Make It Happen

“'I did' beats 'I will' – any day.”

-          Unknown

I don’t know about you but I love sports.  Always have.  There’s just something about the spirit of competition, passion for winning… and football players in those cute little pants doesn’t hurt either. J

Like millions, I watched the Super Bowl this evening from the comfort of my living room.  But I must admit, I couldn’t help but imagine how exciting it must be to actually be there among the crowd at Texas Stadium cheering as the Packers clinched the title.  Then it dawned on me… that’s not impossible.  Sure, Super Bowl tickets are hard to come by, but if 100,000+ people found a way to make it happen, so could I.

What do you dream about doing?

When you look back at your life in say… 10 years, what do you want to have accomplished?  Perhaps you’ve imagined running a marathon, opening a small boutique, or traveling abroad; or maybe something more adventurous like skydiving or mountain climbing.  Are these just dreams, or could they become reality?  I’ve learned that the difference between a dream and a goal is planning.  Money and time help of course, but with sacrifice and patience (I’m working on both of those myself) your deepest desires can be attained. 

I’ll share a technique I recently learned.  Visualize yourself fulfilling a major goal.  Write a letter to yourself and date it for some point in the future, depending on your timeline for completion.  Congratulate yourself on all that you have accomplished.  Acknowledge that it was not easy; you faced many challenges along the way.  Describe the exhilaration of achieving what you set out to do.  Once complete, post the letter where you can refer to it often, as a reminder.   Now, consider what steps are necessary to set your plan in motion. 

As for me, I have more goals than time to accomplish them all.  But those topping the list include successfully launching my boys into the world (they’re currently 16 and 18), attending the Super Bowl in the foreseeable future, and writing my first book. 

What dreams will you convert into goals this year?