Dreaming is not a subject that gets a lot of chapters devoted to it in business books, and I think that is a shame. The great entrepreneurs, like Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos are all great dreamers.
Their success has been built on allowing themselves to be dreamers, but they also were very clear about one other ingredient – implementation.
But, lets go back to dreaming, because that is where it starts.
The most successful CEOs, Senior Executives or business owners I work with are all great examples of being dreamers.
They dare to dream, and then are highly skilled at implementation.
But putting the horse before the cart – you must first dream.
Very often I will get my clients to undertake a straightforward, but challenging exercise, to get their juices flowing. In fact I did this the other day with a client, which prompted me to share it here.
This exercise has been around for decades, so I take no credit for it, but it is really worth the investment of time.
It is all about envisioning, which is based upon a very simple but powerful belief – it is so much easier to achieve something if you are able to visualize yourself having already achieved it.
Research has shown that once you have visualized something and are committed to achieving it, the brain kicks into action to create the circumstances to enable its achievement – in other words, the implementation!
So, the exercise is as follows:
- Set aside uninterrupted time – 15, 30, 60 minutes but at least 15 minutes.
- Get yourself a pad to write on
- Ask yourself this question – describe my life in 5 years time if everything meets or exceeds my expectations.
- Involve as much imagery as possible – where will you be, what will you be feeling, what will others say about you, what will you be doing?
- Write until you are satisfied you have captured it comprehensively. (you can come back later to work on it some more!)
This is a brilliant exercise to do – very challenging but so worth the effort.
But you cannot just do the exercise – that would be self indulgent, and while it might be enjoyable, it will achieve nothing on it’s own.
As I said earlier, it is all about implementation.
So, what are the next steps?
Well, firstly, talk about it to other people, but avoid the naysayers! There are 2 benefits to talking about it – firstly, the more you talk about it to others, it will become more real to you, and, secondly, you will find how others can help you achieve it.
The next stage is to broadly map out the key milestones that much be achieved in order to fulfill your dream. These milestones then become your key goals to achieve over the next number of years.
This is what separates the dreamers, who achieve, from those who only dream – the gap is filled by the implementation.
We will talk more about implementation in the future, but first I want to get you dreaming – that is where great achievement starts!
If you would like to start fulfilling your dream, then contact me here, and we will set you on the path to success.
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Also, share this with your friends – they need to dream too!