simply die with you.

So what can you do about it?

I’ve spoken to a lot of people about their dreams. Turns out there are a lot of reasons why dreams are put on hold but it boils down to four themes. Here they are along with what you can do to realize your dream.

Theme 1: You don’t have a clear vision of what you want.

Many of us have vague dreams. The more specific you can be about what you want the easier it will be for you to do it. People have told me that they want to start a business but don’t know what type. Or that they want to attract clients but don’t know what programs or services they’d provide. It doesn’t matter how big or small your dream is…the more specific and clear you are, the better.

Theme 2: You want to do too many things.

Time is finite. You have exactly 24 hours a day. It’s up to you to decide how you use it. If you try to do everything what ends up happening is that you do nothing or you do it all…poorly. In either case your dream isn’t realized. Since you can’t do it all, consciously decide what you want to do and give yourself permission to let go of the rest. Use these three questions to help you set your priorities.

1. If I do this what won’t I be doing?
2. If I don’t do this what can I do?
3. If I had a magic wand that could fulfill one dream, which would I choose?

Theme 3: You haven’t narrowed the scope of your vision to something manageable.

You want it and you want it all. I’m all for dreaming big but if there is one thing that leads to overwhelm and unfilled dreams this is it. You do not have to do it all at one time. If you break up your dreams into doable chunks you can approach each “mini-dream” individually and accomplish them. To help manage your expectations (and your to-do list) ask yourself the following questions:

1. What one piece of this can I do to move my dream forward?
2. Does what I’m thinking of fit in at this stage or can it wait until later?

Theme 4: You’ve put everyone else’s dreams and needs in front of your own.

This is a big one. Somehow along the way we came to believe that we need to put everyone else first and not worry about taking care of ourselves physically, emotionally and intellectually. It’s important to support the people you, love but unless you continue to learn, grow, challenge yourself and follow your own dream you will stagnate. If you stagnate, the people who are counting on you won’t get what they need or deserve. In reality you are doing a disservice to the people you love by following their dreams instead of your own.

So here’s the bottom line…nobody can fulfill your dream other than you. Do your research; get clear on what you want to do and what you aren’t going to do and take action. If you have trouble clarifying your vision or figuring out where to start to find a coach or a mentor who can help you because until you know your destination you’ll never know what road to take.  (Shameless plug…send me an email and I’ll help you Carrie@CarrieThru.com)

What dream are you ready to take off the back burner?  Go ahead and share it with me and let’s make it happen!