People come up with brilliant ideas all the time. You probably have one or two of your own tucked in the back of your mind, filed away in the “one day” area collecting a thick layer of dust. It could be a novel, a business, a trip…
“One day I’ll get to it…”
“I’ll have the time one day…”
“I’ll get around to this one day. Not today, though.”
The problem is that “one day” never comes. It‘s easy to shove “one day” aside. Today is more important.
We’re a short-term society with short attention spans and wallets full of debt. We have needs that we want answered right now. It’s tough to invest time and money into projects that won’t show immediate gain or that will take a long time to show a return.
So how do you break out of this “one day” mindset? Is there a system on ‘how to accomplish your dreams’?
There is. Read on.
Ditch Your Ideas and Seize a Dream
If you want to learn how to accomplish your dreams, you have to begin by ditching any idea, dream or goal you know you’ll never follow through on. Go on. Chuck it. Be realistic and save brain space. Free your mind for what you will work on, right here, right now. Quit making yourself feel guilty about all those plans that’ll never come to life. Decide once and for all to let go of the dream.
Does that sound harsh? Do you feel your hopes sinking? Do you feel better now?
Probably not. Deep down, you know you want this. You wouldn’t have hoarded your idea for so long if you didn’t. But if all you’re going to do is hoard ideas and collect them like useless keepsakes, you might as well get rid of the clutter.
Or you can pull out those keepsakes, give them a good dusting and set them out on display. Keep reading on how to start working on projects that really matter to you.
Realize that How Long it Takes Doesn’t Matter
Most people make the mistake of setting up unrealistic time goals to work on projects. They decide to buckle down to get the job done. Now. Today. Then they feel guilty or discouraged when they haven’t been able to meet the deadlines they set for themselves.
Time is not as important as we believe it to be. Doing something about reaching your goals matters far more than how long it’ll take you to accomplish them.
Take education, for example. Some people take decades to earn a degree. They plug away slowly and don’t care how long it takes to hold that paper (finally) in their hands. They know that consistent, focused application on what they’re doing, not how long they’re taking to do it, matters most.
Break it Down to One Step at a Time
Large or long-term projects are very overwhelming and can seem like monumental undertakings. The result? We’re tired just looking at the list of to-dos. We feel like David and Goliath – and chances are, David ain’t gonna win this time.
Take a pickaxe to your vision. Bust that project up into little steps and mini-goals. Forget that you wanted to build a membership site as huge as Teaching Sells. Focus on small steps like the list of course topics, setting up a PayPal account or choosing a theme template for your open source software.
When you start to think about all that you have to do to accomplish your goal, remind yourself to deal with what’s coming when you get there. Focus on where you are right now and get that out of the way.
Get Progress Going
Nothing happens when you stagnate. It’s a mire of muck that keeps you complacent and comfortable doing absolutely nothing.
Fight it. Stop procrastinating. Decide that it’s time to see some action that gets you just a little bit closer to your goals. Use the ten-minute method to get yourself moving. All you want is progress, not completion, so give yourself momentum.
Action has a kinetic energy about it. You may discover that once you start, you can’t stop.
Give All Projects Equal Priority
It’s very easy to set aside a non-paying project because something more lucrative begs for attention. It’s also easy to feel guilty about working on personal projects when clients call. So you shortchange yourself to please others.
If a dream is important to you, it’s important enough to have equal priority with all other projects. Schedule time in your day for your own projects – in fact, schedule your own projects first.
There’s no need to devote all your time to non-paying work while digging deeper into debt by neglecting paying jobs. But you need to make a point of spending time each day or week on your projects to keep the momentum going and the progress happening.
There is no miracle solution or perfect plan to make “one day” go away. You’re the only person who can decide to take action on what you really want to do.
- Decide which dreams you harbor that you need to let go of
- Decide which projects matter enough to start working on
- Acknowledge that time doesn’t matter
- Break your project down as much as possible
- Take a first step and start getting progress in motion
- Give all your projects, personal or business, equal priority
And work your way into accomplishing what you’ve always wanted to. No regrets.
