To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. (Anatole France)
I am in the process of developing my own business, of (hopefully) keeping myself from the tyranny of having to find – and then do – fulltime work. I SO want to be able to do what I love, to have great conversations with people, to invite them to places of deeper passion, hope, and life. But here’s the thing: no matter how badly I want to do this, if people don’t pay me, it’s a hobby…not a business. I want a business. I want revenue. I want my dreams to be reality.
As I stated yesterday in Imagining (or living) Success, I can have all kinds of aspirations but struggle to believe that they can actually come about. And further, I might actually believe in my goals and hopes, but struggle to do the hard, intentional work of actually seeing them fulfilled. That’s where forward movement comes in; where dreams become reality.
I need to be intentional about the day-to-day work of making dreams become reality. Dreams are wonderful and amazing, but they can remain just that. In order to make them come true, I have to put legs on them, make lists, check things off, get things done, set goals – and meet them!
Tonight I created a graphic that helped me visualize a part of this. I drew a circle in the middle of a piece of paper with a significant business goal written on it. I then drew five spokes out from the wheel and assigned particular categories that would eventually feed the goal itself; ways in which I might meet the goal. Next, I took each of those five things and began breaking them down into measurable, specific tasks…things I can actually do in a short amount of time…moving from concept (dream) to reality. It’s not the most beautiful of drawings, or even all that inspiring, but it is forward movement.
Sometimes small steps are what matter. Sometimes just acting at all matters more than all the lofty ideas in the world. Sometimes checking things off a list is what enables forward movement to occur. Dreams can become reality, but only when I function within it and take them from the esoteric to the practical.
Act. Move. Do. Reality requires it. And dreams cannot come true without it.
Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. (Anais Nin)
Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. (Gloria Steinem)
I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. (Henry David Thoreau)
P.S. Dani: I’m on it!
