We all have dreams. Perhaps we want to be millionaires, own our business, or bring joy to the world. Those dreams begin with a single step. But that one step is not enough. We must continue taking steps until we reach our goal. We may come upon obstacles and detours, and that is all right. The vital variable to understand is that if we are stagnant, we will never reach our dreams.

As children, we imagined what tomorrow would bring. Flying cars, humanoid robots, and advanced technology decorate such futuristic images. Then something happened, and our dreams focused more on whom we would become. What difference will we make? What will parenting hold for us? We played, pretended, and acted out each scenario. Often we imitated our parents. No plot was too big for dreamland.

As children, the skies were the limit, we dreamed big, and we dreamed far. People ridiculed my childhood dreams. “You can’t do that.” But that didn’t stop me. I heard, “We can’t afford that.” almost every day. Every day I was told how poor we were, and I would grow up poor. Be careful about what is said to our children. I suppose it was negative motivation, reverse psychology if you will. I have never been motivated by negativity. I told myself I could, and I will.

Success was our only option as a child. We didn’t dream big only to imagine failing. In our dreams, we were successful. But for some of us, those dreams stall out with only a mental image of our accomplishment. So why didn’t we reach our childhood goals?

First, the dreams and aspirations of a child are quite different from an adult. But, there are a few things that we wanted that still pique our interest in adulthood. But what good is a dream if we never seek to achieve it? We cannot fantasize about becoming a world-renowned painter, then wake up as a famous painter. There are steps and hurdles that we must accomplish to reach our goal. Surprisingly this is where most dreams die, all because we only dreamed.

Imagine a writer who only stares at their keyboard. Thoughts flood their head, but nothing transpires onto their screen. We can do anything if we allow time. We may want to write a great novel. But, if we never put our thoughts down and process our work, our book will never be written. In our current society, we want instant gratification. Sorry Bucky, but the world does not work like that. It takes time and many failures to accomplish and become proficient. Failure, in this example, is not a bad thing. It merely means we learned how not to do something. Thus, veering us towards the right way of accomplishing our goal. Accept the failure, learn from it, and move forward. Write the story. Then write more. Perhaps we can build a whole world within our conjugating paragraphs. But it will never exist without first putting our thoughts into words and typing those words out.

We will have struggles and losses. For instance, I wanted to maintain my strength due to the physical requirements of my job. I needed to squeeze in a quick thirty minutes to an hour’s work out. The struggle part is easy to identify, just doing it. However, my loss came when I made time in the morning to knock it out. This goal required me a more time-oriented schedule. I could shave thirty-minute off each morning before leaving for work. If we are to reach the goals, we need to be willing to sacrifice our assets for them. Time is an asset.

One side effect I found, when it came to following my dreams, is that everyone has an opinion about reaching your goal. “You can’t do that.” “That’s a waste of time.” “You should have started this way.” Yep, they all have stink-thoughts. To each their own, right? Some advice will be okay. However, most opinions won’t even apply to us. Take a look at who is giving advice. Are they successful, or do they stand around and talk about what they would like to do? There is nothing wrong with dreaming as long as we follow up with action. Our actions make the dreams come true.

By writing down the steps needed, we visualize our success. Soon, by trial and error, we learn we need to plan for failure. So we come up with plans B, C, D, and E. The more times we organize our thoughts, the more proficient we become. It is how accomplishers are born. So, go on and dream those dreams, but remember to plan for success.