Turn your Dreaming into Doing

The first of January and September, as well as our birthdays seem to be the times in a year when we focus on the gulf between where we are and where we would like to be. By now, many of you have already given up your New Years Resolutions and settled back into the comfortable routine of last year. Before you get too snug, dust off your dreams and look at them again. Let's make this year a year to be proud of. Let's make this the year of personal reinvention, to do the things that we have always wanted to do, and to become the women we have always wanted to be; doers, not just dreamers.

The dreams may be made about the books we would like to read, the projects we would like to complete, the weight we would like to loose, the trips we would like to take, the degrees we would like to have after our name, the business we would like to start, the houses we would live. The dreams that women have are as diverse as they are, they range from personal to spiritual, from familial to professional. None seem too big, and on the flip side, none are too trivial.

Here are some steps that may help you turn your dreams for the upcoming year into attainable goals.

1. Write your dreams- Moving your dreams onto paper is the first step from bringing them from the invisible realm of the mind or heart to a tangible form. You need to see your dreams on paper.

2. List your goals as affirmation statement- refrain from using the term "I would like to" or "I want to" and use strong affirmations. "I will" or "I am going to." Somehow with just that shift in words the dream becomes just that much stronger, a promise to yourself.

This year I will ___________________________.

In the next three months I will have _____________________.

3. Set limits to your goals - Put values and limits on your goals and be specific. The more general your goal statement is the less likely you are going to reach it.

An example of an abstract goal is, "I want to lose some weight this year."

A specific goal would be, "I will loose 25 lbs in the next six months."

4. Think from the end- Project yourself into the future. Picture yourself with all of those goals accomplished. What are the steps that had to be taken to get you there?

Some things are easy to figure out, for example:

- To lose 25 lbs in the next six months you must consistently loose a bit more than one pound per week. This goal is doable.

- To read the Bible in a year, you must read only 3 chapters a day.

To start a business or organize your home, get out of debt, or write a book, the steps are more numerous, and perhaps more complicated, but when they are broken into small bite-sized manageable tasks, to be accomplished weekly or daily chunks they don't look so daunting.

5. Hold yourself accountable- This is the thing that separates the doers and the dreamers. Do something every day and each week towards reaching your goals. If we really want it we must be willing to work for it, to invest time to it. Some may find that they work best with an accountability partner, others, realize they owe it to themselves, and themselves alone, to succeed.

I challenge you. Put your dreams into writing, then work to make them reality.

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Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.

-Denis Waitley

Pamela is a freelance writer, teacher, and workshop facilitator addressing the needs of women who juggle homes, families and careers. Pam has been teaching and facilitating workshops for women for almost twenty years through business organizations, women's groups and churches both in Canada and the United States.

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