How to Pursue More Than One Dream At Once (Read Time: 4 min.)

You have dreams, aspirations and goals. When you close your eyes, you can see clearly the direction you'd like your life to take.

Only one problem:

There are only 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 52 weeks in a year and only one of you.

How is one lifetime possibly enough time to pursue ALL of your dreams?

The attainment of any dream requires four things:

1. Passion: Your desire to live your dream must be stronger than any fear you have about failure or success. You've got to have a burning desire to achieve it.


2. Purpose: Not only do you have to know WHAT you want but you have to be very clear about WHY you want it.


3. Planning: Those who fail to plan plan to fail. You won't know all the 'hows' of obtaining your dreams. Some of the pieces of the puzzle will come together at the oddest moments and from unexpected places. But, you've got to get the wheels in motion by mapping out your strategies for success. Begin with one set of plans and, as you go from step to step, the plan will naturally evolve.


4. Patience: This is the most difficult one. We want our sucess yesterday. But, there's a time to sow and a time to reap. Your greatest success will come in proportion to your capacity to wait for it. Be careful on this one, however. Being still is not the same as standing still. Even as you wait for your dream seeds to grow, there's still alot of work to be done in the meantime.
   

Once you've got the 4Ps (Passion, Purpose, Planning and Patience), the one question still remains:

How do I achieve ALL my dreams with the limited amount of time I have?

Here's the answer:

Limit your current dream attainment to the Power of 3:

1. Work on no more than three dreams at one time. Let's say you have the following dreams: start your own business, go back to school, start a family, write a book, lose 40 pounds, move across the country, and buy a home. All seven dreams can be fulfilled... but they all can't be done with your whole mind in present action at once. That's where the planning comes in. You might decide to spend the next two years focused on your business, going back to school and losing weight. That way, in two years' time, you'll be healthier to start a family and wealthier to move across the country, buy a home and take a few weeks off the business to write your book.


2. Develop three actions you need to take every thirty days to move you closer to each of those dreams. Hold a self-appraisal meeting once a month to go over your progress. View your actions as an investment of effort into your dreams, not a working against the obstacle of time to achieve your dreams.


3. Say to yourself "I can do this" constantly. Our negative talk is so embedded in our psyches that it often goes unnoticed. It's important to remind yourself on a daily basis (a minute-by-minute basis if you have to) that you CAN do this. Remember: If anyone else can live their dream, you can too!

I love Mondays because it's a fresh start to a brand new week. Forget about what you did or didn't do last week. Your power is in the NOW. Begin today!