Turning dreams into reality

• Why having goals is important:  you cant get anywhere in life without a direction you want to go in.

Goals are just dreams with deadlines. WIthout a goal you will have no direction and just float through life and might never achieve your goals or dreams, or live up to your full potential. We all have hopes and dreams of things we would like to achieve one day, but until you put a date on which your want to achieve this dream it can not truly be called a goal. 

Setting goals in life makes anything possible. All goals are obtainable as long as they are realistic in our known world. All it takes is a clear vision of what you want, a plan to get it and a commitment, all of which we will cover later. 

Whether you realize it or not you are subconsciously setting goals for yourself all the time. Everyone has dreams,  and aspirations they would like to achieve in life. Think about it for yourself for a minute. Think of something you would like to achieve in your life. It can be anything, a career, a place to travel to, a skill, a person. 

Write it down:__________

Now think of when you would like to achieve this by. When would be an ideal date/time frame to complete this goal? Is it a day, a week, a year, 10 years, or do you want to achieve this goal right now? In order to accomplish anything in life you must have an idea of when you want to accomplish it by. A dream transitions to a goal the moment you put a deadline on when you want to achieve it by. 

WHEN would be the ideal time to achieve this goal: ______

When you put a deadline on a goal it creates urgency behind the dream. Urgency is a driving human factor that compels us to complete tasks we set for ourselves by a certain deadline. Urgency creates emotion and emotion will create action. Urgency is the underlying driving force behind the deadline. The emotion created by urgency will force you into positive actions towards hitting your goal. 

For example, if you are given an assignment for class at the beginning of the semester that is not due until the end of the semester you will undoubtedly find a few student who wait until the night before the assignment is due to even start on it. Why is that? For those people who chose to wait until the last minute it was simply a matter of having no urgency. Their emotional tie to the project was very low, until the night before when they realize that if they don’t complete the project it will mean a failing grade and much emotional problem. 

This is a situation that we all hope to avoid, but I hope you understand the example. A sense of urgency will keep you constantly focused on and excited about your goal. Once you determine what it is you want, and decide specifically when you will achieve it then your dream becomes something much more powerful, it becomes a urgent goal in life that you can achieve .

Now that you have a goal figured out and a date set you are almost ready. A goal is a finish line, the final destination, so to speak. So if you are where your at and wish to get to this goal you will need fuel to get you there. 

The most ESSENTIAL part of any journey is the fuel. Imagine getting in a car with no fuel and trying to drive it across town, or anywhere for that matter. It will just be frustrating and disappointing. So what is the ‘fuel‘ to this goal machine? The driving force behind any goal is “The Why”. What do I mean by the why? The why is your true reason for obtaining a goal that you set out to achieve. It is the true underlying force of what obtaining this goal will mean to you. Maybe it is a place, a thing, a relationship, a paycheck, proving something or any other reason, it just has to be something that is more important to you than anything else. 

It can be anything. I can’t tell you what your why is, but I might be able to guide you to see it. The why is the thing that excites you most about hitting your goal. What is it going to mean to you? What will you feel like when you achieve it? It can, and should be, personal. The why will be something that resonates with your emotions. THe why is an idea that when you think about it keeps you up late at night, and wakes your body out of bed in the morning. It should be something so close to you that when you think about achieving it your heart starts to race. 

So now ask yourself, what it my why? Reflect for a moment on the goal your wrote down previously. Look at it a think about what it means to you to accomplish the goal that you wrote down? It can be more than one thing, just make sure it is something you truly want more than anything else. It should be something that you are willing to  make time for and at times sacrifice parts of your normal life to achieve something greater.