7 Steps to Making a Dream

1 - Write it down
If you don't write down your goal many things will happen. It will change slightly every time you think about it and as it changes it will move a little further away from actually being accomplished. In Project Management this is called Scope creep or Feature Creep whatever you call it it is the death of many projects and many more good indented goals.

2 - Put dates on it not just timelines
Often, so often I cant' even count how often, people set timelines with their goals, thinking it is a good thing. Only setting a timeline, not actual dates, is just one step away from saying "someday". When you make a goal put real dates on it. e.g. "On July 10th I will have [goal] done." or, "By noon I will have [pebble goal] done". If you just say "in a month" then that month will never start.

3 - Visualize it
Get yourself in a quiet place and think about your goal, what does it feel like to have achieved that goal? How do you feel about yourself? Keep these feelings. I tell my daughters to imagine a chest with many drawers, now take that feeling, open a drawer and put that feeling in the drawer, (third drawer on the second row). Now you can bring it back anytime you want to, just imagine your chest and open the drawer. Feeling off target or down about where you are going? Open a drawer and bask in that feeling again. you will be amazed how quickly it gets you back on track

4 - Tell Someone else
Guilt is good. Well not all guilt but you can use guilt in your favor. Tell someone about your goal. Tell lots of people about your goal. You will find this does a couple of things, it makes you think about your goal, and what you think about happens. It also gets other folks asking you how you are coming on that goal. You will want to have something to say to them so you will find yourself taking action on your goal so you have something to report. On top of all that when you tell people about your really big goals, and they start to see you accomplishing them they will be amazed by how much you get done. This positive reinforcement for your accomplishments sets up a positive feedback loop and you want to accomplish more.

6 - Set pebble goals
"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Everyone has heard this quip but how often are you overwhelmed by a large project or some unimaginable goal and you get paralyzed by the sheer size of it? Well Don't worry about the whole thing. Chip the big goal down into little goals, pebble goals. Pebble goals are great because they keep you motivated along the way. Break your big goal into three or four main pieces, then take the first one of those and break it down into little pieces, and so on until you get to a point where you have little goals that can be accomplished in a day or two. Keep a list of the pebbles so you can move on to the next one once you have completed one. And most important, Celebrate your accomplishments. These are small goals but you need to celebrate them they mark progress toward your larger goal, you have moved forward be sure to celebrate!

5 - Measure it
Peter F. Drucker said, "What gets measured, gets managed." and this is true of your goals as well. by breaking it town in to little pieces you will have milestones you can measure and celebrate. Measure your progress along the line and you will find encouragement through the accomplishment.

7 - Take Action
The fact of the matter is most people don't accomplish their goals because they don't even bother to start. There are a million reasons not to do something. Do it any way. with little pebble goals you can take small actions that add up to big payoffs. but if you don't take action nothing will get done. You can't wait for everything to be ready. That time will never come. If you wait for all the lights to be green at once between LA and New York you will never step on the gas.

So what is my dream?

The name of this blog is making a dream. What is my dream? My dream is:

To be able to create art full time and still provide for my family in a manner they are accustomed to living.

How do I plan to do that?

I have had several ideas but right now it is to Build a few businesses that don't need me to run them.

This is a new idea for me.

About 10 months ago I started listening to some books on these topics here is the list:

• Rich Dad Poor Dad- Robert Kiyosaki
• How to get Started in Real Estate Investing - Robert Irwin
• Rich Dad's Advisors the ABCs of Real Estate Investing - Ken McElroy
• The Richest Man in Babylon - George S. Classon
• Creating Customer Evangelists - Ben McConnel & Jackie Huba
• Selling the Proud Profession - Zig Ziglar
• The Ultimate Sales Success : Motivation from top Success Coaches
• The New Buffetology - Mary Buffett
• The Millionaire next door - Thomas J. Stanley and
• The Millionaire Mind - Thomas J. Stanley
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind - T.Harv Eker
• the Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwartz
• The E-Myth Revisited - Michael Gerber
• The Four-Hour Work Week - Tim Ferris
• Small is the New Big - Seth Godin
• Getting Things Done - David Allen
• Real Estate Investor's College - Dolf De Roos (12 CDs)
• Choose to be Rich - Robert Kiyosaki (13 CDs)

So those are some of my influences. Many of these books I have read more than twice in the past 10 months. Really. It is all due to the wonder of the iPod and having a 45 minute to an hour commute each way each day. You can listen to a lot of books in that time.

I have learned a lot and I will share what I can. Plus my own insights
Peace
Joseph