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Turning Dreams into Reality

Turning Dreams into Reality

How do you make your dreams come true? What makes the difference between those who just dream and those who make their entrepreneurial dreams come true?

The other day I realized that I’m quite a dreamer. Almost every day, I spend some time imagining what my future might look like. But, while I’m a frequent visitor to the future, I don’t take up permanent residence there. I try to use my hopes and dreams as a target to shoot for, a guide for my path in my everyday business life.

That’s one of the first things you have to recognize about your dreams: they can be an escape from your current reality or a foundation for a new reality. You cannot change—your life or your business—unless you can imagine a new reality.

If you let your dreams take over—if you act on them without examining them—your fantasies can distract you from more achievable goals.

For instance, if you dream of having a bigger house, faster car, or more luxurious lifestyle (and who doesn’t?), it’s easy to be seduced by get-rich-quick schemes. These drain your money and time away from more achievable goals, such as going back to school or getting a better job.

If you want to make your dreams come true, it’s necessary to develop what I call the “discipline of dreams.” You have to be able to clarify your dreams, evaluate them, and move them from the stage of imagination to action.

Dreams can be an escape from reality or a foundation for a new reality.

Let’s define a “dream scale”—from the least achievable stage of dreaming to the most achievable:

Fantasy. Concepts which are impossible to achieve or highly unrealistic. It’s not surprising that guys on late-night infomercials for make-millions-in-your-spare-time schemes are typically photographed sitting on yachts in tropical locations; these hucksters know they’re selling a fantasy. Don’t get me wrong: I understand that it can be useful to have fantasies that make life more bearable, especially when you’re otherwise happy with your life or not in a position to change. Just don’t act on them and don’t sign up for that multilevel marketing scheme!

Dream. Concepts which are potentially achievable but where only the positive aspects are seen. Many people have their own idea of their dream business; my neighbors want to own a charming bed and breakfast in a quaint New England seaport. Is this a fantasy? Not exactly. After all, some people do run delightful B&Bs on Cape Cod. The reality, however, is that it’s very difficult.

Vision. Concepts which are achievable and at a stage where the downsides and difficulties come into focus. At the vision stage, you’re willing to challenge your assumptions (and the claims of those who promise to make your dreams come true). You’re not afraid to understand the costs, limitations, and work required, as well as your chances of success. For those who are just dreamers, this feels like “popping the balloon.” For those who are going to be successful, this feels like the beginning.

Goals. A specific, realistic objective. At the goal stage, you start to give yourself clear, practical targets for achieving your vision. You understand how much you can—and cannot—achieve, and you begin to put numbers and dates to your ambitions.

Plans. A step-by-step outline of how you are going to achieve your goals. This is where you determine how to make your vision a reality. You list action items, milestones, and activities. And then you go to work!

I believe in dreams. In my company, I always start our annual planning sessions the same way—by brainstorming wild ideas and discussing big goals for our future. But that’s only the first hour of a three-to-five-day process. We spend the rest of the time discussing and prioritizing our goals, then devising a detailed plan for achieving them. If we didn’t, our aspirations would still be dreams. Instead, we’re busy making our dreams come true.

Goals versus Tasks

If you’re like me, you have a “To Do” list that goes on and on: calls to make, emails to send, contacts to connect with, and a ton of things to write or do.

I get such a good feeling from checking items off my list that it’s tempting to focus on things I can do easily, things that are quick rather than important. Usually, I manage to attend to the most urgent items.

At the end of the day, or the week, I look over my list and see I’ve done a lot, but all too often I still feel a lack of accomplishment. And I think if only I’d worked longer, harder, or figured out how to survive with only two hours’ sleep, I’d finally take care of everything.

The problem is, in day-to-day life, it’s natural to focus on tasks rather than goals. We look at what we have to do right now rather than examining where we are really heading and what we need to do to reach that goal.

When was the last time you sat down and asked yourself: “What are my top three goals for the next six months, the next year, five years from now? What are the one to three most important things I can do to reach those goals?” And once you’ve set those goals, how do you remind yourself of them in the press of daily business? How do you keep focused on long-term goals rather than spending all your time on short-term tasks?

