Want to Achieve Your Dreams? Start Planning

Last month I talked about achieving your dreams by “losing” reality. This month I want to talk about another key to successfully accomplishing your dreams, one that requires you to get back to reality—planning.

First, you need to set up your ideal dream-planning environment. As I mentioned earlier, Beth and I recently spent a full day focused on our dreams. We recognized that getting away from our home and offices would be necessary to set up our ideal dream conditions, so we retreated to a resort.

Next, decide exactly what you want to work on. Once on site, we each picked our top three dreams to work on. Because we were approaching this as a couple, we looked at creating dreams for “self” as well as “we” space.

Finally, figure out how to make your dreams happen. We determined who each of us would need to be in order to carry out specific dreams—what identity we would need to take on in order to make each dream possible.

There is one caveat to all of this: Do not move too quickly into the planning process. Doing so could cause you to lose the positive feelings inspired by the dream. Savor your dream before you begin planning.

Because of our retreat I was able to come up with a tentative plan: I’ll be going on the road to visit friends from my childhood in Peru, from high school and beyond. I’ll also connect with coaching clients and other people I’ve met at conferences over the years. I’ll get an inflatable kayak to spend time on rivers, inland lakes and shorelines, and I’ll bring along my mountain bike. Additionally, Beth and I will do things together. This dream-planning exercise reconnected me to how much adventuring used to be part of my life. Making this dream happen involves reconnecting with people while kayaking and mountain biking at various locations around the country, allowing for an even greater adventure.

Our retreat also led Beth and I to talk about our lifestyle and what we want it to look like in the future. What do we really want to be doing? Our house and rental property have required a lot of upkeep over the last month, so those have been part of the discussion. We’re making changes with the house and tentatively talking about downsizing. I’ll tell you more about my plans after Beth and I finish our follow-up retreat(s).

What about your plans? Are you well on your way to achieving what you want, or do you need to reconsider your dreams and set aside time to make new plans?

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I like to collect stories about belief change experiences. If you have any interesting ones, let me know or post them below so I can comment on them in subsequent articles or posts.

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About Terry: Terry Hickey, M.S., is a Certified NLP Professional Coach, Business Trainer and Consultant, a Certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the co-owner of NLP Advantage Group. Originator of the Belief Breakthrough Method™, Terry specializes in teaching coaches and entrepreneurs how to rapidly resolve limiting beliefs about wealth and success. His tips and strategies can help you launch yourself into the future you want… NOW. http://terryhickey.com/