BY: KEISHA JOHNSON
1. Own your big dream – The very first step to fulfilling your big dream is accepting personal responsibility for your dream. If the dream was birthed in your heart and mind, then you are the chief accountable officer and champion of your dream.
Whether it flourishes or fails is squarely your responsibility. To own your dream means that you are willing to die for it and as committed to live for it!
Among the greatest threats to your dream being fulfilled is abdicating ownership to the opinions, approval, and support of others who were never entrusted, like you are, with the mantle, passion, and responsibility to fulfill your dream says Martins Fatola author of Dream Big: You are Created for More.
When you assume ownership of your big dream, it fuels the determination and resilience big dreams invariably require to become reality.
2. Keep the dream before you – Have you ever taken note that most construction sites have a billboard rendering of the new building design displayed for everyone to see?
Every big dream, great idea and witty invention starts in the imagination. But the next critical step is to ‘write it, make it plain and keep it before’ you as the ancient Proverbs instruct.
Across industries, most models start with an idea and concept that is then drafted on paper or in some design program before it goes into production.
Fashion designers draft sketches. Architects create blueprints and renderings. Car makers create models. Inventors engineer prototypes and savvy business people develop business plans.
The blueprint, model or mock-up is then often displayed as inspiration to help others see what you envisioned. That’s why when you go to buy a new house, for example, the builders have floor plan samples, a model unit and sometimes sample materials to help convert potential buyers and investors.
Similarly, writing out your dream and keeping it visible before you provide inspiration for you and also insight for others to help you pursue it.
3. Nurture the dream – To nurture means to care for and encourage the growth or development of or to cherish, according to Apple’s Dictionary program. As it relates to dreams, to nurture means to do what is necessary to make the dream a reality.
Start with due diligence. Take the time to research what it takes to make your big dream a reality. This may include everything from online research and even field study to connecting with people who’ve been where you want to go – role models, successful subject matter experts for example.
Proper due diligence provides key insights for the next best steps for implementation.
Nurturing your dream is a continuous process. It demands assessing, refining and staying on course with the mandate of your big dream as you bring it to reality.
To encourage the growth or development of your big dream may also mean guarding when and with whom you share it.
Author Alvin Day once reasoned that “As a developing baby is protected in their mother’s womb until their immune system is sufficiently developed for the outside world, so must we protect our dream from premature exposure to potential risks that could compromise its existence.”
4. Work the dream – “The difference between a dreamer and one who fulfills a dream lies in the doing,” suggests Martins Fatola. Dreams that remain in ideation or on paper, remain just that, dreams.
To make a dream reality requires stepping out and taking the requisite actions to implement.
This for some people Fatola indicates is a deal breaker. It’s where they flounder for fear or from analysis paralysis or from indiscipline to follow through and persist when faced with challenges or unexpected delays.
To unlock a big dream requires boldness and courage to step out, wisdom to take the best steps and diligence and perseverance to stay the course with focus. But it all starts, thrives and ends with taking ownership of your big dream and keeping it visible before you!
