We all have dreams. Literally, every person in the world has aspirations and desires! But not every person in the world has what it takes to put their dreams into motion. It’s not that everyone isn’t capable of achieving their dreams. It’s that not everyone puts in the work to make their dreams a reality.
Chances are, you’re reading this blog because you want to know how to follow your dreams and make them a reality. You might even be looking for a short-cut to achieve your dreams. Unfortunately, there’s no “secret sauce” to success. Just like Dean Graziosi always says, “Success occurs when your dreams get bigger than your excuses.”
So, what are you waiting for? You’ve found your purpose in life — now go after it! Take a lesson from this step-by-step guide on how to accomplish your dreams.
Want to Know How to Achieve Your Dreams?
As we already said, there’s no secret recipe. Achieving your dreams will take hard work, determination and solid goal-setting. Just like a goal without a plan is just a wish, a dream without a plan is just a wish with a different name.
To begin making headway on your dreams right now, start by already thinking of them as your reality. Instead of saying, “If my dreams come true,” say, “When my dreams come true.” This mental shift is key to start turning your dream life into your real life.
Set your big dreams as a massive blueprint for the life you’re building. What’s in your blueprint that’s not present in your life right now? What steps do you logically have to take to build the life you want? Remember that big dreams take time, so don’t feel like you need to reinvent yourself overnight to reach success. Instead, take daily actionable steps to bring your dream life within reach. The following tips can help with just that.
15 Practical Tips to Accomplish Your Dreams
Making your dreams a reality is a lot easier said than done. This is especially true if you’re a big dreamer. Say you plan to start a new business or buy a new home for your family — with dreams this big, where do you even start?! The answer is simple: Start anywhere!
Do you think successful people waited to find the perfect moment to start achieving their dreams? No! They took a leap of faith and started actively working towards their goals. Successful people don’t wait for the door to open — they open the door themselves.
To start opening your own doors today, use success habits. Success habits are positive actions to work into your daily routine right now that will bring you closer to your dream life. Stop waiting for your dreams to come true and start making them a reality with these 15 practical tips.
1. Set Goals (Long-Term and Short-Term)
A dream without a plan will always remain a dream. If you want to turn your dreams into reality, you’re going to need an action plan — and that’s where your goals come in.
Goals are essentially a roadmap to your ultimate destination. Your goals outline the actionable steps you need to take to achieve your dream. Plus, they add a timeline for each step. This way, you can measure your progress over time and have a mental ballpark of how long your dream will take to achieve.
A major success habit for achieving your dreams is to set both short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals are small goals. They’re meant for a short time frame, like 1 month, 6 months or a year. Long-term goals are your big, overarching goals. These are likely your larger long-term goals in life. They can take a considerable amount of time to achieve, like 1, 5 or 15 years.
Think of your long-term goal as the final destination, and your short-term goals as milestones. Use your smaller goals to feed into your larger goal, so it’s not nearly as overwhelming to reach success over time. By setting short-term goals, you ensure that you’re constantly taking action steps towards your dreams. You can set short-term goals to learn new skills, work on your personal development or improve your mindset.
2. Break Short-Term Goals into Even Smaller Steps
Short-term goals are long-term goals broken down into actionable steps. But sometimes, even setting short-term goals can seem like a massive undertaking. To set successful short-term goals, try breaking them into even smaller steps that you can manage over a shorter period of time.
Say your big goal is to start your own business. You might set a short-term goal to research 4 investment options or 4 small business loans within the next month. To make that goal more achievable, get even more specific. Instead of looking at the month as a whole, think about what you can do each week. Maybe you can identify 1 investment option each week, so by the end of the month, you have all 4 options ready to review.
By breaking your small goals into even smaller actionable steps, you instantly make your big goal more achievable. Each time you mark one small step off your list, map out your next small step. This progress might seem slow at first, but 1 year from now, you’ll be amazed at how much these steps accumulated. Before long, your dream will be within reach.
3. Have a Vision and Focus on it Daily
One of the main reasons why so many people never achieve their dreams is because they get discouraged halfway to the finish line. Trust us, we understand that it can be discouraging to see just how far you still have to go to achieve your dream. This is especially true if you’ve been set back by things out of your control. However, it’s important to keep your vision in mind and remember that good things take time.
Both in life and business, always focus forward and visualize your success. When you’re working hard on a short-term goal, visualize exactly what you’re working towards. Of course, your dreams won’t materialize overnight. But focus on your goal, concentrate on the steps to make it happen and work hard — you can make your dream a reality in due time.
4. Make Progress Every Single Day
Want to know the best part about setting small goals? You get closer to your dreams every single day! Remember that progress can take so many shapes. Maybe it’s just creating a daily to-do list and marking each item complete. Even having a positive attitude can be a small step that makes a difference.
Whenever your dreams start to feel out of reach, remind yourself that you’re getting closer each day. And in the long-run, that’s all that matters. Success isn’t a race, it’s a marathon — and as long as you’re making that daily progress, you’re headed in the right direction.
5. Never Stop Learning
An essential habit of successful people is to always keep learning. That’s because the more you learn, the more opportunities you can discover for success. Whether you sit down with a new self-help book or sign up for an online Mastermind course, always seek ways to grow your knowledge bank. You never know when you’ll read something or meet someone that helps turn your dream into a reality.
6. Avoid Negative People…
Both in life and business, you will always come across negative people. These are the types of people who try to discourage you from going after your goals. They might tell you you’re dreaming too big, or they might say you’re wasting your time. These are not the type of people to be around.
