Mastering Daily Dreamwork to Fulfill Your Dreams
- Posted by glen on February 20th, 2008
Photo by Grant Neufeld
We all have ambitions of working that dream job or buying that shmancy X, yet we often find ourselves nowhere near that goal. Life, it seems, has a funny way of quickly putting the kibosh on our dreams.
When people fantasize about doing their dream job, the fantasy isn’t that they couldn’t be in that occupation, but that it would happen overnight. Like winning the lottery. But everyone knows the chances of winning the lottery are like 1 in Never, so that’s why it’s called a “dream”. More of a fantasy than anything else. But what if the dream could be a reality with a little bit of spit and stick-to-it-ivness?
Chasing your dreams
Ever wonder why it’s called “chasing your dreams”, and not “waking-up-smack-dab-in-the-middle-of your dreams”? It’s because your dream job probably won’t land in your lap. Odds are you’ll have to work for it.
But the work towards your dreams doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, the best way to achieve your dreams is to work a little bit at them (yes, each one) every day. This, in a nutshell, is what I call Dreamwork.
Life is a Garden… Dig it
Think of Dreamwork as a form of gardening. You don’t just walk out one day and have a healthy, lush garden sitting in your backyard. You have to plant the seeds, water, and tend it at consistent intervals. The best gardens are tended to every day.
Getting started with Dreamworking is as simple as creating a list for each of your dreams and goals, and taking baby steps each day to achieving them. Once you’ve got your lists, immediately start populating the list with action steps that can be done right away. They could be as small as “check out book on woodworking” if your goal is to carve a kayak.
Now, for the easy part. Do at least one task each day on each dream list. (If you’ve got a butt-load of dreams, than maybe not all of them. Just be consistent on the amount of time you spend on each list.)
You’ll need to keep populating these lists with todos on a regular basis (I try to do it weekly), and pretty soon you’ll start to see major breakthroughs, and (Warning! Cliche alert!) eventually your dream will become a reality.
The whole process may take longer than you’d like. But if it’s your dreams we’re talking about, the wait will be worth it.
Using dreamwork to become a freelancer
I’ve been using the concept of Dreamworking for the past year in hopes of launching my own business, allowing me to develop my own ideas and projects full time. I’m not gonna lie to you smart people… it was a bit daunting at first. But I started small and daily worked a little bit on each project. Fast-forward a year later to last week when I signed the papers that officially formed my company Midnight Pineapple LLC. The only way it could have worked was with a little effort each day.
And lastly… this is nothing new
Remember the tortoise and the hare? Or that corny saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day”? Yep, those same principles apply here. In fact, this post is based on some of the oldest rules in the book. Sorry to disappoint ;)
February 20th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Thanks for the motivation–we always need to hear that. Right now I’m working on two of my dreams (both productivity apps), and I’m continually amazed by how much time they take up. I’m outsourcing portions and trying to delegate as much to co-workers as much as possible…but the thing is that real dreams tend to take a lot of work. To that end I recommend this read from a few weeks ago on Web Worker Daily, where they discussed the idea of taking on two big to-do items per month, but that’s it.
If you have a long to-do list with items that aren’t going to reap instant gratification then I’ve found it really helpful to focus on one or two of them in a period of a month or even longer…since real progress, the kind you need to pursue dreams, will take a lot of time.
Thanks as always for the motivation!
February 20th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I just ran across a fantastic idea in _Wishcraft_ by Barbara Sher:
Keep an incremental journal. It’s incredibly easy to do; mine’s on a yellow legal pad. Write the date, what you did, and how you felt. That’s it - if you’re busy, and can’t spare more than 30 seconds to journal, that’s OK: 30 seconds is enough.
When you feel like you’re making no progress on your dreams, look back at your journal: all your progress is right there for you to see. OK, maybe it’s not as much as you wish, but it’s not NO progress.
When you find yourself saying, “I just don’t feel like it today”, go back and look at all the other days you felt tired, depressed, discouraged, angry, disillusioned, bitter, or incompetent. And did something productive anyway. Just as productive as the days when you felt inspired, upbeat, energetic, happy, optimistic or driven. It turns out that accomplishments don’t depend on how you feel… only on what you do.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:00 am
Thanks for the kind words Jared. I’ll be sure to check out the WWD post.
@Amanda: I wonder if Twitter would be a good medium for the incremental journal? It’s worth considering anyway.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:01 am
I like the journal idea. My web GTD app gives you a fun hint at what you’ve achieved (e.g. “if you climbed a step for each task, you’d be at the top of the Eiffel tower”) but I bet it would be interesting to look back at how things played out in the days following a productivity low.
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
[...] Glen Stansberry at LifeDev talks about dreams (daytime ones) and how they can boost your business. [...]
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I just stumbled on lifedev at few post ago and I have to say it is a really motivating site. Thank you! Mastering Daily Dreamwork to Fulfill Your Dreams is another great post. Always remember though to take a step back and reflect… you could already be living your dream and not even know it!
February 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 am
Great point… reflection is HUGE. It also helps gain perspective on how far you have to go…
February 25th, 2008 at 10:22 am
[...] Mastering Daily Dreamwork to Fulfill Your Dreams (tags: gtd productivity lang:en àtraduire) [...]