Articles

Making Career Dreams a Reality
by Dr. Lynne Curry

Quite possibly, you had a dream last week. Just for a moment you thought, "I wish I …." Then, quickly, you squashed your dream. "That's too ambitious," you said. "I couldn't do that." You shook your head no and put the idea out of your mind.

Except, your dream lingers on the border of your thoughts. Perhaps you want to run your own business, land a higher paying, more exciting job or retire by 50. Maybe you want your boss's job or better yet, hope to make more than enough money to live on while working only twenty hours weekly. Whatever your dream, you want it; even if you don't yet realize you can have everything you want.

How? Start by dreaming large. Those who hesitate to dream big neutralize the power potential of a good dream. In the same way that the chance to win an Olympic medal keeps an athlete performing at peak levels despite exhaustion, by dreaming your true though next-to-impossible dream you kindle your adrenaline. Do you remember those days in which you got an incredible amount of work done? Adrenaline and commitment powered those days. You can have those days every day - if you fuel your energy with an inspiring dream.

So name your dream and then move it from twilight to daybreak by facing what stops you from full dream achievement. Is it that you feel you're not good enough? Or that you fear you might work for years and still not succeed and so you don't try? Guess what? Because you're the author of your mental conversations, you can create new ones. How would it be if you told yourself, "When I establish a goal I really want and commit to it, nothing can stop me." Anything you see someone else achieve, you can - if you believe in yourself, work hard and release your mental parking brake.

Next, identify the other practical and intangible ways you sabotage your chance to achieve your dream. Do you wait overlong for the right moment to get started? Do you so fear risks that you decide to settle for "good enough?" If you truly want to achieve your dream, confront and uproot the ways in which you undermine yourself. For example, if you fear risk, decide which feels worse - risking and failing and then trying again or selling yourself out by giving up before you start. If you tend to settle for less than you want or stall while the months pass you by, think ten years to twenty into the future. What do you want said at your retirement? - "He took a risk and won" or "whoops, maybe in the next life."

Then, move your dream further into reality by painting it concretely. According to psychologist Steve DeVone, when you create an intense enough vision of your dream that you can see it, you incorporate the vision into your brain's electrochemistry, making it a motivating component of your mental framework. In contrast, a vague dream creates only a blur and fails to kindle the mental energy needed to motivate action. Thus, if you want to make more money, get specific - is that $50,000, $75,000, $100,000 or $150,000? Do you want to write a book or a one that will move readers to care or take action? By making your dream concrete you help fill in the gap between a dream and reality.

Next, cement your likelihood of victory by fully dedicating to your dream. This means not giving yourself an "out." You know what I mean - think of all the individuals who make a New Year's resolution to stop smoking yet add, "Unless I really need the cigarette." Don't sell yourself out. Commitment creates the difference between achieving what you want and "if only I'd…."

Finally, to bring a large dream into reality you need to step up to the plate and take action. Action transforms you from someone who can "talk a good story" into someone who lives a good story - and who brings a dream to life.