Whether it's a new house or a trip overseas, turning your dreams into reality is all about planning. Source: News Limited
I remember when I was 8 years old, I wanted to play basketball in the NBA. When I told my mum, she said: "You can be anything you want, as long as you put your mind into it!" What she forgot to mention was that the tallest person in our family tree was 5'8".
But that was okay.
It was a harmless statement that any encouraging parent would tell an eight-year-old child, and this is what most of us were told in our childhood years. Because of this, we had ambitious dreams to walk on the moon, drive Santa's sleigh or even to become a starship captain travelling to space.
As we got older, our dreams became more realistic, but often remained ambitious.
Driving Santa's sleigh became driving a Ferrari. Travelling in space became travelling to different countries around the world. Although our dreams changed, our aspirations to achieve them remained the same. The difference is that when we were children, we actually believed that we could achieve our dreams. That's not the case for most of us today.
Somewhere along the way dreams became about what you can afford to do. Source: News Limited
Somewhere between our childhood and our 20s, we got conservative. Anytime we thought about working towards our dreams, an inner voice whispered: "Don't be ridiculous. Life isn't like the movies." Encouragement turned into doubt, as friends and family stopped telling us, "You can do it!" but started asking us, "How are you going to afford it?"
This is how our thoughts have been moulded. We've come to the conclusion that our highest aspirations will forever remain a dream because of what other people tell us.
But reality is only how you perceive it. The rules can be bent — it just requires a different way of thinking.
Today I'm going to share the steps to take to identify and achieve our dreams. Today, we start taking control of our lives to focus on what matters. Tim Ferriss provides an in-depth framework in his book, The 4-Hour Workweek, and while it has inspired me and is worth checking out, I'm going to provide you with a simplified method from my experience.
Having a blueprint for your dream will make it easier to achieve. Source: News Limited
Plan Out Your Dreams
Unless you know what your goals are, you'll never take the necessary steps to achieve them.
As Stephen Covey quotes in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, we must "begin with the end in mind."
The truth is, most of us have never taken the time to sit down and plan out our dreams. We need to have a plan — a blueprint — to help us clarify what we want and how we're going to get there.
This concept shouldn't be novel, because we already plan most things in our lives. In university, we plan which courses to take and calculate the number of credits required to graduate.
Fashion designers outline a sketch of the clothing they'll be producing. Entrepreneurs create a business plan outlining the costs and steps required before launching their company. These are the fundamentals to achieving success in anything we do. But we don't apply these principles when it comes to achieving our ultimate desires.
Invest time in figuring out what your dreams are. If you had $10 million in your bank account today, what would you be doing? What would you have? Who would you be?
Beginning with the end in mind allows us to reverse-engineer our end goal and break it down into small, practical steps that allows us to achieve our dreams one step at a time.
If you waste money, you're only out of money, but if you waste time, you're wasting your life. Source: News Limited
It's Cheaper Than You Think
One of the biggest obstacles most of us think we face when pursuing our dreams is money. The truth is, most adventures and dreams in life don't cost much all. We only perceive them to be expensive from what we see on the TV or movies.
The media has fooled us to believe that only the wealthy tycoons can achieve their dreams and desires. We constantly tell ourselves, "If only I had more money, I could do X." This is what keeps us conservative. It's what keeps people at their 9-to-5 jobs for years — even decades — because we're led to believe that life can't be lived until we have a seven-figure number in our bank account. We fall victim to this trap because we've never taken the time to break down how much we actually need to fulfil our dreams.
Let's take one of my dreams as an example.
For the past three years, I have been dreaming of going backpacking in Southeast Asia. I formulated a simple cost breakdown to show the fundamental steps to make this happen.
Backpacking in Southeast Asia for 3 Months:
Flight: $1,200 roundtrip airfare
Travel Insurance: $292
Food: ~$10/day x 30 days x 3 months = $900
Accommodation: ~$10/day x 30 days x 3 months = $900
Local travels: $50/month x 3 months = $150
Travelling gear: $125
Activities and excursions: $150/month x 3 months = $450
Total savings required= $4,017
Break down the amount you need to save by the amount of months for a savings target. Source: News Limited
Let's say I'm giving myself six months to save up for this trip. This means I need to save:
$4,017/6 months = ~$670/month
$670/30 days: ~$20/day
If this seems a little too ambitious, you can always take more time to save. Here's the breakdown over 12 months:
$4,017/12 months = ~$335/month
$335/30 days: ~$10/day
Not so bad, right?
Here's another tip: Talk to your bank about transferring the money into a savings account every month.
We can apply this method of breaking down costs into any of the dreams we want to achieve. Now, not everyone's dream is to go backpacking for three months. Most dreams will be cheaper than a trip around Southeast Asia, which is good news for you.
Follow these steps and you'll be on the beach in no time. Source: News Limited
Take Immediate Action
Now that we've broken down the costs of our dreams, we need to plan and take the necessary actions to achieve them.
Taking immediate action is crucial because what we need now is momentum. For some of us, it's our own doubts that get the better of us, which leads us to shy away from taking risks. It doesn't matter if the trip is six months or even 12 months away. What's important is that we get off our feet to make something happen now.
Write down three immediate steps that you need to take today, tomorrow and in the next few weeks.
Here's what mine looks like:
Today:
— Figure out which countries and cities to visit
— See a local travel agent
Tomorrow:
— Speak with my friend who has been travelling before
In the next few weeks:
— Book a flight
— Buy travelling gear
Overcoming the first bit of inertia is the biggest challenge of all. But once things are moving, momentum will push you further than you imagine.
"Waste your money and you're only out of money, but waste your time and you've lost a part of your life." - Michael LeBoeuf
I hope the framework I have provided in this article was a stepping stone for you to take the essential steps closer to your goal. But don't let that be the main message.
If you've read this far down the article, it's clear that you have the desire to fulfil your goals. The reality is that the only thing standing in the way is yourself. It's time you let go of the inner bullsh*t voice in your head. The fire of your dreams has been kindled — now it's up to you to keep it burning.
Take action — and do it today.
This article originally appeared on AskMen.
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