“These times are good times if we know what to do with it.”
– Emerson
Here’s a crash course on making your dream real in 2003. What? You don’t like crash courses? Who does? I don’t either. So why am I dishing this one to you? It’ll remain one of the unanswered questions of this year!
What are your dreams for 2003? 2002 was a great year. How can you make 2003 greater? Perhaps you spent the whole of 2002 planning; now is the time for action. Or may be you lost your position and retreated. Step forward, you can regain your position.
Were you able only to maintain your position?… It’s time to advance. Or did you spend 2002 planting seeds? 2003 is harvest time. If you struck it big in 2002, this is the year for the large picture!
2002 IN REVIEW
Review your activities for 2002. Start from 31 December, 02 and go backwards. You can also start from 1 January 02 and move forward.
Close your eyes and run through the year as if viewing it on the fast-forward button of a videoplayer. You can slow or still the picture when you come to a scene that you want to observe more closely.
If you’d written down your goals for 2002, compare them with what you actually did in the year. Identify those activities you weren’t able to accomplish. What were the reasons you weren’t able to accomplish them? Do you still want these goals? If no, discard them. If yes, include them in your goals for 2003.
WHADDAYA WANT?
Buy a notebook. Make an inventory of your goals (or what you want to happen) in the following areas of your life in 2003: spiritual, intellectual development, romance/emotional/relationships, health and physical fitness, career/professional, financial, family, home, personal, adventure/travel, and social.
Your spiritual goals this year might include
- dedicating yourself and all you say, think, feel and do to God, knowing that this is the only way to get the healing you need on all levels to reach a fuller state of being
- making your talents, skills, competence, time and money available to the causes you believe in – including your church
- getting yourself to observe 15 to 20 minutes in the night before you retire and in the morning before you go out, at appointed times, in quiet communion with God
In the area of mental development, you might want to go back to school, take some courses, attend some conferences and workshops, read some books, learn new thinking skills, improve your memory, watch some personal development videotapes or educational audiotapes.
In the romance/emotional department, you may wish to rekindle the flame of your marriage – if you’re married. If you’re not married, you may wish to start a relationship, improve a relationship, or marry.
Frequently, our relationships turn out the most difficult area of our life. We should all try to improve our relationships with our spouses, lovers, children, siblings, parents, family, friends, associates, and professional colleagues.
We all desire to get healthier and be physically fitter. The first step is to gather information on what it means to be healthier and fitter. Seek professional advice if it is available. Having observed the relationship between what you eat and your health, improve your diet.
Try food supplements if your food doesn’t offer you all the nutrients your body requires; or if your food is overcooked, over-frozen, over-processed, or you make special demands on your body. Work out an exercise program for yourself, taking into consideration your health and age. If you’re up to 40 years of age, seek a doctor’s opinion before embarking on any exercise program. Let the exercise be something you enjoy.
CREATE YOUR OWN TURNING POINTS
You want to progress in your career or business this year? So do I! What to do? Create your own turning points. Turning points are changes life brings to reroute or reorient us in the direction of our ultimate purpose or dreams. Most times turning points just happen to us, and even at that we do not have the awareness to know what is happening. If we are attentive and observant we’ll catch the wave and flow with it.
We can actually create our own turning points by preparing for it, and enlisting our imagination, and flowing with the wave. Take positive, proactive action that can propel you more speedily in the direction of your dreams.
Become more visible – for some the reverse might be what is more applicable to them. Write articles in your professional journal. Train your employees, either as an individual or a corporate body. Innovate. Learn new skills and competencies. As an individual become a public speaker. Invest and innovate in the areas of technology, communications, and distribution. Acquire new knowledge. Get into new lines of business. Cultivate new clientele. Engage in original research. Internationalize your business. (For some, divesting might be it for them.)
In the financial area, you might wish to be more cost conscious. Cut costs like you’ve never cut before. Start a savings plan. Plug all wastages and leakages. Reinvest wisely. Design a scheme, and implement it on increasing your financial wealth and networth.