Negative people hold themselves back because they have no self-confidence and no vision — don’t let their lousy attitude reflect on you. At the end of the day, these people drain your energy and self-confidence because they have none of their own. Negative people try to drag you down with them. Avoid them at all costs.
7. …And Surround Yourself with Positive People
Where negative people try to invalidate your goals, positive people support you in your endeavors. These people are achievers, just like you. They love to help others succeed too, so they’ll constantly be your biggest cheerleaders. And when times get tough, positive people will act as your personal motivational speakers.
Positive people are also great for accountability. They are typically always taking positive actions to better themselves and their future, and they likely want the same for you. So, they hold you accountable if you start to stray from your goals. Connect with positive people in person and online. You can use like-minded forums or social media sites like LinkedIn. Use these people to form a solid support system.
8. Always Find the Silver Lining
Once you find yourself a network of positive people, do your best to also find the silver lining in any problems that come your way. The phrase ‘find the silver lining’ means to find the good in the bad — to choose optimism in an otherwise negative situation. The people who achieve their dreams always find the silver lining in life’s problems, and they have fun along the way.
After all, if you’re on a quest to achieve your dreams, shouldn’t it be fun? Shouldn’t you feel happy and proud about your progress, and excited about where you’re headed? One negative event or setback shouldn’t be enough to throw you off course. You have your life’s passion — now support it with positivity every chance you get.
9. Remain Consistent (Even When Times Get Tough)
One of Dean’s favorite quotes is, “Consistency is more important than perfection.” This is exactly what you should remind yourself of as you chase your dreams. Even when times get tough, remain consistent! A good example of this is Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb. He tried over 10,000 times before he succeeded! Now, picture life today if he had given up!
Think of it this way: Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither were the pyramids of Egypt or the skyscrapers of New York City. To reach that final masterpiece, builders worked one day at a time. They laid each level brick by brick, always remaining consistent. And that’s exactly what you have to do to achieve your dreams.
10. Recognize Your Progress
Achieving your big dreams can feel like a never ending journey. And while you’re in the thick of it, it can be hard to appreciate how much progress you’ve made. Take time to sit in the success of each step before moving on. This can help you build the momentum to continue.
In the same vein, notice when you’re not making the progress you’d like. Though a positive support system and positive outlook are necessary for achieving your dreams, only one person actually determines your progress: You. So, be sure to own up when you find yourself slacking.
If you aren’t making progress, ask yourself why — maybe your goals aren’t realistic and need some adjusting, or maybe you need to take a break. Whatever it is, tweak it so you can start showing up for yourself again in the workplace and in your personal life.
11. Value Hard Work
Let’s be honest: Hard work is called hard work because it is hard! Hard work can be exhausting at times. Not to mention, hard work can sometimes mean making sacrifices, like spending time away from family or setting a personal budget to save money. If you want to know how to achieve your dreams, you need to value the hard work that goes into the process.
Find the joy in working towards your dreams. Find the passion for dedicating time each day towards your long-term goals. No, you don’t need to run yourself into the ground working tirelessly. But you should be excited to put in the effort each day. When you value the hard work that goes into your progress, it makes success just that much sweeter.
12. Don’t Be Afraid to Leave Your Comfort Zone…
Let’s be clear: If you want to achieve your dreams, you’re going to have to take some risks. As you pursue your dreams, you can’t be so afraid of failure that you never leave your comfort zone. In fact, it’s impossible to reach success without a bit of failure first. Failure is just another lesson on your way to achieving your dreams. So, don’t be afraid to venture out of your comfort zone from time to time — your future self will thank you.
13. … But Only Take Risks You’re Proud Of
Leaving your comfort zone is a natural part of success. Sometimes you need to take a big risk to move forward. For instance, you may need to move away and start over or take a chance on a business deal. There will always be potential risks involved. But it’s important to only take risks that feel right.
Risks should feel scary because you’re unsure what will happen — not because they go against what you believe. You would never want to achieve your dreams in ways that you’d be ashamed to tell your kids about, like lying or cheating. In the end, the risks you take should always align with your core values. If the risk doesn’t feel right in your gut, listen to that feeling.
14. Keep a Positive Attitude
When chasing your dreams, your attitude can make or break your success. Just ask any successful person right now about what drove them to achieve their goals, and they’ll tell you it was a positive mindset. Your mindset influences literally every aspect of your life — from your productivity to the people you attract. When your attitude is positive, you welcome more positivity into your life. So, as you focus on your vision and seek out positive people, be sure to keep a positive attitude yourself.
15. Remember Why You Started in the First Place
If you ever need to build momentum as you chase your dreams, always remember why you started in the first place. As you work your business up to a billion-dollar company, remember why you began your startup in the first place. Think about the fire you had and the impact you wanted to make. Or as you work to put your family into that beautiful new home you, think about the reason for the move and what it will mean for your family. Think about how achieving your goals will make you feel. Then, use those feelings to power through any hurdle that comes your way!
Don’t Wait, Create Your Dream Life Today
On your quest to achieve your goals, always remember this: No dream is too big. Like Dean always says, “Don’t ever let someone take your head out of the clouds. Dream big and dream passionately.” Today can be the day you start making those big dreams come true — you just have to believe it.
Will you make your dream a reality?
If so, shoot a message to Dean’s personal cell and let him know you were inspired by the blog!
Text #Dreamers to 480-400-9019 today.