Since goals are usually overwhelming (“Be financially secure within ten years; be profitable by the end of the year; find a strategic partner”), you have to break them down into more manageable tasks. That’s the only way you’ll ever achieve them. But our daily To Do list usually consists only of stuff we have to do, not stuff we should do—the stuff that really makes a difference.

Usually, we take care of BUSYNESS rather than taking care of BUSINESS.

I know you’re saying, “Rhonda, there aren’t enough hours in the day. I can’t get through all the items on my To Do list now. I work and work and work, and I’ve still got a pile on my desk to plow through.” Well, you’ve got my permission to let some things slide.

Let’s face it: you’re not going to accomplish everything you want in a day. You’re not going to get everything done. Some stuff is going to fall through the cracks. Is it going to be the important things or the unimportant things? Usually, we take care of busyness rather than taking care of business.

There are some things you can do to help yourself: stop taking on new projects, especially those that are not directly related to your top goals. It’s easy to see an opportunity and feel you have to grab it now. That’s not true. Usually, more opportunities come along.

We have to learn to give the priorities we’ve already chosen a chance to succeed. Taking on too much at one time is like having quintuplets: you wouldn’t choose to give any up, but none of them are going to get quite the attention they deserve.

Something that’s helped me stay focused on my top priority was to put physical reminders where I could see them. I made a little sign listing my top goal that I kept on my desk. And I even put technology to work: I turned my screensaver into a message board reminding me of my top goal. Whenever I stopped typing for a while, took a call, or walked away from my desk, the reminder scrolled across my screen.

What is the single most important thing you can accomplish in the next six months in your business—the one thing that can really make a difference between cruising ahead versus just staying afloat? How will you make sure it stays on your To Do list? If you stay focused on goals, rather than on tasks, you, too, may reach your goal this year. I’m pulling for you.

Commit Yourself to the Turn

When I was first learning to ski many years ago, a ski instructor gave me some advice about how to successfully navigate changing direction: “Commit yourself to the turn.”

The same advice is true in business. Whenever you want to go in a new direction, you have to follow the same advice: “Commit yourself to the turn.”

Skiing is all about turns. As a beginner, you make big turns across the entire width of the ski run. If you’re like me—a little cautious and timid in a new sport—you go slowly as you make these turns. As a result, there’s a moment in each turn in which you realize you’re facing straight downhill. That’s when you get scared.

Now here’s the interesting part: if you stay committed—if you don’t let fear get the best of you—your body moves you around, safely completing the turn. If you waver, thinking, “Oh my gosh, I don’t want to go straight down,” then you stop turning and actually end up facing downhill—what you wanted to avoid.

Business, too, is all about making turns. When you start a company, you have an idea of where you want to go, but you can quickly find you have to change your plan—sometimes slightly, sometimes a great deal. As you continue in business, you discover there are times that call for you to make dramatic turns: perhaps new competition enters the market, your profit margins erode, or new technologies create vast differences in how you conduct business. You have to go in a new direction.

You may be a little timid as you set off on a new course, or you may rush quickly into it. Whatever your confidence level at the beginning, as you get into your turn—as you start to face and deal with the consequences of the choices you’ve made—that’s when you get scared.

And that’s when you have to commit yourself to the turn. When you are developing a new direction for your company—a new project, expansion, new technologies—you have to follow through with enough support, resources, and especially time, to give it a reasonable chance of success.

If you are working with others, especially employees, it’s particularly important that you stay committed. Employees take their lead from you, the leader. If you waver in your resolution to your new project, employees will feel uncertain about their future and will hesitate to make the necessary changes and sacrifices to help ensure success. You have to believe. You have to stay the course.

That doesn’t mean you can’t examine and readjust the details of the choices you’ve made. You can and should. But be careful: I’ve seen many companies that either pull the plug on a project too soon, or, more often, commit only half-heartedly to new undertakings. Both approaches lead to failure: Ending a project too soon means you haven’t given it enough time to prove whether it can succeed; half-hearted commitments inevitably lead to failure.

When you don’t commit yourself to the turn, you’re going to end up facing straight downhill.