SUCCESS IN SLOW MOTION
Estimate the time it’ll take you to achieve these goals. Affix deadlines and dates. What must you achieve each quarter? What must you achieve each month? What must you achieve each week? Strike a balance between short- and long-term goals. Conceive different strategies for each group.
Select key three to six of these goals that mean the most to you in the next 12 months. Ask yourself: Why absolutely will I achieve the above goals? Why am I sure I can reach the above outcomes? Why is it important that I reach the stated goals? What old dreams and projects must die for the new vision to emerge?
Will these goals really be acceptable to you when you achieve them? Can you maintain them? Will they be acceptable to others? Will they hurt anyone? Do they have any negative side effects socially, psychologically, culturally, politically, etc?
What assets and important resources do you have at your disposal to make the vision manifest? These may include beliefs, motivation, character traits, circle of competence, education, skills and expertise, working experiences, friends and other people assets, health/energy, associates/acquaintances, resource materials, time, etc.
Identify times in the past when you used some of the resources or felt totally successful. Identify liabilities and potential obstacles; that is, all the negative factors that might hold you back. How do you manage these liabilities and obstacles?
Now go back and review your goals, making adjustments for the liabilities. Include the time frame.
What kind of person will you have to become in order to achieve your dreams in 2003? What new habits will you have to imbibe?
What prevented you last year from achieving some of your major goals? What prevents you now from having the things you desire?
What are important beliefs and attitudes that produced superior results for you in the past? What has ever motivated you? What is motivating you now? What responsibilities are likely to face you when you achieve your goals for 2003? Are you ready to bear them?
Come up with some models – role models. They may be individual or corporate. What qualities and behavior enabled these people or institutions to become successful? What sort of counsel do you think they’d offer you in respect of achieving your goals this year?
Identify facilitators and prodders. These are individuals who inspire and encourage you. What can you learn from them? Identify inhibitors. These are individuals who tell you it can’t work; they discourage you. What can you learn from them? Distance yourself from inhibitors.
Create your ideal day, if you don’t have one yet. Your ideal day is a mental concept of how you want to spend a perfect day. You could even design a blue print that will guide what you do each day of the week. The challenge is to enlist visualization techniques and a spirit of gratitude to maximally narrow the gap between what you experience and your ideal day concept. When would you wake up? When would you go to sleep? What’d you do in the day? To achieve your goals this year you might have to cut down on your hours of sleep.
ENERGY INTO MOTION
Put your energy into motion. Enlist your emotion (or imagination – imagination is the generator of emotions) to put the latent mental power in your plans into motion. How’d you feel when you achieve these goals? How’d you want your family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances to see you?
What will it cost you if you fail to achieve your goals for 2003? How painful will it be? What are the consequences to your career, your family, your loved ones, and finances?
Get into your personal history to a time in which you were very successful. Relive and revive the experience. Think of the outcomes you desire this year. Make a picture of how you’ll feel when you achieve your goals for 2003. What’ll you see? What’ll you hear? What’ll your loved ones, friends, and associates feel? What’ll they say or do?
Draw a program schedule – if this is applicable to the type of goals you have. List tasks. Design an implementation schedule. Assign tasks to individuals and teams. Make a funds disbursement plan. When is your take-off date? Yesterday? Today?
PUT GOD IN THE PICTURE
Hand over your plan to God. Ask for guidance. Say, “God, dear, this is my dream for 2003. I’ve dreamed this with my flawed imagination. But I know that your vision is perfect. I give you full permission to add or delete any part of this in accordance with your greater purpose. Nevertheless, let your will be done not mine.”
Use your imagination to create desired outcomes. Integrate the visioning and doing process. Review and manage obstacles and alternatives. Change your behavior and strategy but remain focused on your dreams. Be flexible. Go step by step. More importantly, listen.
I want you to know that the key point in this game isn’t whether you gain your goal or not, but what you have learned in the pursuit.
What are you waiting for? Go for it NOW! Time is passing!
