The rain fell heavily from nowhere as we were driving back home from a business meeting. My husband was driving and before we knew it, It grew dark, there was hail storm and we could not see the way. We were in the middle of no where and stopping in the middle of the heavy rain did not sound like a wise idea because the hailstorm had potential to damage the wind screen. Inside me there was fear that we would not get home. My Husband had to be strong for both of us. It took us an hour to drive where normally we would have taken a few minutes if the road was clear. Many people take longer to achieve their dreams because of lack of clarity. When one is clear of their dream it is also easy to set goals which help to follow through the dream. However there are reasons why many people do not set goals to achieve their dreams.
1) They do not know what their dream is, they cannot differentiate between wish, fantasy
and a dream
2) They do not know how to set goals.
3) They are not self- disciplined to follow through the set goals.
4) Fear of failure.
5) Not being accountable to anyone e.g a coach
When the rain stopped I recall how relieved we both felt as we increased speed to cover up the delay we had experienced earlier. The road was clear. Clear goals increase your confidence as you develop competence and boost your motivation to pursue your dream. Grant Cardone states,” Have goals so big, your problems pale in comparison.” Successful people know what they want and focus single mindedly to achieve it. The starting point is to determine what you want and determine to pay the price. Driving through the hail storm was risky but we were determined to get to our destination so we did not focus on the hindrance. Some of the ways one can perceive their dream as stated in my book, ‘The dream!”
are:
Your childhood desire in your heart.
Motivation from watching successful people
Motivation by a cause e.g. desire to impact lives
God given or inspired dream
Dream inspired by association
Dream inspired from an experience or overcoming a challenge.
There are questions one could also ask themselves on top of the above to seek clarity of their dream.
- What do you really want to be in 50 years from now?
- What do you want to have 50 years from now?
- What do you want to do 50 years from now?
- What are the activities that give you greatest sense of meaning?
- What do you think about most of the time?
- What do you talk about most of the time?
- What do you want?
- What don’t you want?
To perceive your dream, is to grasp the “who”, the “what”, the “where” and the “how-to.” Sometimes, all you will see is just a glimpse of the end of the vision; and everything unfolds as you walk the journey. When you start walking, you do not have to have the full picture of how you will get there. More often than not, the “how” unfolds as you walk the journey. Do not let the storms of life distract you from dreaming. As long as you are clear of the dream and determined to keep driving through the storm eventually it will be clear and you will achieve much more than you ever thought of. When you are clear of your dream it is just the beginning of the journey. When you are determined to be successful after clarity follows action. What action are you going to take after reading this article?
Write the goals down
Identify the obstacles in your way
Determine the skills and knowledge you require to achieve the goals
Determine the people whose help you will need
Determine how much you will need to finance your dream
Determine how you will finance the dream
Successful people write their goals down and follow through systematically. Writing the dreams down can be hard at first but if you start and be consistent it will be a habit and as you achieve some of the goals you get motivated. People who write their goals down achieve much more. Writing the goals down will help you to visualize on the goals. Those who write down their goals on how to achieve the dream and follow through systematically, will gradually move from frustration to fulfilment and under achievement to achieving great dreams. Thomas Carlyle states” A person with a clear purpose will make progress on even the roughest road. A person with no purpose will make progress even on the smoothest road.”
Clarity, following through, will eventually lead you to victory!!