As you make a change in your business life, indeed in any part of your life, follow through sufficiently to give it a chance to succeed. Give your new direction enough energy and commitment to create the momentum to carry you through the inevitable rough spots. Commit yourself to the turn.

Guidelines for Goals

Tips for a productive goal-setting process:

Make certain the goals are well defined, quantifiable, and time bounded. Example: “For the next three months, I’ll call twelve new prospects a day and go to all my daughter’s after school activities.” This gives you a good yardstick by which to measure progress and helps you set priorities for how you spend your time.

Be realistic given the many demands on your energies. Example: “For the next three months, I’ll call eight new prospects a week and go to my daughter’s soccer games.”

Translate those goals into achievable short-term objectives. Example: “This week, I’ll call eight new prospects and go to my daughter’s soccer game Tuesday.”

Put the most emphasis on goals within your control rather than those determined by the actions of others. Example: “I’ll make eight cold calls this week” instead of “I’ll get three new customers.”

List when you will re-evaluate your goals, measure progress, and set new objectives. Example: “I will examine these goals on June 30 and set goals for July.”

Put limits on selected goals. Some goals will be outside your complete control (“I will increase sales by 25%”), so it’s important to put limits on how long you will focus on such goals. “If I can’t sell this new product after calling ten of my current customers, I’ll put my efforts into a different product.”

Reward yourself when you accomplish your goals. Rewards keep you motivated to set and reach other goals, and as an entrepreneur, there’s usually no one else to acknowledge your achievements but you. So if you land a big sale or make all your calls for the month, give yourself a reward.

Seizing Opportunities

When it comes to figuring out how to succeed, many business owners remind me of the man in this joke…

A flood threatens a town, forcing everyone to evacuate. But Joe thinks, “I’m a devout man; God will save me” and stays put. As the waters start rising, Joe’s neighbor comes by: “Joe, come with me; we’ve got to go.” But Joe declines, “I’m a devout man; God will save me.”

The waters keep rising. Joe scrambles to his second floor. A firefighter in a rowboat floats by Joe’s window. “Get in the boat or you’ll drown,” the firefighter says. Joe again declines, “I’m a devout man; God will save me.”

Finally, the flood waters are so high that Joe is forced up on his roof. A police helicopter comes by and throws down a rope. “It’s your last chance, climb up or you’ll drown,” the policeman yells. “No, I’m a devout man; God will save me.”

Soon Joe drowns. He arrives in Heaven and challenges God, “I’m a devout man; why didn’t you help me?”

“What do you mean?” God replies. “I did help; I sent a neighbor, a firefighter, and a helicopter.”

Many of us are like Joe—we wait for something to rescue us while missing opportunities to help ourselves. Whether in our business or personal lives, we hope for a lifeline—a new customer, rave reviews of our product, or a great relationship—to just show up.

Alas, life isn’t like that. While we wait for success to fall in our laps, real life keeps trudging along. But like Joe, if we want things to be different, we must learn to recognize opportunities and seize them; we have to do something.

We keep waiting for something to rescue us while missing opportunities to help ourselves.

Let’s face it: if you want your business or your life to change, you have to be an active participant in your own transformation.

But where do you start? How do you learn to recognize an opportunity when it’s being thrown your way?

Make a plan. Form a vision of what you want to achieve and then develop a plan to make that vision a reality. You can’t judge whether an opportunity is one to seize or let pass unless you have a context for understanding whether it fits into your goals. Developing a plan gives you a framework for decision making.

Get accustomed to making choices. Moving forward means seizing some opportunities but allowing others to pass by. Entrepreneurs have many great ideas on how to improve their businesses, and life will present you with many tempting prospects. You can’t act on every good idea.

Recognize that the “perfect” solution is never going to come along. Often we fail to act because we’re waiting for the perfect opportunity or the perfect timing. Life doesn’t offer perfection, it offers chances. Looking for perfection is a way of avoiding making choices.

Get out of your “comfort zone.” Sure you’re comfortable doing what you’re doing, but if it’s not bringing you the results you want, you’re going to have to change. And change is always uncomfortable.

Make a commitment. Get used to saying no. Get used to saying yes. But whatever you do, do it with commitment and conviction.

Like Joe, we have to learn how to recognize opportunities and then grab on.