Last updated on December 31st, 2019 at 02:02 am
In the three 8WomenDream articles, How to Set a Plan to Change Your Life to Live Your Dreams, The 1st Step to Dreaming Big Dreams, and Launch Your Big Dream by Daring to Do 1 Thing, we’ve discussed rituals of goal setting, changing your life, and pursuing your life purpose.
Launching your big dream can raise your anxieties. You worry about how things will change when you take that first big risk. What if I chose the wrong dream? What if I fail? You question every aspect of your dream idea in search of any excuse to not make yourself do this thing you are being called to create.
You can always find any number of reasons why you shouldn’t do what you need to do to be successful dreamers and change your life.
But it’s time to commit to your big dream. It’s time to move past your dream pre-contemplation stage to the stage where you take action–not the “I will think about action and let myself off the hook if I don’t do this” kind of action, but real action with a deadline.
A dream plan with rituals
Without a plan, your dream is nothing more than a wish. Nothing is going to happen unless YOU make it happen.
For example, if you are planning on being an influential blogger and launching your first blog, your ritual is writing or podcasting or video blogging about your niche subject based on your passion. The next part of your plan would commit you to the number of days a week you’ll post online, a minimum and maximum article length, and where you’re going to get your images. Do you need to buy a decent digital camera, or are you going to open an account with an online image supplier?
If you don’t know HTML, you’d set aside a spot on your action plan to learn a little code as well as image manipulation in Photoshop, or an image manipulation software. You’d plan on deciding which platform (YouTube, a WordPress hosted site, a podcast site, etc.) and set aside time for studying how the platform works.
Your ritual should include the number of years you are willing to stick with your dream and a promise to yourself that you will not give up on your idea–no matter what happens in your life.
Commit to a ritual for completing the little goals
You know, the “Every Monday I will…” or “Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for three hours a day I will work on …” rituals. You have to schedule when you are going to complete each step.
John Assaraf, the New York Times bestselling author of Having It All: Achieving Your Life’s Goals and Dreams, The Answer and Innercise has some advice on committing to a ritual of working on your goals:
Make it a point this week to write down all the little steps you think you need to get your big dream launched. Then see if you can’t set up at least one ritual, where once a week, on a certain day, at a certain time you will have an appointment with yourself to work on your dream. Make it as important as a trip to the doctor for a broken arm.
Don’t allow yourself to wiggle out of your commitment to your big dream. The one true way to build self-esteem is to keep the commitments we have with ourselves. It’s a ritual that will make your biggest dreams come true.
Catherine Hughes
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