Every dreamer has a dream. Are you a dreamer? What’s your dream?
Some say dreams are impractical.
Some say dreams never come true.
Some say dreams are for children.
Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
People wither and die inside without a dream.
We all need to dream.
I’ll give you a more sophisticated word: VISION.
Maybe that works better for you. Fine. So what’s your vision?
Without a vision–an inspiring picture of a preferred future scenario--you’ll stay the same. Your situation will remain as it is.
Maybe you’re fine with that. Maybe your situation works for you.
Still, keep growing, keep moving towards mastery, keep helping others improve and improving your corner of the world.
What future picture excites you? Maybe it pertains to your business, or family, or marriage, or health, or community?
Enlarge your thinking. Enlarge yourself. Expand beyond the typical.
That’s what the world and the people in your orbit need from you–your best.
That’s actually what you need for yourself.
Pick a part of your life and “get visionary”.
Now, there are 4 barriers–rather, general categories of barriers–that people encounter when they pursue their vision.
These 4 barriers get in the way for everyone, and we all need to learn how to get to the other side of them so they don’t prevent us from reaching our goal.
BARRIER #1: LIFE
“Life” gets in the way of us reaching our goals sometimes. I’m calling it life–you may have a better name, such as “unforeseen occurrences”. These are things we can’t control, but can only respond to in a smart manner once they occur.
For example, we may have spent weeks planning the company picnic, and it rains.
Or, we get a flat tire on the way to that very important job interview.
BARRIER #2: OTHER PEOPLE
Sometimes people get in the way.
Suppose you’ve passed on an important piece of information to your colleague–a crucial part of your project–and they lose it.
BARRIER #3: REALITY
Or, Reality gets in the way by showing us that some part of our vision was unrealistic, and it’s not going to work as we had thought.
This barrier is really NOT a barrier, though. Reality can get in the way to show us that our vision/plan/strategy/execution needs to be re-worked.
Though this can be extremely frustrating, it is extremely good.
“Reality is your friend”, and will force you to see things clearly, even though it may slow you down sometimes.
For example, you may discover that you lack the skill necessary to meet your goal. Or, perhaps the time frame you’ve chosen is unrealistically too short–you need more time to get there.
BARRIER #4: YOURSELF
We all have gotten in the way of ourselves at one point or another–well, multiple times, let’s be honest.
Perhaps our procrastination got the better of us.
Or, maybe it was our perfectionism.
Or, for someone it might be that they lost their motivation and fizzled out.
We all have that potential to be our own worst enemy.
SO THEN . . .
Put time and care into developing your vision, and developing your plan of attack, and then execute.
And equally important–manage these barriers, in all of their various forms.
See you at the finish line.