By Marcia Wieder
America's Dream Coach®
If you are considering setting New Year's resolutions, here's an alternative: This year, go for your dreams!
Do you dream of doing less and having more? Would you like to be more successful and less stressed out? How about being healthier or in better shape? Do you want more quality time with friends and family? How about a new job, more passion, more money, even more fun?
Dreams like these, which are based on what you want, have far more chance of survival than your resolutions, which are based on what you don't want. Why? Because your dreams and desires have more power than your doubts and dislikes.
There's a different kind of energy and joy when you are moving toward your dreams than there is when you are trying to "fix" something. For example, if your dream is to feel and look good, a different kind of energy will be applied than to the drudgery of getting rid of the weight by diet and exercise. "Getting a healthier, more vibrant body" will be easier than "losing weight." Similarly, "building a successful business" will be more exciting than "getting rid of debt."
Set up your life to move toward what you want. By taking a little time to dream, you can reconnect to your passion and to what really matters to you. Explore how you want the next year of your life to be, and find the courage and confidence to make it happen.
Where You Are vs. Where You Want to Be
As you begin to gain clarity about where you want to be in life, it is important that you also look at your current reality. The road to your dreams starts here. In order to design a successful strategy for getting what you want, you need to know two things: where you are and where you want to be.
It's important to honestly assess where you are now, because starting with inaccurate information will lead to erroneous decisions about what has to be done -- and how far you have to go -- to reach your dream. For example, where are you currently with respect to the personal, professional, health and family aspects of your life? What concerns do you have in these areas? Do you worry that going for your dream will take more time than there is available? Perhaps you don't believe that it's possible to make your dream come true. All this is part of your reality, too.
No doubt you will find that you're at a different place within each aspect of your life -- closer to your dream in some areas and farther away from it in others. That's a typical pattern. The critical question becomes whether you're more committed to being where you are or to getting where you want to go.
Next: Dreaming big >
