8 Sure-Fire Ways To Survive Dream Crunch Time

Last updated on April 2nd, 2012 at 12:29 pm

The only thing standing between you and your dream is crunch time.

You know what I mean.

It’s that dreaded period of time when you must do the hard work required to make your dream happen – the plethora of commitments, deadlines, physical or mental work – or all – compressed together in what always seems like never enough time, money or help.

Do you have what it takes to push through your crunch time to make your dream come true?

You can only realize your dream by dealing effectively with your dream “crunch time.”

John Wooden, college basketball’s most successful coach, advises, “The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move . . . failure to take initiative is often the biggest mistake of all.”

There are certain things that you can do to make sure you launch your dream and push through your crunch time.

Here are 8 Sure Fire Ways To Survive Your Dream Crunch Time –

1. Make a list of all the things you think you need to do to make your dream a reality.
In order for this list to work you need to use specific action verbs and include as many details as you’ll need to get the job done. For example, part of my dream plan to make this website a destination site for dreamers is to provide books, downloads, and a social network section to interact with other dreamers.

The old website design did not support these initiatives. It was originally created to fix a problem that no longer exists. So one of my tasks on my list was:

Spend 20 minutes each day reviewing websites you like to determine the best design to support your initiatives.

Next on the list was:

Make your decision by August 15th, and launch on Labor Day weekend.

2. Break down your list some more.
Be sure you are not confusing your to-do’s with goals or projects. My goal is to make this site a destination website, my to-dos are all the little action steps that make it happen like:

Each week write 1 blog owner in your niche and pitch them a guest post by Sunday night

or

Edit the first chapter of your ebook by Monday morning.

or

Set up eJunkie account for ebook by Wednesday night 9pm.

You will be amazed at how much you get done if you approach your dream in this way.

3. Prepare mentally for your crunch moments.
I knew two months ago that I was remodeling the website over Labor Day weekend, taking my edited ebook into InDesign to begin the process of creating the final book for uploading to eJunkie and Amazon.

I then told everyone in my life that the two weeks leading up to and Labor Day weekend would make me pretty much unavailable.

I exercised, got plenty of rest and had a list of everything I need to complete by Monday morning – no excuses.

4. Enlist the help of those you trust.
Jim Rohn says, “To solve any problem, there are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask?”

In the Transtheoretical Model of Change (or the Stages of Change model) the term “helping relationships” refers to people who assist others in making positive change. When you are heading towards crunch time, ask for help. I asked Heather if I could go hibernate in the office and write. She said yes and actually came into work too.

Periodically when I’d swear, she’d look up and say, “Need help?” and help me work through the latest hurdle. Remy offered to handle the edits on my ebook so I could move forward in the design.

Laurie reminded me to get up every two hours and walk around, stretch and book a massage. Rayne offered feedback and support. My ex husband worked through the final draft, offered support, then said, “Cath, this is really good.” My son rubbed my knees when they ached from sitting too long and brought me water and tea when I looked like I was dying.

Ask for help from people you trust, and ask them to hold you accountable to your deadlines.

You do have deadlines, right?

5. Eliminate your distractions.
Look at what you need to accomplish, then identify distractions which keep you from moving forward.

Remove them now.

I went without cable television for 8 years because I wanted to teach my son how to sit down and watch just one thing. We watched rental movies on Friday and Saturday nights. We enjoyed all manner of foreign films and documentaries, laughed at animated characters and turned our TV watching time into a shared event. The rest of the time we enjoyed music, or just plain quiet. It was amazing what I accomplished during those 8 years.

TV and the Internet (hello Facebook and Twitter), texting, cell phones and email are big distractions. Are they preventing you from doing what needs to get done to launch your dream?

Even dating can be a distraction and get in the way of your dream. Do your neighbors want to hang out and drink wine every Saturday evening? Will this stop you from finishing the last part of your dream?

Can you temporarily give them up for the sake of your dream?

6. Organize your work area or “dream area”.
Make sure you have a special place designated for your dream. For Erma Bombeck it was a wood plank and cinder boxes in the corner of her bedroom which represented her writing desk and writing space. Nothing but writing materials were allowed on this sacred place.

For me, it’s my kitchen table and believe it or not, we don’t eat at it. I have also made it a rule that Sundays are my writing day. Everyone knows not to bother me when I am sitting at the kitchen table on Sundays. Make sure this area has everything you need to work on your dream – WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS.

7. Watch your excuses.
Do you find yourself saying things like, “I’m really tired this weekend, so I’ll work on that next week” or “I had to drive so and so to an appointment and it took too long” or “I didn’t feel like working on it today.” You need to watch your excuses. In order to make it through a crunch period you cannot allow yourself off the hook.

You need to find that place, that thing that makes you get up from the couch and do what needs to be done.

Seth Godin’s book, “The Dip” was a real slap in the face for me. His voice rattles around in my head, quoting his books.

Yes, this is how a dreamer thinks.

These are the quotes from the Dip that make me ignore my excuses –

“It’s human nature to quit when it hurts. But it’s that reflex that creates scarcity. The challenge is simple: Quitting when you hit the Dip is a bad idea. If the journey you started was worth doing, then quitting when you hit the Dip just wastes the time you’ve already invested. Quit in the Dip often enough and you’ll find yourself becoming a serial quitter, starting many things but accomplishing little. Simple: If you can’t make it through the Dip, don’t start.

The most common response to the Dip is to play it safe. To do ordinary work, blameless work, work that’s beyond reproach. When faced with the Dip, most people suck it up and try to average their way to success.”

8. Assess and Revise Your Goals
Frequently review your progress on your dream steps and either reward yourself for goals you’ve accomplished or revise your list and adjust what’s not working. It is important to check to see if you’re on the right track.

Let’s say you launch a website and notice visitors quickly leaving your call to action page, then you know there is something wrong in your message, or design, or both. You see that you need to revise the page. It doesn’t need to be personal. It’s just feedback you can use to keep yourself on track – sort of a GPS system for your dream.

When it feels like there aren’t enough hours to get it done, and you reach a point where you think you can’t handle everything you need to do to launch your dream, just take a deep breath and keep these survival tips in mind.

Besides, you can always come back here and see how we’ve survived.

Keep on dreaming,

Catherine

Catherine’s dream is to be a motivator and published writer. She is testing her theories on motivation with this blog and the seven other women who have volunteered to be a part of her dream project. Catherine also writes about her life as a mom at the blog A Week In The Life Of A Redhead. Someday, she would also like to be invited to speak at TED as the next Erma Bombeck. Catherine posts on Monday mornings.